THE POCKET OF

OUR LADY

SISTER M. PHILIP, C.S.C.

MhLv'.Ch



THE POCKET OF OUR LADY

The little things Our Lady can’t do with-
out; the precious things she wants to save;

and the important things she can put her

hands on at any moment, all these Our Lady

keeps in her pocket. The soft lining is bright

with sunlight and warm with love, and when-
ever Our Lady wishes to make the Child Jesus

especially happy, she reaches down into her

pocket and gives Him one of her treasures.
The lovely things, the special things, the valu-

able things: these are all her patients, old and

young, and her pocket is the Sisters’ Infirm-

ary at Saint Mary’s Convent, Notre Dame,

Indiana.

Each room, each door, each window is

consecrated by a living faith which enables

those who care for Our Lady’s treasures to
guard them tenderly for her. The beautiful

Infirmary Chapel is the center of the unfail-

ing love that hallows the sick. Here the com-

passionate Christ receives the homage of per-

petual adoration. Here the little old blind Sis-

ter kneels, her sightless eyes fixed on Him
Who is the Light. Here the gnarled, arthritic
hands that were once slim and strong and

gifted, now weave far sweeter melodies on the
worn, brown rosary that speaks Our Lady’s

constant presence. Here the Sister who has
spent a lifetime in the kitchens of the commu-
nity guides her wheel chair to a sunny corner

of the chapel where the scent of blossoms

mingles with the sweetness of the Bread of

Life. Here the hospital Sister who has spent
years in the nursery now rests her crutches
beside her as she holds the Child Jesus to her

heart. Here the old missionary from India or

South America still mends the nets of Peter

as the precious beads slip through her feeble,

quivering fingers.

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But some there are who cannot come to

Him. And so the gentle Christ goes to them.

He goes with infinite tenderness to those

whose total dedication has included a sudden

halt in the midst of activity. His compassion-

ate glance strengthens the bedridden: the

aged grade school teacher who, even in her

dreams, is still drilling children in arithmetic

and reading; the former high school or col-

lege administrator whose mail brings ac-

counts of the joys and heartaches, the mar-

riages, and births, and deaths of those whom
she has counseled through the years

;
the in-

firm superior with a heart still young, sweet-

ened by the consecration of years of respon-

sibility and selflessness.

“The chief aim of the Sisters of the Holy

Cross is to study the glorious standard after

which the Congregation is named, and to

become living copies of the Divine Mother

who stood by it on Calvary.” They all remem-
ber it so well — the first rule they had to
study in their new black Rule Books. It
seems like yesterday that they were novices.

The joy has grown with the years, while

youth’s eager enthusiasm has given place to

the deep love inseparable from total conse-
cration to Our Lady and to her Son.

On sunny afternoons in spring, if a Sister
is strong enough, she may go to the Chapel
of Loreto doubly dear with all it holds of

memory. On warm summer mornings or in
the late afternoon she may make her way to
the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and stop to
visit again with old friends now at rest in
God’s green acre, encompassed by the out-
stretched arms of the Christ on Calvary.

One of the Community’s choice blessings
consists of those sweet and gracious patients



in the Sisters’ Infirmary. It is to their prayers

that the Sisters in the hospitals attribute

conversions. It is to their prayers that the

Community attributes some of its greatest
favors.

Visiting the sick is one of the traditional

joys of the members of the Community, who
find an unfailing source of inspiration and

strength in these lives where suffering is no

unwelcome stranger, but is rather Jesus in

disguise.

And the visitors look at the old Sisters a
bit wistfully and marvel at the deep peace

which radiates from eyes still young with

innocence. The words of the psalmist: “I will

go unto the altar of God, to God who giveth
joy to my youth” is for them a basic reality.

For a lifetime they have washed their

hands among the innocent. They have achiev-
ed that spiritual childhood, with all it means

of littleness and dependence. They are the

clean of heart who even now see God. They
are His treasures. That is why He has given
them to His Mother. She guards these pre-

cious souls, losing not a one. They are valu-

able beyond measure, and that is why Our
Lady keeps them in her pocket.

The twenty-ninth of May of the Marian
Year, the date of the canonization of Saint

Pius X, marks the dedication of a beautiful

new convent and infirmary at the Mother-

house of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Here,

through Mother M. Rose Elizabeth, Superior

General and her council, the munificence of

God has provided a home for every Sister

when her time comes to slip into Our Lady’s

pocket. Here she comes home to Mary’s holy

land.