EUROPE/FRANCE - Pauline Jaricot was "like David facing Goliath": the Secretary of the Missionary Congregation at the conference in Lyon

Monday, 9 January 2012

Lyon (Agenzia Fides) - "Re-reading the life of Pauline Jaricot, I think of David, the little shepherd, who faces Goliath. Yes, Pauline is David, and I would say that the religious and cultural climate following the strongly anticlerical French Revolution, is her Goliath". The Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples traces this parallel, in his speech at the International meeting on "Pauline Jaricot, a woman always present" held today in Lyon, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Venerable Pauline Marie Jaricot (1799-1862), who dedicated her life to the mission, prayer and service to the poor, founding the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the Living Rosary (see Fides 07/01/2012).
Like David, even Pauline Jaricot went to the stream of Scripture, explained the Secretary of the Missionary Congregation, where she found her five small smooth stones: prayer, charity, humility, trust in God, love for the Holy Father. "Pauline founded the Living Rosary, this prayer chain that every day from the heart of the faithful goes toward the Lord, for the propagation of the Gospel and the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth", said Mgr. Savio Hon Tai Fai. The second stone is that of Charity, " Pauline understands that missions also need material help, and for this aim it organizes a weekly collection for the missions", the first in history, in imitation of the collection of the first Christians for the community of Jerusalem , which then extends to all nations. Betrayed, she was deceived by shady businessmen, Pauline was then questioned on her role as founder, her poor health and her spiritual journey reduce her to silence. "Until the end of her life, she will carry all her crosses with love, faithful to the offer she had made of herself to Christ in his Passion, which had been the engine of her commitment". Finally her unwavering faith in God, which is not affected even by the greatest difficulties, and love for the Holy Father, embodied in a "docile and active obedience": "in the light of faith, she realizes that her submission to the Church is the guarantee of fidelity of Work to her charisma".
Concluding his speech, Mgr. Savio Hon Tai Make recalled the words carved in the chapel where her heart is preserved, that define her a "martyr of charity in favor of the working class", and stressed that "her example anticipated in a prophetic manner the Pope’s appeal when he said: 'It is necessary to throw the nets of the Gospel in the sea of history to guide people to the land of God' ". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 09/01/2012)


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