This short “Call to Worship” opened the Liturgy of Celebration with banners and song in a packed Cathedral. Philippine’s spirit is alive and well!

Good afternoon!
We gather here in this beautiful Cathedral for the opening of the Bicentennial year of celebration of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne.

Philippine Duchesne was a pioneer missionary of the Catholic Church. She was a frontier woman of vision. And, she was a woman known as the “one who prays always.”

Beginning today, November 18th, 2017, and continuing through the coming year, the Religious of the Sacred Heart and members of the larger community of the Sacred Heart across the globe will–in a series of celebrations and observances– remember her enduring legacy.

In New Orleans, we have a special devotion to this French missionary who, after 2 months at sea, set foot in the New World just south of the City near the site of the Battle of New Orleans. There, on her arrival, she knelt and kissed the ground.

With four other Religious of the Sacred Heart, Philippine was welcomed by the Ursuline sisters and given hospitality at their Convent– only blocks away from where we gather this evening.

Continuing on her course up the Mississippi River, Philippine founded the first school west of the Mississippi, and she was ultimately responsible for the establishment of the Schools of the Scared Heart across the geographical landscape of North America. From her pioneering root, the Network of Sacred Heart schools has spread to become a very large tree. Today, there are 150 schools of the Sacred Heart in 41 countries of the world.

Philippine’s long life is marked by…
• …her singularity of purpose and her perseverance,
• …her enduring of faith in God, and
• …her extravagant heart for mission.

Despite continuing challenges and disappointments in the rugged territory of Louisiana, her prayer was one of constant and deep surrender—
• surrendering her illusions,
• surrendering her limitations of language,” and
• surrendering her plans to a higher, more mysterious, power that was at work in her life.

Philippine’s efficacy and, indeed, her sanctity was in HOW she lived—not in what she pursued or, even, achieved. Rather, her holiness was in her never-failing revelation of God’s love through all the times of her life, including all those times of personal uncertainty and darkness.

Philippine’s persistent faith in God is what enabled her to be courageous and to express such confidence that “all will be well with us.”

Let us now begin our celebration of the opening of this bicentennial year and of the enduring spirituality of mission given to us by St. Rose Philippine Duchesne.