‘She is Our Hero:’ Reflection for the 2024 Feast Day for Saint Mother Theodore Guerin

I know there are many Sisters of Providence celebrating this feast today who never dreamed that in their lifetimes and within a span of 16 years Mother Theodore would be:

• declared venerable, step one of the canonization process;
• then beatified, step two;
• and finally canonized as a saint.

Now we know there were decades of working on her cause for sainthood after it was introduced in 1909, but those last three steps happened within 16 years.  

Striving for Holiness

Saint Mother Theodore is one of 1,439 persons whom the Catholic Church has lifted up for sainthood since John Paul II became pope in 1978.  Pope John Paul II canonized 482 persons as saints, more than the 300 or so canonizations in the previous 600 years.

Perhaps you are wondering: What is the point of this history lesson? Well, I do know many students are joining us today!

Here is the point: It is said that by canonizing a vast number of people, John Paul II wanted to show the world that anyone could become a saint! He strongly believed everyone should strive for holiness and see sainthood as attainable. Certainly, this universal call to holiness was one of the decrees of Vatican Council II.

In canonizing these outstanding men and women, Pope John Paul II wished to provide a wide range of role models for us to imitate: people who reflect different vocations and situations. Pope John Paul even reduced the waiting period required before a person could be considered for canonization, thus allowing for more contemporary figures to be recognized. 

Truly, he has given us new heroes to follow. When Pope John Paul II granted our Mother Theodore the title “Venerable” in 1992, he proclaimed to the world that she lived a virtuous life to a heroic degree. She is a hero. She is our hero.

‘Trust in God’

Certainly, we gather today to thank God for the life and witness of our very own Saint. Let us also ask this Holy One of God to help each of us be faithful to God and the service of our neighbor to a heroic degree. I suspect Mother Theodore wants nothing more than for us to become saints. We often quote her own recipe for sainthood:

“What have we to do in order to be saints? Nothing extraordinary, nothing more than what we do every day. Only do it for (God’s) love…”

Mother Theodore’s life offers many examples of how to live like a saint. She was the epitome of the “Trust in God” called for by Sirach in our first reading today. As the Gospel of Luke suggested, she gave her all to God and the mission of Providence. This was her treasure and where anyone who knew her could find her heart.

She was a woman devoted to prayer, an educator, a caregiver, and a leader. She was a champion of justice and empathetic to those who suffered. She was also a prolific writer of letters.

According to Sister Marie Grace Molloy, my go-to person in Archives, Mother Theodore wrote 5,404 letters — at least those were the ones recorded in her correspondence diary.

Take it to Heart

So, if she wrote a letter to you — what might she say? What word or phrase might she share with you today to spur you on your own path to holiness?

I want to start with our fourth graders. For many years, the fourth-graders from Sts. Francis and Clare School in Greenwood, (outside of Indianapolis), have been coming to St. Mary’s for this feast day. What might Mother Theodore say to you young people?

It has been a long time since I was a fourth-grader, but I do remember that back in fourth grade, I felt like my teachers and maybe even my friends were expecting more of me than when I was in the third grade. Sometimes, this made me nervous or anxious.  I would have liked to hear Mother Theodore say these words to me:

  “Put yourself gently into the hands of Providence.”

I hope you students of Sts. Francis and Clare School will take this to heart. It is always good to remind ourselves that God loves us and that we live in God’s presence. It could make a difference for us just to stop and say, “I am putting myself gently into the hands of Providence.”

I want to suggest this same quote of Mother Theodore for the college students in our midst today. And here’s why. Mother Theodore actually wrote that phrase, “Put yourself gently into the hands of Providence,” to Cecile LeFer Choisnet (Schwa neh). She was one of the LeFer sisters who did not leave France to become a Sister of Providence. However, in letters to Mother Theodore, she shares her struggles with her own vocation as the wife of Joseph Choisnet (Schwa neh). Perhaps she was comparing herself to her sisters who were off in the wilderness of Indiana saving souls. We know her husband was ill, and perhaps she was worried about her ability to care for him. No matter, she was struggling.

It seems to me that college is the time when young people also struggle with questions like, “What will I do for the rest of my life? So, hear Mother Theodore say to you what she said to Cecile:

“You ought not to give way to uneasiness about the future. Put yourself gently into the hands of Providence. …you will see that all will be well.”   

Honestly, this is a quote that probably could serve all of us well, but I wanted to find something special for the teachers in the church today. Of course, her most famous quote for teachers is:

 “Love the children first, then teach them.”

I do think this could apply to loving both fourth graders and college students.

A quote that is not quite as well-known but offers some specificity about what that love of children should look like is this:

“…do not point out only the mistakes, … speak more of what is good…”

And Mother Theodore also said:

“Our need for virtue is greater than for learning.”

I found what I think is a wonderful quote from Mother Theodore for our SP co-workers and friends from Providence Health Care and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College to keep in mind as they deal with the challenges of their own ministries:

“I have already exceeded the amount of work my head can bear.”

Actually, I hope the following piece of advice from Mother Theodore will animate you as you participate in the mission of Providence; may it enable you to keep sharing your gifts and talents with us:

“You yourselves know well that when you ardently desire to do something, though very fatiguing, nothing appears too difficult.”

To our Providence Associates I offer these words of Mother Theodore:

“… for what (God) asks of us is only the heart.”

Thank you for answering your own call to be witnesses of God’s Providence in this world. Your vocation as an associate strengthens our lives as Sisters of Providence. May you continue to share with us from your heart.

And now for my Sisters. We have incorporated so many of Mother Theodore’s words and sayings into our lives, into our prayers. I wanted to find something that might speak a new word of what Mother Theodore might be asking of us in this time:

“A woman in this country is never seen transacting the least business, religious no more than others. Eyes are opened wide at Terre Haute and everywhere when I appear to pay bills or to make purchases. Everyone is astonished.”

It is the last phrase that I wish to emphasize here. Let us be astonishing, sisters. Let the business we transact in this time be astonishing. Let us open people’s eyes by our love, by our generosity, by our righteous indignation at the ways of the world that are intolerable.

And then, like our Mother Theodore, we can say with confidence:

“… ours is the preparation for the generation that will succeed us, and eminent good will be done this way by us. You may not live to see it, but you will have sown the seed, and your Sisters will come to reap what will have been sown.”

So, as we continue this Eucharist, let us each pray to Mother Theodore for the strength and wisdom we need to become what God has always intended us to be, our best selves to a heroic degree. As Mother Theodore said some hundred and eighty years ago: “I beg you, take today the resolution to become saints … Ask of God the graces you need. …”

Amen.