The Extended Family of the Sacred Heart of Mary in France is reflecting on the words of Father Gailhac and shares their thoughts with us.
By Nicole Mignard
“You have to be in constant union with God” Father Gailhac.
What does it mean? How was this achieved in Fr. Gailhac’s time? And for us, the Extended Family of the Sacred Heart of Mary?
1. Constant union with God and communion with God?
“Constant union” involves permanence: it means living your whole day, your whole life, with God, in Him, for Him; acting as if God Himself were acting at every moment…
Communion, on the other hand, can be limited in time and can be renewed.
2. How can we achieve constant union with God?
By rediscovering Father Gailhac’s spirit, his theology and dedication through his writings. “Since my youth,” he writes, “God has filled me with his sacred fire, and I have always felt the duty and the need to make God loved”. His faith was constantly supported and nurtured by hours of intense prayer.
At the age of 16, he entered the seminary in Montpellier and stayed for 10 years to become a priest, using the Word of God as a source of spiritual life. He never stopped recommending to his RSHM “daughters” that they be filled with the Spirit of God every day. On August 28, 1849, he wrote to Mother Saint Jean: “Hello, my daughter, always be all for God, be all for God…” and to a sister: “Live in God, from God, for God, this is the only true life. Constant union with God can only be achieved through Jesus, the Christ, and in the Spirit. “Imitation is the way to an ever greater union… Let us imitate Jesus through Mary, whose whole life was in the Spirit, in her intimate union with God.”
He wrote to a community: “You will be happy if you allow yourselves to be led by the Spirit; a spirit of recollection, so that you are attentive to the voice of God who speaks to your soul, to the various movements that his Spirit makes in your heart; a spirit of sacrifice, renouncing all that is earthly, natural, and human in you… Be constantly united with God and you will be one spirit with God.”
“You must meditate, because it is in meditation that love is kindled.” “Constant union with God is prepared by silence of mind, heart and the tongue…”
3. What does this mean for us, the Extended Family?
As baptized Christians, we are called to Christian perfection, and more than ever in our accelerated world, where immediatism reigns, every man for himself and violence.
Let’s look at events to discern what the Lord wants to say to us and let’s meditate on his words in today’s Gospel. “Chosen by God from all eternity to be the mother of the Son and in his incarnation, Mother of God, Mary is “Mother of the silence that guards the mystery of God” (beginning of a prayer by Pope Francis in 2013). In the Gospel, she speaks little: (to defend her virginity in face of the Angel’s greeting, for her yes to God’s messenger, for the Magnificat at the Visitation and at the wedding at Cana). Silent on Calvary, and waiting for the effusion of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the apostles; she meditates on all things in her heart…
Let us implore the Holy Spirit to help us and, as Paul writes in Romans 8:26, “the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness, because we do not know what to ask in order to pray as we should…”.
Praying is Pope Francis’ invitation this year of 2024; to rediscover the great value and necessity of prayer in our personal lives, in the life of the Church and in the world, in preparation for the Jubilee of 2025, calling us to pray more fervently and to experience the strength of hope in God (24/12/2024: opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica).
Conclusion: To be in constant union with God, pray in the Holy Spirit; through Mary, take Jesus as your model; in order to achieve this… work without rest and look only at what is ahead (and what remains to be done). This is what will help.
