By our baptism, every name has a spiritual message, which defines our character and our humanity. Dear friends, Gaetane wore, during all her life on earth, a prophetic name. A name that has always perfectly defined her as a humanitarian and an engaged religious. Using the spiritual alphabet, let us examine the characteristic features of this woman whom we have all appreciated and loved.

 

G: gives us the qualifier of Generous. Gaetane has always been a very generous person in prayer, charity in time and in friendship. This is in fact a virtue which defines her very well and which will remain in the memory of our hearts during all our life. Close to her generosity, Gaetane has this twin virtue which we all know Gaiety. Her cheerfulness, her gaiety, her joy of life, indeed enriches her sister, Generosity.

 

A: the letter ‘A’ comes to give access to a beautiful Marian feast Annunciation. It is at this glorious feast that the Virgin Mary gave her unconditional “Yes” to God. In return, God gave her the highest title ever heard in the world “THEOTOKOS”, (Mother of God)! Inspired by the Virgin Mary, Gaetane chose to say Yes to God in a Marian religious community - The Marist Sisters.

 

E: the letter ‘E’ of Gaetane takes us directly to her great love for “the children of God” and her ministry in Education. The presence of children, teachers and parents at this liturgy of the Resurrection Mass of our Sister Gaetane, confirms the success of her service among the little ones. Like Jesus, Gaetane lived throughout her life on earth this prophetic sentence “let the small children come to me”.

 

T: the ‘t’ represents the passion and the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In her life, Gaetane had experienced disappointments, illness, suffering… but she had always carried her cross in silence, with courage, faith and strength. Gaetane understood very early that death is the source of life and peace.

 

A: the second ‘A’ represents the mother of Mary and the grand-mother of Jesus, the Good saint Anne. When she was a young girl, Gaetane lived in Siegas, a little village in Madawaska, attached to the parish and the village of Saint Anne. It’s there that she met the Marist Sisters and became later on teacher and Marist Sister in the school’s village. She kept connected to the family farm of the region of Saint Anne and had a special devotion to the holy mother of the Virgin Mary. When she retired, she lived in the hostel Saint Anne, ancient convent of the Marist Sisters, which is just near the village’ church of Saint Anne.

 

N: The letter ‘N’ leads us to the Nativity of the first Christian family of Jesus-Mary-Joseph in Bethlehem. Like the Nativity, Gaetane was always attached to her family composed by Jim Mazerolle, Ida Martin and seventeen children! The unity of the family was always very important for Gaetane. She managed to keep in contact through prayers, friendship and love with all her brothers and sisters. She had a particular relationship with Sister Ghislaine, her blood sister as well as her sister in community. Gaetane and Ghislaine had shared a long journey together. Yes, the image of the family cell, as it is visualized by the Nativity scene, will remain a strong image for our friend, Gaetane.

 

E: this lovely letter will lead our dear Gaetane into the Eternity of God’s Kingdom! Alleluia! This is her recompense in heaven, for having lived on earth a life of love of God and love of neighbour. In the valley of Haut-St-Jean’s river, in her country Acadie, from Gatineau to Cap-Rouge, to Québec and up to Sénégal in Africa, Sister Gaetane never stopped to spread the Good News of Christ!

 

Yes, this great knitter had finished her artistic masterpiece for the Good Lord!  Quoting her, this is her great project of knitting, here on earth: 

 

“Life is like knitting. God gives you the wool and the needles.
He says to you: Knit as you can, one stitch at a time…there are loosed stitches, but we can do them again.
What an amount of loosed stitches!

The wool that the Good Lord gives us can knit our existence.
It has all the colours: pink, like our happy days; black like our pains; red like our love, our affections;
blue like our desires; grey like our doubts, white like our faith in God, green like our hope.

How many stitches will our life have? Only God knows!

Father, give me the courage to finish my knitting!

So that, you will find it worthy for the eternal exhibition of the work of human beings.”

 

Among the great knitters we have met are: mum Ida Martin, grandmother Martin and my aunts, mum’s sisters…