ST THEODORA GUERIN - 3 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER 

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of October

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST THEODORA GUERIN

Cardinal Gibbons declared that Mother Theodora Guerin, first superior-general of the Sisters of Providence in the United States, was an athlete of virtue who by her life and teaching had made great conquests for Christ and His Church. 

Mother Guerin was sent to the United States from France in 1840 to establish a residence of her Order in the diocese of Vincennes, Indiana. 

She was a highly cultivated woman of extraordinary endowments. Still more admirable was her personal holiness, which was proved by many trials. 

Her great success in the many undertakings of her Congregation, particularly in the schools, is justly ascribed to the charm of her noble and virtuous character. 

She died on May 14, 1856. She was honoured with a medal from the French Academy, but greater will be the honour to her name by its enrollment in the list of the Blessed. [Mother Guerin was beatified by Pope John Paul II and canonised by Pope Benedict.]

(Text from: "The Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century: Saintly Men and Women of Our Own Times", by Fr Constantine Kempf)