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In The Footsteps Of The Suffering Christ
The picture at the foot of the bed seemed to come alive to the sick sister who stared at the wall where it hung. The head of Christ, wrapped in thorns, reflected with vivid lines His agony and pain. Mother Thecla loved the picture. She hoisted herself up to a semi-sitting position and thought: "I have worked all my life. Now God is asking me to suffer. Together with action, suffering is needed because Jesus Himself first worked and then suffered in life. I want to follow You, Jesus," she whispered softly to the picture on the wall. "I want to imitate You. Now to what little work I have done I add suffering. As a religious I gave myself to You. Now would I refuse to follow You to Calvary?"
"How do you feel, Mother?" the sister-nurse asked anxiously.
"As Jesus wants," came the reply. "We are all in God's hands."
Just before noon Mother Ignatius, her Vicar, went to the sickroom to say that she had to go to the airport and would be out for a few hours. Then she walked to the door and turned to see the Mother General gesturing her back. Sister stopped. An unusual feeling seemed to speed through her veins. Her feet moved almost mechanically back to the bedside of her foundress. She instinctively bent over and Mother Thecla, slowly, deliberately, traced with her thumb a cross on sister's forehead. Then, she embraced and kissed the sister who would become the second Mother General o the Daughters of St. Paul. With these gestures she handed over a Congregation of women religious, numbering two thousand, in twenty-eight nations to Mother Ignatius Balla, the sister of her choice. Everything was complete.
At 12:30 A.M. her agony began.
Yes is Forever, by the Daughters of St. Paul, Copyright © 1981, Daughters of St. Paul. |
February 5, 1964 dawned grey and cold. The morning passed. Father Alberione came to visit Mother Thecla briefly to bless and encourage her.