I am Solemnly Floored by Sr. Gisele's Strength and Endurance.

3/16/10

I am solemnly floored by Sr. Gisele's strength and endurance.  She rarely comes home after Mass to get breakfast.  It is not unusual for her to go straight from Mass to her office and remain there till the school day is finished, and then some.  She does not eat, and she doesn't get much sleep either.  I don't understand how she lives.  But she does it, day after day.  

Today was one such day.  It is now 4:30pm and she is just now sitting down to her only meal that she's had today.  And it doesn't really show.  She still talks, smiles, encourages students, walks here and there with a normal pace.  It is simply her devotion to her vocation and a God-given strength that keeps her going.  Joselyne has properly called it "the spirit of Mary Mazzarello" that continues to propel her forward.  She says that she forgets her stomach when she has lots of work to do. 

Actually today I was blessed with an unnatural strength too.  Maybe she is just so used to it that she has that unnatural strength every day.  For me, I had to prepare our tea after Mass.  It takes me much longer than it does anyone else, and I don't know why.  So, I didn't sit down to eat anything, and I hurried over to school but the Mot du Matin had just finished.  Well, I expected that I could go back to the house and eat in peace and then catch up on cleaning and laundry, as well as continue my book cataloging in the secretariat.  Well, Innocent, our new cuisine teacher, called to say that he'd be coming late.  He taught 3 hours of cuisine in 3eme hotellerie.  Thankfully it was 3eme, they're the best class.  

So I had to run back the house and get my English stuff, because we couldn't find his cuisine notes.  Plus, even if he had left them, would they really have taken 3 hours of notes???  I think/hope not.  But I wouldn't put it past us to expect them to simply "debrouillez-vous" ("you'll manage.")  I grabbed one piece of bread and a slice of cheese.  And actually I was not weak or hungry at all the entire morning.  Even at 12:30 when I came to eat some lunch, I was not starving, as I expected to be.  

So, perhaps Sr. Gisele's physiology has evolved to be like mine today, all the time.  Or perhaps that miraculous change is the spirit of Mary Mazzarello.  Only God knows.  But I will always be humbly reminded of the people who truly work for the glory of God, enduring all kinds of suffering and not letting the world know about it. 

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