Category Archives: The Virtues of MAM

Fight Against Sin

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Fight Against Sin

The first expression of that love at the age of four was avoiding sin.
“If that’s a sin, I do not want to do it any more; I do not want to insult God!” At that age, a fight began, which became fierce. She pursues sin in her and around her: “I was so scared of sin that I despised people who swore or committed another sin.” Father Reichard says: “She heard blasphemy and revolts against God; she could not detach herself from those visions. She suffered very much seeing God insulted. She was urged to pray incessantly, sighing, but at the same time, she felt peace in her heart; contentment and childlike trust in God.”  Continue reading →

Prayer as Expression of the Love

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Prayer as Expression of the Love for God and for Jesus Christ   

Elizabeth Eppinger’s passionate love for God is shown above all through the ardor which she had for prayer and the high gift of the prayer. From the age of four, she knew the joy of praying, at the age of seven she prayed a long time with arms out stretched; without neglecting her work, she took every chance to be alone in order to pray. “I felt strongly attracted to inner prayer and to constant and trusting union with God” (12 years old). “I practiced constant conversation with God all day long” (17 years old). Continue reading →

Calm and Serenity

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Calm and Serenity in Difficult Moments

She impressed her surroundings by her calm and serenity in spite of the difficulties and responsibilities of her charge. Various witnesses confirm this. Father Reichard writes: “Her suffering because of her weakness never reduced her ardor and her calm. Nothing disturbs her, nothing can distract her, not even for a few moments. For each matter she asks for God’s help and recommends it to Him as His own affair.” She is serious and dignified. One always notices in her a soft serenity, which attracts and delights. Mother Alphonse Maria says in one of her instructions: “I will carry this heavy burden as God wants me to because I have burdened myself with it only by obedience to His holy will”. Continue reading →

Fortitude

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No Lack of Joy and Perserverance in Difficulties

The Servant of God showed to a heroic degree the virtue of strength. According to the world, she was weak, deprived of all the things which mark the strong and mighty in the world, but she was strong through the strength of God. In her the word of the Apostle was reflected: “I am strong in Him Who strengthens me.”

She drew this virtue of strength from a spirit of faith and her ardent love for God. Thus she became strong in her responsibility. At first she tried to know it well; she took advice. Once she knew the responsibility, she was uncompromising in its accomplishment. As a child, she was aware of how she had to help her parents. Although she had a frail health, she did for them all the small services she could; in the same way she considered it her duty to be instructed in the Christian doctrine, but she had great difficulties and she fought firmly and constantly to discover the “hidden manna”. As an adolescent, she was obliged to work hard in the fields and she did it without neglect. As Foundress and Superior General, she did not let responsibilities or difficulties of any kind get her down.
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Temperance

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 A Firm Decision to Fulfill God’s Will Always and in Everything

The Servant of God practiced the virtue of temperance to a heroic degree. She knew how to keep her senses under strict discipline. The grace of God let her know very early the measures to be taken and perfectly adapting herself to these inspirations, she achieved to let order and harmony reign in her faculties and to show perfect measure in everything.

The main occasion for disorder came from her temper which had a certain violence, a stubborn, obstinate character. From the age of six, she felt that this was the obstacle she had to overcome in order to better find God: “A violent stubbornness seized my soul when I did not get what I wanted, but it did not last long. Immediately I came back to myself; I thought that this was not good, I cried about my faults. I said to myself: ‘Where will I go if I behave like this? I am not to disobey my parents’.”
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