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ST. CLAUDINE THEVENET’S FEAST---
Today we celebrate the feast of our Mother Foundress St. Claudine Thevenet. We humbly pay homage to St. Claudine Thevenet the valiant woman, who sowed the seed of the congregation of Jesus and Mary in 1818 in France.
Claudine was born on 30 March 1774 , the second child of the Thevenet family, very early in life, she tasted the terrible effects of war, not only in her city, but in her family too- her own two brothers were snatached away as prisoners right in front of her eyes. As a teenager Claudine experienced what a victim of hatred and revenge suffers. However, engulfed by God’s merciful love and active goodness, she turned this bitter experience into a noble service of looking after orphaned and homeless children. Claudine led them to look on God as a loving Father.
In 1818, with the birth of the congregation of Jesus and Mary, this became the mission of her sisters who toiled tirelessly in caring for the young especially the orphans and the poor.
During her short life as a Religious for 19 years, the Congregation spread to various parts of France. Finally, Claudine became very ill and on 3 February 1837 she breathed her last whispering. “How good God is.”
The feast has a special significance for all of us. St. Claudine desires today that each one of us be moved by the misery of our own times. She leads us on our pilgrimage to the hearts of the persons who suffer, to those who have lost hope, but above all she leads us on a pilgrimage to the hearts of children and young people in order to understand them, to heal their wounds and to make known to them that they have a father (in) God.
Let us keep these sentiments and thoughts in our minds and pray that God’s love and justice may come among us. Let Claudine’s last words on earth “How good God is!” ring in our hearts, encouraging us to look on God as a Loving Father.