Dear Friends and Readers:
Something new is in the air! The buds are becoming visible on
the trees, the lawns are greening under the snow, the water
is making the layers of ice melt. Spring is upon us! As life
springs forth, the Centre for the Cause of Élisabeth Bruyère
is also undergoing a process of renewal.
First, would you not agree that Echoes is more elegant in its new
practical format … easier to display in a library or to slip into a handbag?
And there is more. After having lived a nomadic lifestyle for the last
three years, the Centre for the Cause has now returned to its original
quarters, a space which has been completely renovated with many new
commodities.
The offices we occupy were originally part of the orphanage built by
Mother Bruyère in 1868 for the children that she loved so dearly, who
occupied a special place in her heart. In this sacred space, we can still
feel her presence which was so generous to those in need.
The chronicle entitled “Mother Bruyère remembers” will invite us to live
the mysteries of the rosary with Mother Bruyère throughout the year to
come. At times, we will journey with Mother Bruyère on the roads of
sorrow, at times on the roads of glory and yet again on the roads of joy.
The current issue will focus on the sorrowful mysteries which marked
Mother Bruyère’s life. Finally, we are invited to ask Mother Bruyère to
remember the intentions for which we pray in confidence.
Happy Spring to all! May your journey toward Easter be filled with blessings!
The Staff
The Centre for the Cause of Élisabeth Bruyère
9 Bruyère Street
OTTAWA ON K1N 5C9
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Scenes taken from everyday life
The hidden camera pursues its task of revealing
Mother Bruyère’s truly human personality.
In the article entitled “Mother Bruyère relates”, the
profound suffering endured by our Foundress
becomes very tangible. However, notwithstanding
her own crosses, Mother Bruyère displays maternal
feelings toward the young sisters who experience
difficulties adapting to their new environment. One
of these young sisters, Sister Raizenne, is lonesome
in the new mission in Buffalo. On November 27, 1857, Mother Bruyère
writes these words filled with affection and humour:
“You did not write to me but I write to tell you that I embrace you
hard, that I do not forget you and that I recommend that you not be
lonely and to be very good. I am told that you make a good fricassee
(hash). Keep on making it, but not year round. I am eager to know if
you speak good English, for I count on your learning it quickly, it is
very necessary”.
Mother Bruyère is not only concerned about the state of their soul,
but also about their health. On July 1861, she writes to Sister Saint-Marie, a teacher in Buffalo:
“I received your letter on my arrival from Plattsburg; it pleased me
very much. I thank you for its content but I would like to know the
details of your state of health. Having to continue the school for
boys for some time yet, I am in great trouble because of the scarcity
of candidates. Do not hesitate to tell me what you think about your
health. Should you continue in the classroom or is it too demanding?
If it is, I will recall you as I had promised. You should speak to me
with an open heart about your health, of your fears without having
it weigh on your conscience; I am sure you can only tell the truth. I
am assured that if you feel you can carry on for another year, you
will say it also. Therefore, speak to me simply, conscientiously and
with confidence as to your mother or to your best friend”.
It is not sufficient to preserve your strength, you must also prevent
illness. In October 1862, Mother Bruyère delegates her Assistant,
Sister Josephine Phelan, to make an official visit to the convent in
Buffalo. She gives Sister Phelan a series of specific recommendations,
among which was the following recommendation related to their
health:
“Have the “catalognes” (long woven rag rugs) placed in the refectory
and the parlour because of the cold. These are also placed to protect
the chapel rug; the Sisters also get cold feet if they are not in place.
You will “tactfully notice” that the Superior has better things than
the Sisters. When the Sisters have a cold, they neglect it. Sister St.
Augustin and Sister Howley coughed all winter; have them take
beer or wine. Father Garin will find them some good beer or wine;
at least a few bottles”.
Would you not agree that these contacts with her Sisters reveal how
Mother Bruyère’s soul is abandoned, how she is preoccupied with
other people?
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Mother Bruyère
Relates
The Mysteries of the Rosary
in Mother Bruyère’s Life
All human existence unfolds like the mysteries of
the rosary. There are moments of joy, moments of
sorrow and moments of glory. Our beloved Mother
Bruyère’s existence could not be spared these
various rhythms of life. At this time during which
the Liturgy creates a slow and sorrowful journey
toward Easter, let us accompany Mother Bruyère
during certain stages of her journey toward the cross.
FIRST MYSTERY: DEPARTURE FROM MONTREAL
In 1844, the Ecclesiastical authorities
of Bytown knock at the door of the
Congregation of the Grey Nuns of Montreal
to find some Sisters who would accept to
come to the burgeoning area called Bytown.
The needs are urgent and there are no social
assistance organisations in this area. After
much deliberation and many consultations,
the young Sister Élisabeth Bruyère is
called upon to leave the Mother House of
Montreal, which she loved so dearly, in
order to respond to this urgent need. This
is the first painful separation experienced by this noble soul. In the
document entitled “Fondations in Bytown”, on page 3, she expresses
her feelings in this way:
”If I accept, it will only be to serve my Community; I was never opposed
to the foundation, but I have no calling to it. If my superiors deem that I
have no good reason to refuse, I leave the decision to their prudence; for
myself, I reserve nothing but obedience”.
This suffering is shared by the entire Congregation who sacrifices a
young and promising member. The same document describes a very
touching scene :
“It was at once a sad and moving spectacle. In the gathering of some
fifty sisters, a mournful silence prevailed, which was interrupted only by
repressed sobs escaping from all directions. To understand how painful
such a separation can be for nature, one has to have lived in community
and witnessed a similar scene while participating in it. It was a very
poignant spectacle for the foundresses to see older sisters, fifty and
seventy years old, crying as they were parting company”.
The moments of euphoria in their new land quickly fade away.
On February 23, Mother Bruyère confides in Mother McMullen: “Our separation is still too recent, the wounds are still too bloody for me
to pour into your maternal heart the painful subjects that bruise mine.”
Albeit that the Montreal community remains very present to its isolated
Sisters in the form of epistolary contacts, they become home sick in
spite of the various ministries they are initiating. “ We have read all the
letters that were kindly written to us, and we more than cried on reading
them. There is one I just tucked in my pocket until I am more reasonable
and able to read it”. And so it was for Mother Bruyère, the separation
from this Congregation which she had chosen and loved was an agony
which ends with a generous FIAT during Christmas night 1848.
SECOND MYSTERY: THE IMPOVERISHED MEANS
Mother Bruyère left Montreal emptyhanded.
The tiny amount of luggage did not
respond to the challenge of the mission to be
undertaken. No institutions are available.
Mother Bruyère must create the required
services. The sleigh which transported
them carried very little material but
Mother Bruyère’s heart is filled with faith
in God the Father and with immeasurable
confidence in Divine Providence.
Upon their arrival, the Sisters live in what we would describe today as
extreme poverty. However, they do not dwell in self-pity. Their greatest
sorrow comes from their inability to respond to all the needs that they
encounter in their work.
The first beneficiaries of the arrival of the Sisters are the young girls,
who have been deprived of an education to date. On March 3, 1845,
the doors of the first school open to more than one hundred students, a
number which grows as it becomes more feasible to use the roads. On
March 20, Mother Bruyère writes to Mother McMullen to describe the
situation in very definite terms; she complains about the lack of space.
“Our school house is too small. I must have a teacher to cover the
classroom in the convent; there are thirty very young girls there. They
are occupying the room we had been reserving to teach the children
some crafts. If we had 60 louis, we would build a bigger house next to
the convent and we would relocate our hospital to the present school”.
In the month of May of the same year, she informs Bishop Ignace
Bourget of Montreal of the situation : “We have 136 schoolgirls, and if
our premises were large enough, we would have twice as many”. Her heart
bleeds at the thought of all these young girls for whom it is impossible
to attend school because the school is too small, a school which is
attended by many protestant girls.
During this time, the home visits to the sick continue while the Sisters
dream of finding an appropriate place to care for the sick. They will
have to wait until May 10 for the small four bed hospital to open its
doors. This is a humble beginning, but very soon the lack of space
becomes obvious. The sick who require observation and more diligent
care receive hospitality at the convent. In July of the same year, Mother
Bruyère describes the state of their house to Mother McMullen :
“Our convent is like a hospital; we always have a few sick people with
us. Our beds are set up in the Community room, We always have to
attend to many sick at home; at times our hospital is so full we have to
lie them on the floor in the attic. Last night we thought we would lose
our old lady, from a paralysing stroke; she was lying on a straw mattress
in the attic.”
The Sisters’ generous fervour to serve a population with multiple and
urgent needs was constantly overshadowed by the financial difficulties
they experienced.
If the children who are in need of an education and if the sick in need of
care are many, the cherished poor of all sorts, the destitute, the orphans,
the foundlings, the aged, the immigrants and people in need are also
part of the population. The Sisters want to help but to be able to do so
they must have that which is required. The greatest resources at their
disposal are the courage, the time and the energy of our founders. These
means, albeit precious, do not provide bread for the poor. Fortunately,
the young girls from richer families pay a modest fee to attend school.
This revenue is clearly insufficient. Mother Bruyère enhances our
understanding about the means she used to address this poverty in
a letter written to Mother McMullen on October 17, 1845: “We have
just finished a novena to Saint Joseph to get work from the exterior and
tonight, this good lady sent us a great deal. Following her example, other
benefactors will also try to get some for us, in such a way we can earn a
bit of money”. The type of work they accept to do is outlined in the
Chronicles: sewing, laundering, mending, making lace and candles.
This is how the evenings without electricity are spent.
The ideal method for collecting funds is going door to door and begging.
Mother Bruyère practices this method which is not only humiliating
but fruitful. This method of providing bread for the poor has a double
effect which Mother Bruyère exploits with great expertise. In July 1845,
she shares her clever method with Mother McMullen :
“Our means are meagre but we inform the more wealthy of the misery of
the poor who are dying at their door without their giving them a single
thought. However, when they see us entering into their miserable shack,
their eyes follow us and they are curious to know what motivates us to
visit those places. They are stunned and ashamed to let others surpass
them in generosity”.
And so it was, thanks to her ingenuity, Mother Bruyère is able to come
to the aid of numerous destitute people and to incite the more affluent
to do the same.
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THIRD MYSTERY: TYPHUS EPIDEMIC
The year of the typhus
epidemic offers us the amazing
duel between life and death. A
great famine is developing in
Ireland because of a mushroom
which attacked the potato
crop. Because of this scourge,
boats leave Ireland overloaded
with immigrants seeking
refuge elsewhere. The typhus
epidemic begins aboard these
boats and passengers die at sea.
Hundreds more are infected by
this contagious disease. Many
of the boats filled with plague-stricken
passengers arrive in
Canada. Many of them will travel as far as Bytown.
As early as mid-February 1847, Mother McMullen admonishes Mother
Bruyère: “Strive to store up patience. One hundred thousand Irish emigrants
are coming… We will have our chance to practice charity, all of us alike.
Patience.”
Another intensely sorrowful period is experienced in Mother Bruyère’s
heart. The battle is waged between the joy of serving the plague-stricken
immigrants and the fear of exposure to such a contagious, even deadly,
disease. Mother Bruyère will confide in Mother Mc Mullen: “Pray my
good Mother that this good work will not escape us”. As the boats arrive at
the end of May, she says: “We are expecting the immigrants any day now;
for my part, I fear them because of the contagious aspect of their disease.
However, I am not refusing to serve them, but I would not want to die from
this illness; again, pray for your cowardly daughter”.
Then they move into action: the sick are at their door, some recover,
others die, at times leaving a family of orphans. Space is always at
a premium; the government accepts to build an addition to house dedicated to the immigrants. Soon another shed will be required. With
all this suffering before her very eyes, Mother Bruyère lets her distress
overflow with her confidant: “Last night, 23 sick persons slept outside in
the rain; it was impossible for the agent to find a better place for them; all
the buildings and houses were full. P.S. I am angry with our Sisters. I had
prepared myself to take my turn to stay with the immigrants to give our
Sisters a bit of relief, but some of them told Father Telmon who forbids me to
stay up with the patients. I could not win...I am angry”.
By mid-July, the situation is getting worse: the soldiers are dying
at the front. The uninterrupted correspondence between Mother
Bruyère and the Superior in Montreal keeps us informed: “Sister
Lavoie came down with the fevers this morning and Sister Hagan
tonight. The other two are better. I expect to be hit also. The number of
sick emigrants is increasing daily. I do not know if we can hold out. Fiat
voluntas... Prayer, prayer... our unique support”. And later she says : “We have to resort to secular help to watch our sick Sisters”. Death
is always hovering over the care providers who are exhausted
and weak. This comes through in these very revealing words : “It could well be that the next letter you receive will announce the death of
some among us”.
It would appear that the typhus epidemic was nothing less than a long
agony for Mother Bruyère. Fear of contagion, over load of work, sadness
at seeing the immigrants deprived of a shelter, powerlessness before the
death of so many, worry about her Sisters who are becoming exhausted
and are developing fevers, fear of death in her own community. These
were the thorns in Mother Bruyère’s heart in this third mystery.
FOURTH MYSTERY: SLANDER AND LACK OF SUPPORT
Very early in her existence in Bytown, Mother Bruyère will experience
“pin-prick” persecution in the form of the lack of support from people
she should have been able to count on. First, there is a concern that the
Sisters are interfering with the religious convictions of the non-Catholic
patients of the immigrants’ hospital. One of the pastors seems to have
given himself the mission to aggravate the Sisters as much as possible. Mother Bruyère says quietly :
“We are annoyed by certain ministers
Anglican, Scotish and Wesleyan
Churches who do not limit themselves
to their ecclesiastical functions but who
want to be masters in the hospital and
treat us like domestics. Their critical
comments appeared in the Bytown
newspapers without their names. Our
Father wrote to rebut the calumnies without slighting the Protestants,
and his arguments confounded the ministers. I do not know if it will
stop at that”.
The problems become more serious on a financial level. During the
terrible typhus epidemic, the Board of Health promised Mother
Bruyère an indemnity for each patient who was cared for. But the
reimbursement which was promised for expenses is not forthcoming.
The General Hospital is unable to meet the expenses incurred during
the epidemic. The Sisters must use credit to purchase until such time as
merchants refuse to advance the needed merchandise. The Sisters are
forced to borrow funds, a loan on which interest will accrue. In addition,
there is a request to revisit the agreements already established, judging
them to be too expensive. Mother Bruyère does not have sufficient
resources and she is ruined. She brings a complaint forward to the
chief immigration officer and demands that justice be done onto her.
On December 12, 1847, she also brings a complaint to the attention of
Bishop Bourget: «The Ministers should be ashamed to have us beg for what
is our due; they fail to acknowledge all that we have done for the emigrants.
We are not expecting a reward from them, but let them pay the debts they
have contracted; we can do without their raise, but we absolutely need the
money”. The members of the Board of Health reverse their decision.
Mother Bruyère’s firm and decisive interventions will have brought
these disagreements to a close.
Another source of great sorrow is Father Telmon, he who had instigated
the request for the Sisters to minister in Bytown. He is an impulsive man and does not recognize the limits to his authority over the new
Community. He occupies more and more space in the decision making
processes, beginning with an unauthorized collection of books at the
Sisters’ dwelling, then the introduction of home economics into the
curriculum and finally, he makes a promise to the children that hence
forth, music will be taught in the school. The works of the Sisters
are affected. The most serious impact occurs during a retreat which
he leads for the Sisters. He introduces new requirements into their
practices of religious life, requirements which were never present in the
Rule of the Grey Sisters of Montreal. He goes as far as to suggest that
the Sisters sit on the floor during meals, as a gesture of humility. The
Superior of the Montreal community criticizes Father Telmon for this
interference in the religious life of the community. He feels persecuted
and forms a clan among the Sisters to attempt to get Mother Bruyère
removed from her leadership position. Ultimately, he is removed and
sent elsewhere. Mother Bruyère expresses her gratitude to him for the
services rendered. She neither demonstrates any bitterness nor does
she hold a grudge.
FIFTH MYSTERY : ILLNESS AND DEATH
In the two issues of “Echoes” published during 2011, we spoke at
length about Mother Bruyère’s illness
and her death. The theme of this issue
will bring us to look at the daily deaths
which punctuated Mother Bruyère’s
life. Already, we are able to see a
pattern emerging in the previous four
mysteries. Other “deaths” occurred;
some are more secret and others are
more evident.
For the most part the details about these daily deaths emerge from
Mother Bruyère’s ongoing correspondence which her superior in
Montreal, Mother McMullen. Very revealing threads are woven through
her letters which have another objective. As proof, this letter written on New Year’s Day 1847 which goes beyond the usual letter of Seasonal
greetings: “I would like to be able to express to you how we ourselves feel
about all that goes on in our poor hearts on this first day of the year, but my
sad spirit, upset by thousands of thoughts cannot do it”. On March 30 of
the same year, Mother Bruyère mentions at the end of a letter: “Adieu.
I am sick, but it is my spirit. I have many contradictions and frustrations”. Later, on April 22 1852, before the end of her second mandate, Mother
Bruyère experiences a period of despondency which she shares with
Bishop Joseph Bruno Guigues, bishop of Bytown:
“I dare take a deferential liberty to write to Your Excellency to inform
you that without being totally discouraged, I have reached a point of not
knowing what to become, nor how to go about it leading my Community
and the novitiate. If your Excellency does not come to my help, I will not
have the courage to continue. I have neither the virtue nor the talents
necessary to govern a Community, and a Community like this one
would need a Superior who besides having more virtue would need to
have more ability than I have”.
The complexity of her duties as General Superior becomes even
greater when the time comes for Bishop Guigues to call upon other
Congregations to work in his diocese. She brings it to Bishop Guigues’
attention that Bytown can not support two communities, that his project
will harm the life of the Sisters of Charity or will likely cause them to
live in poverty for many years to come. This threat which hovers over
her work is upsetting to Mother Bruyère and it causes her to loose sleep
and her appetite. She also claims to experience the “illness of grief”.
She had already spoken about this problem on November 3, 1863: “The
embarrassment in which the Community finds itself and the prospect of
sinking even deeper and deeper into debt plunge me into perpetual alarm”.
In conclusion, suffering in various forms becomes part of Mother
Bruyère’s life as it part of the life of any human being. Suffering of
any kind is meaningless unless it leads to the resurrection. Those of
you who already know Mother Bruyère, are you able to associate a “resurrection” with each of these sorrowful mysteries? And is it not so
in your life also?
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Replace the letters and you will find words of Mother Bruyere’s
“Scenes taken from everyday life”:
reya: ________________________________________________________
sahh: ________________________________________________________
talheh: _______________________________________________________
httur: ________________________________________________________
gru: _________________________________________________________
risets: _______________________________________________________
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WHAT WE FIND IN OUR MAILBOX ...
... and HEAR ON OUR TELEPHONE
“Straight from the heart to Mother Bruyère”
Mother Bruyère relieve my
anxiety (J.); I entrust this child
who is experiencing difficulties
(N.); increase my confidence in
myself and my love (V.) ; give
me light and support me as I am
pursued by a sect (C.) ; I ask you
to heal me from my depression (V.) ; I entrust my daughter’s
spiritual growth to you (M.) ; I
entrust my grand-sons who are
addicted to drugs (L.) ;
Responses to people who entrust
their problems to you : I have
received a diagnosis of cancer
(G.); I am suffering pain in my legs
(M.); I am living with muscular
dystrophy (J.-P.); my daughter has a brain tumor (A.); my granddaughters
are experiencing
a variety of difficulties (G.);
my grand-daughter is living a
marginal lifestyle despite her
intelligence (G.); my wife who
suffers from Alzheimer’s disease
(J.-G.);
Please heal my partner’s
alcoholism (P.); a person with a
serious pulmonary condition (A.);
a lady who had a stroke (CVA)
(R.); my husband who has kidney
problems and who is very nervous
(C.); a lady who is hospitalized
after a fall (N.); my sister who
suffers from Crohn’s disease (P.);
many sick people, particularly
three who are paralyzed, one
who has cancer and another who
has kidney disease (R.); a woman
who is suffering from mouth
cancer (H.); my wife who suffers
from back pain (R.); the brother
of a friend who suffered a heart
attacked (N.); one of my children
who is living with cancer (G.);
We ask for your intercession for
a young woman who is suffering
from a pulmonary infection,
severe anemia and physical
problems (C.); a gentleman who
is about to undergo knee surgery
(N.); for these people who hope to recover their health (J. et V.); (M.);
my nephew who will undergo a
serious surgical intervention ((C.);
Help me to sell this house (J.-P.);
my son’S house (M.); our cottage
(D.); my land (J.); I pleed with
you to find me employment; (S.);
(V.); I bring to your attention all
these people I visit, please come
to their help (R.); interceed for
my two boys who are out of work
(M.).
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Favors obtained and
testimonies
Thank you Mother Bruyère for
obtaining the sale of my house
(S.);
Thank you for all the favors
obtained, you have supported me
and obtained favors for my granddaughters
(G.);
As always, Mother Bruyère is
ever present for me and for my
family. I pray Mother Bruyère
and she obtains many favors for
me. I promise that I will promote
awareness about Mother Bruyère
with people in my midst (D.);
It is my hope that my children and
that my grand-children remain
safe and that Mother Bruyère take them by the hand in times of trial
as well as in times of joy (G.);
I firmly believe that Mother
Bruyère will assist many people
who are living difficult situations
(J.);
I pray Mother Bruyère everyday
for my grand-son and for my
friends. I always have great
confidence in her (M.-J.) ;
I have confidence in Mother
Bruyère, I pray to her and I need
her to hear my prayers (J.).
Prayer
Father of loving kindness,
in Mother Bruyère
You have given us
a heart attentive to all needs,
a soul open to all types of suffering.
Confident in her powerful intercession,
through her, we dare to present
our most intimate intentions (…)
and those of all the persons
who confide in her maternal heart (…)
In the name of your Son Jesus
we beseech you to
hear our humble prayers
and grant to your Church
the grace of the Beatification
of your faithful servant Élisabeth Bruyère.
Amen.
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