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on 31 Oct, 2020
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Colombia, 10/31/2020, Sr. Carmen Rosario Medina Alvarado.- Cold mornings, sunny afternoons, starry nights... everything could be seen as they passed by; it was not just the mornings, afternoons and nights; in fact it was the whole of life, which invited one to contemplate the fineness of God as He passed by.

It was His footsteps that constantly ran through the fields of the Beauce. The divine Spirit, like morning dew, spread the spark of love. The chosen people felt His steps and listened to His voice, a soft, tender, silent and delicate voice that invited to have compassion.

Not far from there, God was preparing the cradle of that little girl, who was of his predilection; the hours, the days, the months passed and in Dourdan she was born. Divine Providence provided everything, and it was in the Poussepin Fourrier family where this beautiful story with indelible dye was written.

They, Claudio and Juliana, soaked in the infinite mercy of the Spirit, did not cease to be instruments of the good God, in that place that invited them to make mention of God. Their children, Marie, Anna, Juliana, Elizabeth, Claudio I, Claudio II and Claudio III, one by one felt the presence of the God of love, who with a strengthened spirit, did not cease to bless and thank God, feeling called not only to be spectators of a story, but also to be builders of a new society, in that corner of the world where God was urging them to practice charity.

Reading the past from God's point of view, leads to a glimpse of how this fresh sap that nourishes and strengthens, generates new life according to God's plan. Everything was experienced in this Christian and parochial home chosen by Divine Providence; the hard trials were not long in coming, the death of Marie's brothers except for Claudio the youngest, the death of their grandparents; the adverse moment her father lived as a tax collector, and everything else that life had in store for him.

From God's heart, the story of that person who always glimpsed God's plan and made it her own as a legacy of love. With small gestures of mercy, charity expanded. God was being God in that long journey of life that Blessed Marie Poussepin experienced.

The courage and audacity of the Servant of God led her to direct her life along the paths inspired by Divine Providence. She took responsibility for the education of her younger brother; she took upon herself the debt of her father, assumed the direction of the factory and committed herself to the work of evangelization in the Confraternity of Charity to which her mother belonged.

In her deepest interior, where the meeting of the One who comes and the One who goes takes place, there arises the silent word of the beloved who constantly seeks the pilgrim with a peaceful soul and to make her pour from that inexhaustible source received in baptism, the seeds of love in the exercise of Charity.

Nothing and no one could stop her, she understood that her life did not belong to her, that everything came from God and to Him she must return. A soul that is born, lives and gives itself out of love, does not become quiet, lives in a total dynamism of its being, because it feels that it can no longer live but with Him, for Him and to Him.

By Divine inspiration, she leaves Dourdan to go to Sainville. That latent reality of misery, hunger, poverty, orphan hood, ignorance... is the theological place where she heard the voice of God inviting her to respond with audacity and creativity, with prudence and responsibility; with realism and sensitivity; with patience and kindness... that was the precise place where the One and Trine God sent her to manifest the gifts and qualities He always lavished upon her.

The Word of God, incarnated in the imprint of her being, leads her to reveal the Crucified-Risen One in her daily actions and words. In her heart, the life of the Master in constant donation always resounded; her soul, totally abandoned in the hands of Divine Providence, always came to her aid, giving renewed impulse to the new works she was undertaking.

The woman of prayer, of deep faith, of tender and simple gaze; the humble and trusting young woman, the sister with a serene and welcoming face; the honest and persistent businesswoman; the supportive and kind daughter of God, the respectful and patient mother soaked in Dominican spirituality... becomes a worker of Providence and an instrument in the hands of God.

In her mornings, afternoons and nights, Marie Poussepin perceived only God, felt and listened only to the voice of the beloved love that through the Word and the latent reality of that population whispered to her and moved her heart:

"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Ps. 37,4
"But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” Hosea 12, 6
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Jn 13, 34
"Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Mt 19, 21
"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” Mt 10, 8
"For whoever * wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever * loses his life for My sake will find it.” Mt 16, 25
"For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in." Mt. 25, 35
"Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly * or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2Co. 9, 7

Feeling that it is God's will to live and die at the service of the Church in the exercise of Charity, the Servant of God founded her Community of the Third Order of St. Dominic to dedicate herself to teaching, to the service of the sicks and usefulness of the parish.

Her deep spirituality, her futuristic sense and attitude of service in the style of Jesus of Nazareth, impels her to leave in writing what she had lived in a long time, the joy she felt for what God had revealed to her and the inspired Spirit... that accumulation of deep experiences of Faith, where all the feelings lived with emotion were combined; in the small village of Sainville, she decided to leave them as a legacy to her Sisters so that they would continue to be pioneers of beautiful gestures of redemption in the villages where holy obedience would lead them to extend the Kingdom of God.

The faithful companion on the road who makes visible the straight paths of the Lord; the young woman of Nazareth who listened to the Word of God and fulfilled it; the prayerful woman who walks with the people offering protection; the one full of Grace who lived in constant self-giving... she always lived in her humble, tender and simple heart.

At her presentation in the Temple, she left the Blessed Virgin Mary as the model and patroness of her Congregation. After more than three centuries of history, the seed that sprouted in Dourdan and spread in Sainville is still spreading throughout the world today.

The new calls of God and of the Church to each Dominican Sister of the Charity of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, is to follow in the footsteps of the Master from the foundational Charism of the Presentation with an open heart and available to be on the way out on this path of restructuring.