THE OLD GIRLS’ JOURNEY WITH ST. MARIE EUGENIE: CHRONICLES OF A WAYFARER
"FINDING SAINT MARIE EUGENIE!" Let's get to know her a bit more. Old Girls around the world, now there's a travelogue that traces our foundress' life through her hometown in Metz to Paris, where she discovered her vocation, founded the Religious of the Assumption and opened her very first school. Be immersed in the world she lived in, the historical events and people that shaped her vision and mission. Read through the beautifully photographed and illustrated pages. Walk down the paths St Eugenie herself walked and embark on this journey of discovery to the very roots of our alma mater's history. Authored by an Old Girl, Maria Lourdes de Vera | HS 1967, dare to understand the vision. "Dare to be holy!"
A SHORT REVIEW: CHRONICLES of a WAYFARER – FINDING SAINT MARIE EUGÉNIE
by DR. ANTON JUAN
Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres
Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite
République Française
Full Professor / Theatre and Film Director & Playwright
Department of Film, Television, and Theatre
Faculty Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Faculty Fellow, Nanovic Institute for European Studies
University of Notre Dame du Lac
The first matter:
Our body memories have changed because of social media. We have forgotten the beauty of a book, a book cover, the magic of opening a book cover, the touch of paper, the smell of a new book, and the heartbeat upon opening the unfamiliar world of the book. CHRONICLES of a WAYFARER is a small travel book that can fit in an outer trench or overcoat or a blazer pocket. It is lovely to hold, its weight light, its cover glazed and smooth. It smells like the wonderful book of our childhood. And true enough, when you, the “Old Girl,” open the book, with only the imagined worlds and spaces that name, SAINTE MARIE EUGÉNIE, had crossed, the Old
Girl” becomes a child, about to discover…
The second:
…in new wonderment. You turn the page. It is a memory after all…of five “old girls.” It is a memory that is shared because the saint’s name and her memory are shared. What the five girls want to share is the experience of the journey.
A journey. A journey is important to man. It is the monomyth of the human being who sets out not knowing what he or she will meet, find, experience, and upon the return to the origin shares that experience and knowledge learned from the journey. It is a legacy…
The third:
…a legacy of a moment, of many moments gathered. Chronicles follows the journey of a Saint, and what is the legacy of a Saint? Ecstasy. ECSTASY is the meeting of man with God, when man rises above the matter offers himself or herself to God. And CHRONICLES precisely follows that path to Ecstasy, the meeting with the Godhead with our vulnerable selves, our matter made of…
The path:
…memory and dust…Dust of light rising as it particularly does in France, which is why the Impressionists loved the moment rising, each particle of light, en plein air, also a particle of memory, and each memory contributing to tell the story. And this is what the five “old girls” are doing in this Journey… Tracking the Journey, and we tracking the memory moving into history.
Memory into History
It is the three faces of this journey, three parts of a transforming spirit: the face of Lorraine, the eastern part of France, where in the historic quarter of Rue des Trinitaires in Metz, the first clue of Saintliness is clear in the memory of a saint – Sacrifice, “a gift of oneself to save those in chains”; the 19th Century Paris of Marie Eugénie where in reflection of her own trajectories, she remembers that “Doubt is the beginning of faith and fear the beginning of love;” and Auteuil, where the power of a political space transforms into the inner space of a Saint’s vision: “Dare to be holy.”
Relevance of the journey:
The book is wonderfully mapped out at every phase of the journey. From the actual geographic maps that are cultural maps and NOT google maps nor wazees, that show you the quaint layout of the towns and cities as old as the Crusades and the Lorraine of ancient roads and significant plots and places, to the pictures of unfamiliar historic palaces and arches, of gargoyles and dragons that shot out to Victor Hugo, of spires and old fountains, precious pictures that are beautiful and carefully and tastefully laid out…And you begin to treasure this little travel book, as you turn page by page, and gather light and golden dust of knowledge and memory. CHRONICLES TAKES YOU INTO A JOURNEY OF A SOUL through historical places and cathedrals, rivers and great bridges of France, that bear meaning in the reflections and stories of Marie Eugénie, significant architectural spaces and works of cultural history that the authors have faithfully researched on and solemnly experienced and shared, visualized in elegant language. The beauty shared in this book is as valuable as a legacy means to you.
It makes you, and me, ”Old Girl” or “Honorary Old Girl,” want to take this same journey in FINDING SAINT MARIE EUGÉNIE, because it is a journey the Saint took in discovering herself through memory and history, through facing realities and injustices, through seeing man’s liberation in goodness and good work for others and sharing knowledge of the good.
I would take the journey, because it will answer many questions; and if not, it will raise many questions in me, about the importance of that vision: Dare to be holy.
I would take the journey, because it will answer many questions; and if not, it will raise many questions in me, about the importance of that vision: Dare to be holy.
Editor’s Note: Proceeds from the sales of this book will benefit Assumption projects.