Subj : January 23rd - Blessed Mother Marianne Cope of Molokai To : All From : rich Date : Wed Jan 22 2020 08:17:47 From: rich January 23rd - Blessed Mother Marianne Cope of Molokai Blessed Mother Marianne Cope faced everything with unflinching courage smiling sweetly through it all. Though leprosy scared off most people in 19th-century Hawaii, that disease sparked great generosity in the woman who came to be known as Mother Marianne of Molokai. Her courage helped tremendously to improve the lives of its victims in Hawaii, a territory annexed to the United States during her lifetime (1898). Mother Marianne's generosity and courage were celebrated at her May 14, 2005, beatification in Rome. She was a woman who spoke =E2=80=9Cthe language of truth and love=E2=80=9D to the world, said Cardinal Jose Saraiv= a Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes. Cardinal Martins, who presided at the beatification Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, called her life =E2=80=9Ca wonderful work of divine grace.=E2=80= =9D Speaking of her special love for persons suffering from leprosy, he said, =E2=80=9CS= he saw in them the suffering face of Jesus. Like the Good Samaritan, she became their mother.=E2=80=9D On January 23, 1838, a daughter was born to Peter and Barbara Cope of Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. The girl was named after her mother. Two years later the Cope family immigrated to the United States and settled in Utica, New York. Young Barbara worked in a factory until August 1862, when she went to the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York. After profession in November of the next year, she began teaching at Assumption parish school. Marianne held the post of superior in several places and was twice the novice mistress of her congregation. A natural leader, three different times she was superior of St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse, where = she learned much that would be useful during her years in Hawaii. Elected provincial in 1877, Mother Marianne was unanimously re-elected in 1881. Two years later the Hawaiian government was searching for someone to run the Kakaako Receiving Station for people suspected of having leprosy. More than 50 religious communities in the United States and Canada were asked. When the request was put to the Syracuse sisters, 35 of them volunteered immediately. On October 22, 1883, Mother Marianne and six other sisters left for Hawaii where they took charge of the Kakaako Receiving Station outside Honolulu; on the island of Maui they also opened a hospital and a school for girls. In 1888, Mother Marianne and two sisters went to Molokai to open a home for =E2=80=9Cunprotected women and girls=E2=80=9D there. The Hawaiian = government was quite hesitant to send women for this difficult assignment; they need not have worried about Mother Marianne! On Molokai she took charge of the home that Blessed Damien DeVeuster (d. 1889) had established for men and boys. Mother Marianne changed life on Molokai by introducing cleanliness, pride and fun to the colony. Bright scarves and pretty dresses for the women were part of her approach. Awarded the Royal Order of Kapiolani by the Hawaiian government and celebrated in a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mother Marianne continued her work faithfully. Her sisters have attracted vocations among the Hawaiian people and still work on Molokai. Mother Marianne died on August 9, 1918. Comment: The government authorities were reluctant to allow Mother Marianne to be a mother on Molokai. Thirty years of dedication proved their fears unfounded. God grants gifts regardless of human short-sightedness and allows those gifts to flower for the sake of the kingdom. Quote: Soon after Mother Marianne died, Mrs. John F. Bowler wrote in the Honolulu Advertiser, =E2=80=9CSeldom has the opportunity come to a woma= n to devote every hour of 30 years to the mothering of people isolated by law from the rest of the world. She risked her own life in all that time, faced everything with unflinching courage and smiled sweetly through it all.=E2=80=9D Saint Quote: May the God of love and peace set your hearts at rest and speed you on your journey; may he meanwhile shelter you from disturbance by others in the hidden recesses of his love, until he brings you at last into that place of complete plenitude where you will repose for ever in the vision of peace, in the security of trust, and in the restful enjoyment of his riches. --Saint Raymond of Penyafort from a letter Bible Quote: Grace be to you, and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present wicked world, according to the will of God and our Father: =C2 To whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen. =C2 (Gal 1:1-3) D= RB <><><><> A prayer of Pere Leonce de Grandmaison, SJ, for the heart of a child: Holy Mary, Mother of God, preserve in me the heart of a child, pure and transparent as a spring. Obtain for me a simple heart That does not brood over sorrows; A heart generous in giving itself, Quick to feel compassion; A faithful, generous heart that forgets no favor and holds no grudge. Give me a humble, gentle heart Loving without asking any return; A great indomitable heart That no ingratitude can close, No indifference can weary; A heart tortured by its desire for the glory of Jesus Christ: Pierced by His love With a wound that will heal only in Heaven --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .