I only want to know Jesus Christ among you.
Love Jesus Christ, study him, imitate him
and make him known and loved everywhere. ES p. 17-18

Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
He has blessed us and filled us with the blessings of the Spirit,
in heaven, in Christ. Eph 1:3.

Let us never cease to give thanks to the Lord for the blessings received from Him and for the holiness of our Foundress, Saint Marie Rivier.
Let us remember the beautiful words spoken by our Mother Maria dos Anjos Alves at the Canonization:
We are of God, and this gives us the grace, the luminous and humble strength to pursue our path with creativity and boldness. Holiness in the disciples of Jesus is a new fire that the Word of God kindles in them, a seed of transformation and witness according to the Gospel. A life of holiness is our vocation and our mission. This holiness calls us to change our mentality and our attitude in the face of the challenges of our consecrated life at the Presentation of Mary.

This triduum invites us to give thanks to the Lord, but also to pray intensely that we may be filled with the spirit of faith and zeal of Saint Marie Rivier.

Let us walk together in holiness!

1st DAY: PRAYER LIFE
The Spirit of the Presentation of Mary is a wholly interior spirit… C 3
Holiness is in the heart, in purity of intention, which seeks and wants only God. It begins with the spirit of faith and is consumed by divine love, which, by dominating the heart, becomes the principle of everything we do. Letter 14-3
Interior life is nothing other than worship in spirit and in truth, the life of faith lived by the just, life hidden with Jesus Christ in God. VJC, T.3, p. 299
Psalm 33
Word of God: John 15:4-5
Response: God is Love, he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Rule of Life
At the heart of our existence is the mystery of our relationship with God, the mystery of prayer. It is in this inexpressible relationship of faith that our consecration finds its full meaning, and that our essential mission in the Church is realized: the service and the praise of God. In prayer our life finds its joy, the secret of its fullness and fruitfulness. Therefore, we give prayer its full measure in our life. C 50
The life of intimacy with the Father, to which Jesus invites us in the Gospel, and which is nurtured in personal prayer, is the deepest reality of our salvation. To know the Father and the One he sent, to contemplate him and be united to him: this is the eternal vocation of our baptism, the sole purpose for which we were born. This knowledge begins in this life in the bright darkness of faith and is the ultimate goal of prayer. C 65

Reflection
My daughter, I leave you a legacy of the spirit of prayer. Never undertake anything without first calling on God to help you, so as to do nothing except in concert with him, since without him we can only do evil. What good can you do if you are not a daughter of prayer and meditation?
I give you one more thing to do, which will be the continuation of your prayer, and that is to always look at Our Lord in your heart as in a temple, and to cast your eyes on him in everything you do to conform yourself to this divine Model. Saint Marie Rivier
Saint Marie Rivier believed in the fidelity of God’s love, and seized by it, she gave God control of her whole life. She became a living prayer, perpetual adoration, pure desire for the glory of God.

Prayer is a gift of God given to our Mother Rivier for our family and for the Church: how can I preserve this legacy of Marie Rivier in my daily life?

What is the place of prayer in my life?

CANTICLE ANTIPHON:
Mary’s prayer teaches us that all true holiness is the holiness the Spirit accomplishes in us when we let ourselves to be fashioned by him. C 78

Prayer:
God, our Father, you fashioned in Saint Marie Rivier
a heart impassioned for your glory
and for the salvation of the world.
We bless you.
Place in us her ardent love for Jesus Christ,
her faith in the power of prayer,
her apostolic boldness,
her compassion for all suffering.
Grant us, through her intercession,
the grace that we ask of you…. Amen.

2nd DAY: COMMUNITY LIFE
Gathered together by the Holy Spirit through faith in the Risen Christ… C 80

“Let us come together”

These words of Marie Rivier founded the first community, they have survived the centuries. Today we are still together because of Jesus Christ.

Marie Rivier, in founding her institute, wanted first and foremost to create a community: by coming together under a common Rule, the primary aim of the sisters would be to help each other. It is for this very purpose that they take the name of sisters. They are thus warned, at all times, that together they form a single family, whose invisible head is Jesus Christ. Mother Jean Théophane
Psalm 133
Word of God: Acts 4:32-35

A: Together, yes together, we want to make Jesus Christ known and loved.

Rule of Life
Community of life and action is a powerful witness to the Gospel. Like the first Christian community, it makes the Lord’s action present and his love visible. It reveals to the world the mighty hope of the Kingdom. C82
Day by day, our community becomes more deeply rooted in the love of God. Just as Christ loved us, we love our sisters with a love that is humble and strong, considerate and gratuitous, tender and merciful, with a love that judges not and is always ready to excuse, to believe, to hope. C94
Reflection:
The religious community, in its structure, motivations and characteristic values, makes publicly visible and continually perceptible the gift of fraternity given by Christ to the whole Church. It therefore has the indispensable duty and mission of being and appearing as a cell of intense fraternal communion, a sign and stimulus for all the baptized. Pope Francis
Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Phil 2:2-5
All my dear daughters, live in holy union, in great charity: be like Mary, filled with gentleness, goodness and kindness towards one another. Be careful not to say or do anything that would cause the least pain to your companions or to anyone else. May union and charity always be the distinctive character of the house and of the daughters of the Presentation of Mary. Saint Marie Rivier

What is the quality of my presence in my community or family?

What are the small steps I can take on a daily basis to make my community or family life a sign of hope?

CANTICLE ANTIPHON:
As with the Apostles in the Upper Room, Mary draws upon us the Spirit of strength. He alone can make our communities houses of blessing. C 99

Prayer: God, our Father…

3rd DAY: APOSTOLIC LIFE

As long as there is a corner of the world where Jesus Christ is neither known nor loved, the daughters of the Woman Apostle cannot be at rest. C 109
Zeal must devour you if you have a good vocation, for it is the very virtue of our holy state. Marie Rivier

A Sister of the Presentation of Mary, aware of the holiness and grandeur of her vocation, truly animated by the spirit of her state, will experience a secret joy, will feel her strength revived and her zeal inflamed when the time comes for her to proclaim Jesus Christ. REC, p74
Like the Apostles and the early Christians, we too say with all our might: “It is impossible for us to be silent about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20)
Psalm 96
Word of God: Jn 15:12-17
A: Ah, how beautiful are the footsteps of those who bring the Good News

Rule of Life
We cannot stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard. Far from keeping enchained the Word of mercy which we have received from the Father, we announce it boldly so that it may become, through the power of the Spirit, the Good News of salvation for those to whom we are sent. In communion with us to the life of the Father and the Son, in the Spirit, may their joy, like ours, be complete. C101
Our presence to the world is the presence of Jesus Christ. We are deeply attentive to the true needs of our contemporaries. We make their sufferings our own and constantly bring them before God in a prayer of supplication. Respecting our apostolic priorities and the necessary detachments of our vocation, we do all we can to alleviate their physical, moral and spiritual suffering. Consecrated and sent forth, we are, at the heart of the world, the merciful presence of Jesus Christ. C112

Reflection
Our vocation is one of zeal, and we are called, like Jesus Christ, to work for the salvation of souls. Now, since our vocation is the vocation of Jesus Christ, we must have zeal like Jesus Christ, a tireless zeal, a zeal that is constant and sustained, strong and generous, that is not discouraged by the sight of contradictions, setbacks and crosses of every kind. Zeal is therefore the fundamental virtue of our vocation. It embraces perfect faith, consoling hope and ardent, wholehearted charity. Spirit and virtues of M.R. p. 75

Far from yielding to the temptation to close themselves off among the privileged few, the first Christians were drawn by the Lord and the new life He offered to go among the nations and bear witness to what they had seen and heard: the Kingdom of God is near. They did so with the generosity, gratitude and nobility of those who sow knowing that others will eat the fruit of their commitment and sacrifice. Pope Francis
Pope Francis invites us to step out of our comfort zones, to open wide our doors: how do I respond to the Pope’s invitation in my daily life?

Marie Rivier’s zeal for the glory of God was a consuming fire that knew no limits or obstacles. Her paradise was to work for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. For me, what does it mean to be a missionary or to work for the glory of God and the salvation of souls today?

CANTICLE ANTIPHON:
The Virgin Mary teaches us that the greatest apostolic fruitfulness springs from the greatest love. C113

Prayer: God, our Father…

Like Mary, we too can bring proclamations of joy, generate new life full of hope and be artisans of fraternity and peace for our world.

We must be, for all people,
by our holiness
and by all our actions
the open Gospel,
the Gospel explained,
whether we speak,
or whether we walk,
whatever we do,
everything in us must lead
those who see us
to think of Jesus and honor Him.
St. Marie Rivier