April 8, 2024

Dear John,

Today’s meditation from God’s Love Song reminds me to be open to the underlying spiritual reality beyond each doorway I walk through. As Thomas Merton once wrote, “The gate of heaven is everywhere.” Murray Bodo and Susan Saint Sing write about each doorway as a portal to the sacred. This is tough to believe sometimes when I’m walking into my office and feeling overwhelmed by my lengthening to-do list, or boarding the bus to drive the golf team I coach to a tournament that is far away, or wearily crawling out of bed in the middle of the night to tend to our crying toddler across the hall.

Yet, perhaps if I’m open to the idea of the gate of heaven being everywhere, maybe I’ll have a heightened awareness in these unassuming moments. Maybe I’ll remember that my to-do list is filled with grace and opportunity. Maybe I’ll remember that these bus rides could help my team deepen their friendships. Maybe I’ll remember that my son won’t always need my snuggles for comfort and to cherish this moment, tired as I am, as his head rests on my heart. Sometimes a sense of gratitude or connectivity emerges, and I, too, find the doorway to be its own portal. I hope you enjoy this copy of God’s Love Song and embrace the doorways you walk through today. 

Blessings, 

Stephen Copeland

Book Editor, Franciscan Media

Saint of the Day for April 8: Julie Billiart

(July 12, 1751 – April 8, 1816)

Saint Julie Billiart’s Story

Born in Cuvilly, France, into a family of well-to-do farmers, young Marie Rose Julie Billiart showed an early interest in religion and in helping the sick and poor. Though the first years of her life were relatively peaceful and uncomplicated, Julie had to take up manual work as a young teen when her family lost its money. However, she spent her spare time teaching catechism to young people and to the farm laborers.

A mysterious illness overtook her when she was about 30. Witnessing an attempt to wound or even kill her father, Julie was paralyzed and became a complete invalid. For the next two decades, she continued to teach catechism lessons from her bed, offered spiritual advice, and attracted visitors who had heard of her holiness.

When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, revolutionary forces became aware of her allegiance to fugitive priests. With the help of friends, she was smuggled out of Cuvilly in a haycart. She then spent several years hiding in Compiegne, being moved from house to house despite her growing physical pain. She even lost the power of speech for a time.

But this period also proved to be a fruitful spiritual time for Julie. It was at this time she had a vision in which she saw Calvary surrounded by women in religious habits and heard a voice saying, “Behold these spiritual daughters whom I give you in an institute marked by the cross.”

As time passed and Julie continued her mobile life, she made the acquaintance of an aristocratic woman, Françoise Blin de Bourdon, who shared Julie’s interest in teaching the faith. In 1803, the two women began the Institute of Notre Dame, which was dedicated to the education of the poor, young Christian girls, and the training of catechists. The following year the first Sisters of Notre Dame made their vows. That was the same year that Julie recovered from the illness: She was able to walk for the first time in 22 years.

Though Julie had always been attentive to the special needs of the poor and that always remained her priority, she also became aware that other classes in society needed Christian instruction. From the founding of the Sisters of Notre Dame until her death, Julie was on the road, opening a variety of schools in France and Belgium that served the poor and the wealthy, vocational groups, teachers. Ultimately, Julie and Françoise moved the motherhouse to Namur, Belgium. Julie died there in 1816 and was canonized in 1969.

Reflection

Julie’s immobility in no way impeded her activities. In spite of her suffering, she managed to co-found a teaching order that tended to the needs of both the poor and the well-to-do. Each of us has limitations, but the worst malady any of us can suffer is the spiritual paralysis that keeps us from doing God’s work on earth.

Saint Julie Billiart is a Patron Saint of:

Educators/Teachers

"St. Francis is a great man, too elevated to follow entirely, so I just look at moments in his life. I look, for example, at the story in which he coined the phrase perfect joy."

-from God's Love Song: The Vision of Francis and Clare.

I have tried to learn from St. Francis. In my home, pinned to the curtain of my front door, is a reminder—”Remember to remember God.” In the Hebrew tradition, it is the mezuzah to be touched, to remind one of the sacred words on the scroll. To remind me of the sacred. Such a concept! To use each doorway as a portal. To pass through each doorway and remind oneself to do better, to live life just a little more virtuously—such a concept.

It wasn’t just the San Damiano crucifix for Francis—the cave, the lepers, and the poor began to speak to him of God, until eventually Francis could look at nothing without seeing God.

—from the book God’s Love Song: The Vision of Francis and Clareby Murray Bodo, OFM, and Susan Saint Sing

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