Remembering Mother Pauline's Final Vow Day

As you may know, the Sisters of Christian Charity have been preparing for the commemoration of the 200th birthday of our Founder, Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt (June 3, 1817 - April 30, 1881).  There are other commemorations that happen along the way, too.  For example, today -- the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel --  is the 150th anniversary of Mother Pauline's final vow day.  On the occasion of the first final profession in the Congregation in 1866, Bishop Conrad Martin said the following, which bears repetition and reflection today.  This is why and how we do what we do:

Speak then in the simplicity of your hearts:  “O great and almighty God!  Lord of heaven and earth!  From you I have received all that I am and all that I have, and I can give to you  nothing in return, O Lord, but what I have received from you;  but just this, O great God, is your boundless mercy, your goodness and love, that you will graciously accept from me what necessarily belongs to you as a voluntary gift, as a sacrifice, so that you can reward me therefore most magnanimously.  Behold, O Lord, with the greatest joy and willingness I offer you all that I am and all that I have for now and for all eternity.  I offer you every possible and every probable part that Ι might possess of the things of this earth, her goods, her honors, her pleasures;  I offer you also the part, which I may legitimately have.  My purpose for offering this to you is, that I might be like unto you, my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who although you are the Master of heaven and earth, have chosen poverty as your Bride and have voluntarily preferred pains and sufferings to the glory and magnificence of this world.  I offer to you and sacrifice to you my body with all its members, so that, in a small measure, at least, I might be like unto my Savior, Who sacrificed His tender and pure Body as a holocaust for me on the Tree of the Cross.  I sacrifice to you, O Lord, my soul with all its powers, especially my heart and my will in imitation of you, O my Savior.  You came on this poor earth to serve and not to be served;  You were obedient not only to your heavenly Father, but to human beings also and even to poor, sinful mortals, yea, even to the greatest criminals, and this unto your death upon the Cross.  All this, O Lord, I offer you now and forever, as I would in the face of death and in the presence of all angels and saints in heaven.  I unite this my offering with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, so that it maybe pleasing and acceptable to the heavenly Father."