She felt called to do something new for Jesus when she was very young. She told her family that she was not going to get married because God wanted her for Himself, and wanted her to do something new. She worked and took care of the poor for years, waiting for Him to show her the new thing He wanted her to do.
Finally, when she was 47, she found out what it was. She started a new religious order that took care of poor elderly people. After founding the order, she found out that a priest was being assigned to help with her new order. He came and basically pushed her into obscurity. Many of the sisters who joined the order and worked with it for years didn't even know that Jeanne Jugan had founded it. She passed away years later, with most people unaware of the great good she had done.
Do you ever feel like what you're doing is going unnoticed? Maybe God is calling you, like He called Jeanne, and like He called me, to work in the background. To avoid the limelight and to do things that don't take center stage. Just seek His face, and He'll show you what He wants you to do - just like He did with Jeanne Jugan.
God, thanks for this reminder and this inspiration. St Jeanne Jugan, pray for us.
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