Thoughts and Testimonies

Looking at her last photograph, we read in her face a resolute and unbreakable will, her deep and searching eyes, her refined bearing. Yet this will is tempered by a warmth, a goodness that wishes to understand everyone. She joins active zeal with a wise reserve.

Mother Alphonse Marie is a balanced personality; her lively nature drives her to action. Yet she first thought through and examined the consequences of what she did. Once she had come to a conclusion before God, however, she did everything to carry it out, and nothing could hold her back. Her life offers us plenty of examples of her humble obedience to her Lord. She fulfilled his will always and in all circumstances. Towards a goal she saw clearly she went straight.  From childhood she possessed a perseverance that bordered on stubbornness. All her life she struggled with this fault.

Nothing escaped her keen eye, and yet she was cautious in her judgements. Mother Alphonse Marie fought the faults of her daughters very seriously and strictly. But with all her heart she always wished to forgive and to be kind. She was strict, yet she could at once forget what had been done to her. She explained it thus: “I am ready to kiss the feet of a sister who does not excuse herself when she is reproved and does not take offence”. The severity proper to a mother, which was her own, had nothing forbidding about it.

The sisters said of her: “We love our mother especially for her simplicity in thought and in action.” She loved solitude, yet she spoke with people gladly and with joy. This woman, who had such power over people, wished to remain hidden. She possessed a great love of solitude and of silence. Thus she was able to bring her work heroically to completion.

Her character expressed something original. The extraordinary sensitivity of her soul felt every suffering, yet she bore it out of love for the Crucified.
Not even the bitterest accusations could rob her of peace of soul. She let the wise of this world speak, while she herself placed all her trust in God.
Because she had passed through a long and hard school of suffering, she had a delicate understanding of the needs of her neighbours. All visitors left her consoled, thanks to her selfless goodness and especially to the supernatural character of her words.

The gift of reading the soul of another contributed especially to her being a sure guide for many. We know many testimonies of this. For everyone she had the right word and the needed advice. God endowed her with sound sense and certain judgement. Many left her resolved to set out on the right path in life.

God gave her a particular mission concerning priests. They came to her in great numbers. She spoke to them of the greatness and dignity of the priesthood. She prayed a great deal for priests, for the Holy Father and for the diocesan bishop. We see a deep peace on her face. To put it in Saint Paul’s words: she has finished her race.
Her eyes no longer rest on anything earthly; they look beyond all that is material, they look upon another and more beautiful world. These are not tired eyes. In them shines the light of a pure soul.

And the gentle smile? It wishes to tell us: “After enduring many sufferings, I know that now there remain faith, hope and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love!”

Her soul is leaving the body, which for her is now only a transparent shell.
This last image is for us the ripe harvest of a rich life, which Mother Alphonse Marie shaped in wonderful unity according to the goal she had set herself:

“Everything in God, with God and for God, to his greater honour and glory!”

In: Sr Joseph M. Perrin, Mother Alphonse Marie, Elisabeth Eppinger 1814–1867, Foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy Saviour, Alsatia, Colmar 1949.