What joy fills the heart of the faithful when they discover great news about a saint and the great works they were chosen to do for God while still living on earth. No two saints were given the exact same mission to serve. You and I are no different. We too like the saints were given a very special task to take on. And it is up to us to discover what that particular task is through our relationship with Jesus Christ. We are given the perfect example here through Sister Eugenia. She knew what her mission would become and she did everything in her power to take full responsibility and protect the lepers and create a center for them to be cared for. It's pretty remarkable when you think about it. Most of us would not feel as courageous as Mother Eugenia, we would in an instant be led far away from such a responsibility as great as this one that our precious Lord had planned out specifically just for her. How can we not have the utmost respect for her? This had to have been a tremendous challenge to say the very least, she had to completly surrender her entire being to Christ in order to have the kind of faith that withstood all fear, all doubt, all whispers of negativity. She was in the deepest of all trenches, and she ploughed right through their sickness, their stench, their filth, and saw the face of Jesus in them, for those were the faces that Christ himself called on her to serve. That is the best example of love and sacrifice, I have ever read about in my lifetime. Sister Eugenia was willing and eager to serve Christ in this most important capacity. It's very important that we do not compare ourselves to Mother Eugenia, but to recognize and respect the level of courage that God instilled in her being. She was able to move forward with God's support, for He is all knowing, all powerful, and gave this mission to the only person he felt could achieve the results that were necessary for them. Just as Mother Eugenia was open to the Holy Spirit, let us too be open to every gift that he offers to us personally, and let us not now or ever waste a single moment on not using those gifts for his greater glory. In His great servitude we can assist where assistance is desperately needed, utilizing the time given to us from God, depositing goodness where goodness needs to be given and where Christ needs to be shared. The church becomes the most important place for souls. It is there we listen and learn the voice of God. As contemplatives, we hear God's voice through the silence, through the holy eucharist, his body feeds our very soul, and forms us into extraordinary saints. We are given this opportunity to empty ourselves of ourself, and to fill our very souls with Jesus, with Mary, and the kind of legacies shared by unique human beings like Mother Eugenia Elisabetta Ravasio and Raoul Follereau. How greatly they inspire us to become the pillars of the faith, and add something special ourselves to the strong foundation already laid for us, by our forefathers, knowing that we are one in Christ, all of us are connected link by link. Let us continue to pray for the service we were meant to share in order to glorify God's holy name, and do it now while we still have the where with all to do so.
