Rose Phillipine Duchusne came to the USA from France at the end of the 1700s. She landed in Louisiana and, deciding to be a missionary headed for Missouri where she founded two orphanages and a convent in a log cabin. She endured terrible poverty, the harsh winters, and then decided to start a mission to the native Americans. After wearing herself out in mission she retired and spent the last ten years of her life as a virtual hermit–living in a simple shack.

The heroism of these people! Imagine any of us enduring even a sliver of the hardship they took for granted as a soldier of Christ. I am convinced that the saints endure this great hardship out of love for Christ and in a spirit of great joy. I have met one or two people serving God like this, and I see in their eyes a supernatural radiance.

They are human beings fully alive, and as St Irenaeus says, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”