Memorial Day Compassion

 Our troop helped out at the Memorial Day Mass by handing out programs before and flags and carnations for those wishing to decorate grave markers after. Then we had a petal meeting about the virtue of Compassion, St Marianne Cope, and the Corporal Works of Mercy. We took the remainder of the flowers to our cemetery to honor the graves of veterans of our parish and others buried there that were special to us. 

Wreath 5: Lesson 9

Virtue: Compassion Saint: Marianne Cope

Verse: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” -Psalm 103:13

St Marianne Cope(1838-1880) immigrated from Germany to the U.S. and settled in Utica, NY. She dropped out of school at 14 to help support her family and when her father died, she entered the convent of the Sisters of St Francis. She taught other German immigrants about the faith and eventually became the Superior of her convent. She helped found new hospitals. In 1883 the King of Hawaii requested help with the leper community on the island as Fr Damien was dying of the disease. Over 50 other orders had already refused because of the deadliness of the disease. Sr Marianne joyfully said yes and with six sisters, traveled to Molokai and spent the rest of her life caring for people with leprosy. She never contracted the disease. She attended to St Damian as he died. Her feast day is January 23rd. 

“I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen Ones, whose privilege it will be, to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of the poor Islanders. I am not afraid of any disease, hence it will be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned lepers.” -Sr Marianne Cope

Compassion, like sympathy and empathy is about understanding another’s situation. However, compassion is an active virtue that asks us to do something about the suffering of others, to courageously, suffer with the other. The Corporal Works of Mercy focus on what we can do to show compassion to others and help relieve suffering.