Opening celebration of the 125th anniversary May 1st, 2002

Message of Sister Denise La Barre, general superior
Testimony of Mrs. Carole Dubeau, professor
Testimony of Mrs. Carole Dion, lay associate

We do not give ourselves roots; we just have them. This 125^th celebration allows us to identify our roots and to name them, roots that were there long ago and are still bearing fruit. On this Wednesday, May 1st, feast of the humble and great saint Joseph, we turn to him to interpret our pilgrim experience as «sisters of Joseph».

Joseph : man of faith
From the beginning, Good Bishop Moreau entrusted our newborn Congregation to Saint Joseph. Allow me to use his language, "We have given you as father and special protector of your Institute the blessed patriarch saint Joseph (...) We wanted to propose him as the most accomplished model of adherence to the divine will. (...)  You will then always consider it a duty to keep in mind this excellent model and to imitate him as closely as possible in his obedience to the will of God." (Pastoral letter of Bishop Moreau)

Indeed, without fully understanding God's mysterious plan, Joseph accepted it in faith, renouncing his personal project and making God's project his own.

Similarly, Élisabeth Bergeron, though drawn to the contemplative life, saw as the will of God her Bishop's plan to establish a new Order of Sisters who would become a steady teaching body for the intellectual, moral, and religious formation of children in the rural schools of his diocese. Conscious of her weakness and inaptitude, she consented to being the humble and available instrument to inaugurate this work.

A rereading of our past allows us to make similar observations. We have no primary schools. We are active in the public sector and at the parish level. We are a domestic Church, close and accessible to the people among whom we live, ready to share tasks and responsibilities. We try to reveal a God who is close to every human being.

Joseph, man of Fiat
Is it not the mission of Joseph to allow God to be born on our earth? His "yes" was essential to the Incarnation.

Man of Fiat, his role is not front stage, but is nevertheless indispensable.

Founded initially to respond to the needs of the diocese, we respond to surprising appeals in spite of limited numbers and restricted financial means. A mere 24 years after the founding, some members were en route for the Canadian West to Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In all, three hundred Sisters took an active part in education in some thirty schools in the Western region. In 1926, we crossed the American border. In 1938, four intrepid missionaries traveled by boat, by train, and on horseback to the interior mountains of Lesotho (Basutoland) in South Africa in order to take charge of a school, a dispensary, and a noviciate where five young girls already aspired to the religious life. In 1958, our Sisters arrived in North East Brazil. In close collaboration with the diocese of St. Hyacinthe, which was then in charge of Cururupu, our Sisters implanted there the spirit and charism of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Saint-Hyacinthe.

In the 70's, we were present in 72 parishes of the Saint-Hyacinthe diocese as well as in the dioceses of Saint-Jean Longueuil, Sherbrooke, Baie-Comeau, Rouyn-Noranda, and Nicolet.
In 1970, we settled in Senegal in order to provide education to the youth of the region and to help a native religious community in the initial formation of its members. In 1990, we undertook the establishment of a primary school at Abricots, Haïti. It is located at the tip of the island. The road is barely suitable for motor vehicles. At times, it is necessary to walk across a swollen river. A new school had remained empty for the past ten years. This prompted an old man to say at the arrival of the Sisters, "I can die in peace, I have seen the Sisters in Abricots."
In 1994, we experienced the daring faith of those "confident in Providence" who traveled to Moundou, Chad. There we assumed the direction of a Catholic college in the midst of a Muslim milieu where we have a local community consisting of three Sisters: a Brazilian, a Manitoban, and a Quebecker.

Joseph, man of fidelity
One does not start off an adventure. One begins little by little and is always drawn farther than foreseen. In the footsteps of Joseph, who could be the patron of the hidden, the surprising, the unexpected, we have trod ill-defined paths, putting up with ambiguity and risking uncertain paths.

Attuned to the Spirit, Joseph could interpret his dreams and venture on a path that appeared a dead end and impossibility from a human point of view. He discerned that he could dispense with the law of repudiation and the opinion of others in order to be faithful to his mission.

Joseph, legal father of Jesus, taught the Son of God how to pray. He taught the Creator of the Universe how to work. He was the protector of He who was the Providence of the world. Humble servant of those near to him, silent, Joseph the just, is the man of that faith which wins over doubt, over incomprehension, over darkness. He is a man of tenderness towards Jesus and Mary.

As Joseph, through discernment, we choose those calls that are in line with our raison to be as educators and we strive, like him, to be present to those with whom we live.

When our mission is accomplished, we leave and pass our project on to others. In Senegal, in Haïti, at Saint Joseph Secondary School, in the many parishes where we worked, others continue, develop, and enrich the initial project. Thus life is transmitted.

And today?

Where is life leading us today?
Even though, from a human point of view, our future is rather hazy, yet, like Joseph, we journey with strong faith and stubborn hope. In spite of obstacles, we trust in the God that "none has ever seen" and we strive to "catch" the voice of the angel.

Our pilgrim experiences make us "travel light" daily, searching for what is essential and finding in a simple life the source of lasting happiness. Common sense, human analyses, probability theories, the most absurd failures do not prevent the believer from carrying on.

He who created all things can still and always will make all things new, accomplish unknown marvels. He can make life spring in barren wombs, make deserts bloom, make dry bones to rise and be reborn (Ez. 37) to a new life.

Today still, as on the first day of our founding, we are always ?deeply moved by the cry of the prophet Jeremiah: "The children cry for food but there is no one to give it to them." (Lam. 4,4)

Mrs. Carole Dubeau
Teacher at Saint Joseph Secondary School of St. Hyacinthe

Mrs. Carole Dion
Lay associate to the sisters of Saint Joseph

Newspaper article in Le Courrier de St-Hyacinthe

Slide Show (be patient) only in French