Barbara Dawson and the General Council offer this prayer for the feast of our first missionary, Philippine Duchesne, on November 18, and the 220th birthday of the Society of the Sacred Heart on November 21st.

Rachel Guillien has written this prayer to celebrate the Feast of Philippine Duchesne on November 18 and to honor all people on the move

“Woman of prayer, Woman of hope
Woman of compassion
Listen, listen carefully…..”

In honor of the 200th anniversary of Philippine’s act of courage and conviction, on November 18, 2017, the Society launches two important and interconnected opportunities for RSCJ and the whole Sacred Heart family.

“My retreat at the heart of our land surely was “a new frontier” for me. I returned with a much deeper understanding of the huge chasm that lies between our western way of viewing the world and that of “the oldest living culture” on the planet.”

– Rita Carroll rscj

As we prepare for the feast of Philippine Duchesne on November 18, these extracts from a letter and conference of Helen McLaughlin rscj (Superior General in the year of Philippine’s canonization) invite us to reflect: What is Philippine trying to communicate to us today?

… she spent her days before the Great Fire, and warmed them all with the Flame that consumed her. And they saw the Fire in her eyes when she looked at them. And they felt the Fire in her trembling old hands…. They called her “The Woman Who Always Prays.”

For a long time I had wanted to paint an icon of St Madeleine Sophie and St Philippine. The pressure…

Rose Philippine Duchesne was born in Grenoble, France in 1769. After preparing for her first communion at the Visitation convent nearby, her desire to give her life to God led her to join the Visitation community, a cloistered, contemplative order, despite her longing to serve God in missionary lands. In the aftermath of the French revolution, her convent was closed by the government. For ten years Philippine served the destitute of Grenoble as she searched for God’s desires for her.