Life of Sister Marie du Sacré Cœur Bernaud (continued)
Next year, from April 24 to 27, we are organizing an international meeting of the Guards of Honor in Bourg-en-Bresse, the birthplace of the work. To prepare for this great event, which is also part of the Jubilee of the 350th anniversary of the Apparitions of Jesus to Saint Marguerite Marie, we invite you to discover the life of our foundress: Sister Marie du Sacré Cœur Bernaud, a discreet figure who lived in the shadow of her work and who, yet, was its tireless linchpin throughout her life.
Admission to the monastery
After a long discernment, Mother Marie Aimée Morel and Bishop Devie, Bishop of Bourg, admitted Constance to the monastery as a postulant. She does not delude herself, she knows deep down that if the Lord has called her to the Visitation, it is because He wants her all for Himself: “there is nothing human there, nothing for the exterior, it is the most absolute death to any search for self-esteem, you will live completely hidden, completely small, completely forgotten, but I will communicate myself better to your soul and you will achieve greater holiness.”
Struggling against her spontaneous nature, she makes immense efforts to get used to the demands of religious life. Even if she is sure of her vocation, her soul alternates between desolation and consolation. Fortunately, the exercises in the Sacred Heart that she has continued to practice since boarding school help her to give herself entirely to her new path.
On November 25, 1849, Constance took the habit and chose the name “Sister Marie of the Sacré Cœur”. Throughout her novitiate, she was appreciated for her cheerful character and her dynamism. However, a shadow loomed: after an unsuccessful attempt in the kitchen, she was seized with a violent spitting of blood. She suffered from a chest illness that would never leave her. 5 She was then removed from household chores to be entrusted with the boarding school for young girls interns at the monastery. To do this, she had to pass the teachers’ exam for which she prepared assiduously. When she presented herself for the public tests, the house was full.
In addition to the jury, many people had come to listen to her exceptional voice that made her famous throughout Bourg-en-Bresse. It was almost with reluctance that she complied with the request of the public and the jury. Her whole being only asks to remain hidden. She nevertheless passes her exam brilliantly and officially becomes a teacher.
At the boarding school
Having become a teacher, while being feared and respected, Sr Marie du Sacré Cœur is very loved by all her students. She knows how to motivate and encourage them. She composes beautiful poems for them that they enjoy learning to please her. Jovial and rigorous at the same time, she also teaches them the taste for perseverance, effort and prayer. The young people are very marked by the sometimes supernatural state of their teacher who seems to be immersed entirely in God. Some, when speaking of her, will even tell their parents “that she no longer lives on earth.”
Alas, the illness leaves her very little respite. She is forced to keep only one division of the youngest and to considerably reduce her services. The cross did not leave her much. In addition to physical pain and spitting blood, there were spiritual anguish hidden behind an ever-radiant face. Faced with this, her only response was a generous fiat to the Will of God. This would henceforth be the fight of her life.
Years later, in September 1860, having acquired the certainty that this was how the Lord wanted her, she offered herself as a victim to the Divine Heart of Jesus. She repeated this Act of Offering on June 24, 1870, signed with her blood.
Religious profession
For the time being, she was in full preparation for her profession. Bishop Devie had scheduled the celebration for April 5, 1851. This day, awaited with so much joy, Constance went from profound joy to total desolation. Her heart was as if pierced. While her soul was in agony, she smiled at all those who showed her their affection. She felt very clearly in her being that the Lord wanted her to be only a victim of love to compensate his divine Heart which was constantly offended. From her novitiate, she had understood that the rampart against herself and the traps of the enemy was humility. She would apply this rule all her life, remaining submissive to the judgments of others. She had made her own this maxim of Father Surin (Jesuit): “God glorifies himself in heaven by crowning his elect, and on earth by their annihilations.”
In July 1852, Sr Marie du Sacré Cœur was affected by the death of Bishop Devie who had been a good spiritual father to her. He was replaced by Bishop Chalandon.
New stage
At the monastery, her sure pen stroke and her ease in writing having been noticed, she was employed as a secretary to ensure a large part of the correspondence this of the entire monastery. Her health did not allow her to do more, this largely completed her shortened time with the boarders. She would keep this function for several years. When she was only 35 years old, her health deteriorated considerably, to the point that the entire community thought her death was imminent. Mgr Langalerie, the new bishop visiting the monastery, having known her before her Profession, was surprised as he passed by the infirmary: “What, are you Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart there? But it’s not a question of dying! We are going to make a novena to the Sacred Heart as well as to Venerable Marguerite-Marie for you!” He blessed her, and, that same day, to everyone’s amazement, an improvement took place and in the following weeks her recovery seemed complete. The years go by in this way. Her spiritual life evolves. Jesus rewards her for her perseverance by giving her a wordless prayer: without doing a single act of meditation, she joins Christ. Her companions nickname her “the sister of pure love.”