The meaning of flowers is a vast and curious subject, but, above all, of great richness. Knowing the meaning of each flower is essential if you want to convey a message through this wonder of nature. Flowers accompany all the highlights of our lives. With their colors, their shapes, and their perfumes they are present in every special event, a birth, a wedding, a birthday, a degree, an anniversary, up to the final farewell. They are a source of joy, beauty, and serenity.

The ROSE is the Marian flower par excellence, capable of keeping secrets. If it is white and without thorns, it indicates that Mary was not touched by sin. If it is red, it shows her love in responding to the Father’s will and her pain before the suffering and death of her Son. The MADONNA LILY represents purity and is associated with figures like Saint Joseph, Saint Gabriel the Archangel, etc. The VIOLET has multiple varieties. Among them is the wild one, little taken into account in gardens, its flowers are not showy. It is necessary to move the foliage to find it hidden, but even if it is hidden, it is revealed by the fragrance of its aroma, representing one of the rarest virtues as appreciated in the following of Christ: humility.

Meditating on the sanctity of our Family, we find in our garden a range of varied and colorful flowers; for example, the MADONNA LILY next to Saint Catherine Labouré or Blessed Lindalva Justo de Oliveira. In our reflection today, let us meditate on BLESSED MARTA WIECKA, one of the many VIOLETS who has perfumed the Church and our Family in these almost four centuries of history. She continues to exhale the Lord’s fragrance in this world in which we live. Today, when the world looks at UKRAINE, she is a reference, and a shining light in the face of the chaos and pain that is experienced in this part of the world. She, more than 100 years after her Easter, continues to perfume the world of the poor in those Ukrainian lands, where she lived her short but fruitful life.

Let us meditate on some facets of her life, which will be a light and a strength for those of us who are in the service of the Lord and the poor.

1. The development of her vocation: Having clarity about the call of the Lord to be a Daughter of Charity, but not being able to enter in Chełmno, she traveled to Krakow, and there she drank from the genuine sources of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac, forming herself for the service of the Lord and the poor. After finishing the Seminary, obedience took her to Lviv, Pidhaitsi, Bochnia, and finally to Sniatyn, today in the territory of Ukraine. There, she was solicitous in the infirmary, but her mission was not limited only to this task. She helped and served with fervor all the needy with prayer, advice, and spiritual direction, etc.

Thus, she spent her short but fruitful years of service to the poor, far from her family, friends, and homeland. She was a fruitful plant that flourished wherever the will of God led her and, everywhere, with her gentle aroma of holiness, she helped the poor and the sick to carry the cross of their suffering, and to face life with joyful hope.

2. Fidelity in the midst of struggles: Not all her vocational pilgrimage was of light, for she soon was tested by slander, and her moral integrity was defamed. In spite of suffering persecution, she endured this slander in silence, abandoning herself into the hands of God, who finally made Sister Marta’s righteousness and holiness shine forth.

Her preparation to follow the Lord as a Daughter of Charity was very solid, for she understood that a true vocation is not exempt from suffering and daily hardships in giving oneself to God. The following of the Lord comes with the victorious entry into Jerusalem, passing through the ignominy of the cross, in order to arrive at the victorious morning of Easter. It is quite possible that, in her daily prayer, she read and meditated on the Word of the Lord, taking, savoring, and interiorizing this text from Sirach 2:1: “My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials.” A fainthearted and cowardly sister would not have endured such a difficult trial.

3. Her faithfulness to the point of heroism: While working in the hospital in Sniatyn, aware of the danger involved, she offered to replace a hospital employee in the disinfection of a room where a sick woman had died of typhus. She did so, in order that the worker who was to do it, whose job was the livelihood of his wife and child, would not be infected. Naturally, she was infected and died serene and confident in the hands of God the Father on 30 May 1904.

In Sister Marta, the words of Our Lord ceased to be romantic: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Thus, she assimilated well the meaning of her life and mission as a Daughter of Charity, of which Saint Paul wisely spoke: “I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your sakes…” (2 Corinthians 12:15).

4. The perfume of holiness that continues to exhale today: How much pain and loneliness were felt before her death, not only by Catholics, but also by the Orthodox, the Jews, and finally by the poor whom she loved and served. Her memory did not fade with the withering of the flowers on her tomb for, in continuous pilgrimage, no one ceased to continue loving her, remembering her, and begging her blessings for their needs.

However, one day Communism arrived, and with the persecution of the Church, the Daughters of Charity had to abandon the poor with pain and tears, but “Mother” Sister Marta, whose memory passed from one generation to another, remained there as a sentinel, taking care of the poor. Nevertheless, one day, the chains of atheism fell, the Church came out of the catacombs, and, with it, the Daughters of Charity returned, having the joy of finding how Sister Marta continued to care for the poor, as she had done 100 years before the end of her earthly pilgrimage.

In this year 2022, “…the mystery of lawlessness is already at work…” (2 Thessalonians 2:7), and how evident it is manifested in these Ukrainian lands, sprinkled with the suffering and struggles of Sister Marta. But how consoling to see that both the Daughters of Charity, the Congregation of the Mission, and various branches of our Vincentian Family are at the foot of the cannon, suffering with the poor, being word, bread, and company for the poor. Naturally, our Family has not left our brothers and sisters alone. It attentively seeks various means to help make the suffering and martyrdom of an entire people more bearable, where, as always, those who suffer most are the poor. Blessed Marta in the first row and behind her our missionaries and sisters come with haste to heal the wounds of the new bleeding Christs of this painful time. Feeling co-responsible to the call of our Family, let us not fail to raise supplications to the Lord with this heartfelt prayer so that soon a stable peace may come:

Prayer of the Vincentian Family for peace in Ukraine

Our Lord and God, you called
Sister Marta Wiecka
to the Company of the Daughters of Charity
to follow your Son
and serve Him in the person of the poor and the sick.
Docile to your call, she followed the path of a Vincentian vocation,
dedicating herself entirely to their service
to the point of giving her life for her neighbor.
We thank you for all
that you have done in the life of your servant.
Lord, through her intercession we ask
that you show us
the power of your love
and grant us the grace
OF AN END TO THE WAR AND THAT PEACE PREVAIL IN UKRAINE.
We ask you this
with humility and trust,
if it is according to Your will.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory be to the Father…
O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to thee!
 

As Saint Paul admonishes us in 2 Corinthians 2:15, let us be today, as Sister Marta was, “the aroma of Christ…” perfuming our suffering world.

Marlio Nasayó Liévano, CM