“Only the love of Christ, the leitmotiv of Philippine’s life, as it must be of ours, can give us the boldness to risk all things to deepen our Cor Unum.”
This quote from Superior General Maria Josefa Bultó about Rose Philippine Duchesne perked up my ears when the Virtual Associate’s Group A studied the booklet An Interior Spirit: Anthology of Writings of the Superiors General of the Society of the Sacred Heart earlier this year. Her use of the musical term “leitmotif” perfectly explains why I admire this resolute, visionary saint who established convents and schools in the frontier Midwest.
Leitmotifs are musical themes tied to a specific person, place, or idea. Most of us can instantly recognize leitmotifs such as the tuba’s two-note “shark” from Jaws, Darth Vader’s menacing “Imperial March,” or the knocking of the Fate Motif in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – bum, bum, bum BUM!
Those with open hearts can hear the Divine’s love leitmotif. The instrumentation might modify over the years but the tune is always recognizable, This unending refrain of Cor Unum creates a link through the ages when people let it play in them and through them.
When others meet someone filled with the love of the Creator Spirit, the love leitmotif is “heard” or “felt” with interior senses and there is an instant knowing and connection. How would the love leitmotif sound if heard by our exterior ears?
The Divine’s love leitmotif called to Philippine
a whimsical French musette piping
it beckoned her to imitate the life of St. John Francis Regis
who put feet to the Creator’s love
caring for and lifting up women on the edges of society
She also offered herself as a servant
tending to the street boys of Grenoble
The Spirit’s love leitmotif called to Philippine
an adventurous John Williams-orchestrated soundtrack
charging over the mercurial Atlantic Ocean waves
up the murky Mississippi to Missouri
With radical surrender, she trusted in the Source of All Being to guide her steps
organizing, launching, developing, supervising
wrestling with imposter syndrome but
not a failure – a foundress
cultivating her legacy of the Sacred Heart Network of Schools
Kitthe Mnedo’s love leitmotif called to Philippine
a Native American wood flute’s melancholy pentatonic tune
keening through the sugar maples
In the russet-amber- autumn of her life
finally allowed to work in the ministry she had foreseen
so many ideas – so much to do!
The Great Spirit who walked
before them, behind them, beside them, within them
had accompanied the Potawatomi Nation
herded along the Trail of Death to Sugar Creek, Kansas
their dignity denied, powerless and voiceless
Philippine lived among the grieving Neshnabek
suffering cold and constant illness
feeling old, underfoot, utterly useless
and the most bitter disappointment of all
unable to learn the Potawatomi language
The Beloved’s love leitmotif called to Philippine
silent music and sonorous solitude
hour upon hour knelt in prayer
journeying deeper into the love of the Ineffable
closer and closer into the Presence
The Maker’s love leitmotif played through Philippine
dulcimer strings softly strumming an ethereal folk refrain
The Potawatomi recognized and welcomed
the Source of Life’s compassionate care
flowing through the conduit
of this Madame of the Sacred Heart
Quah-Kah-Ka- Num-ad
Hugging them close in a coverlet of love
Do you hear the Composer’s love leitmotif?
Heart of the World
leading us all
into a widening circle of compassion
we step together
closer to the margins
erasing the margins
Kitthe Mnedo – Creator or Great Spirit
Neshnabek – original people
Quah-Kah-Ka- Num-ad – the woman who prays always
RSCJ Update: Society of the Sacred Heart, United States – Canada Province. November 2024, Volume 469, p. 3-4.