The life of a great missionary!
The one who has just left to return to her Lord, and who brings us together today, was named Marie Marguerite Charlotte Godbout. She was born on August 25, 1937 and baptized on August 27 at Saint Ambroise de Loretteville church in Quebec City. She was the daughter of Ida Clermont and Ernest Godbout, the fifth of eight children. As a child, she had a great admiration for her father.
We know very little about her childhood, apart from one important event that was to mark her life. At the age of 10, she met Jesus, the great Missionary! It was love at first sight and led to the radical gift of herself to the Lord, the great Love of her life, to whom she would always remain faithful! Years later, Sister Marie wrote: "At the age of ten, the Lord's call for me to a missionary vocation was so strong that my decision was definite. After that call, my life was purely and simply a preparation for missionary life. From the age of eleven, I started working and joined the Girl Guides with this intention: to learn how to prepare for missionary life. That is when I really felt the Lord's call to follow him. It was definitive: I would be a missionary nun. I never thought of going back.
At 17, Marie was determined to become an educator. Her first religious experience was with the Sisters of Charity of Saint-Louis, where she began her studies to become a teacher on the elementary level. However, as the charism of this community was one of active life, Marie then opted for the Dominican Missionary Adorers. On June 29, 1957, she met the foundress, Mother Julienne du Rosaire for the first time. She joined the community on July 28, 1957. On February 2 of the following year, she became a novice and was given the name Sister Marie de la Miséricorde. This was followed by temporary profession and perpetual profession on February 2, 1964.
In 1962, Sister Marie received her first missionary assignment as a teacher at the Mgr Robert School for younger children, those who are the favorites of the Heart of Jesus. Very talented, her dedication was remarkable. She never did enough for the little ones. She was also greatly appreciated by the parents. She writes: "I enjoyed a great deal of friendship with the parents, especially the mothers, who gave me their unconditional support in everything I undertook.” She went so far as to devote her vacation time to organizing a playground. These children, now adults, remember... They still talk about Mother Marie de la Miséricorde.
In 1967, her dream of becoming a missionary in a far-off country became true. No need for long speeches to describe this important moment: one must simply look at her work. The day after her arrival in Peru, in the Comas region on October 27, she began teaching in a kindergarten set up in a straw hut, for sixty children. It was with these children that she began learning Spanish.
It was in Peru that this young nun made known her bold, enterprising, and resourceful character. Without prior knowledge of Spanish, she completed her studies to become a teacher in Peru, and then became an engineer, with the aim of building schools
Seeing the overpopulation of children, she invented an out-of-school program. With the help of parents, she built a dozen kindergartens and educational centers in various sectors of the Señor de los Milagros parish, where the community lives, and built another center in La Selva for children whose parents were lepers. In time, the government took over responsibility for these schooling programs.
The pastoral care of the parish of the Señor de los Milagros was very active. It is a huge parish of over eighty thousand (80,000) people, divided into twelve (12) sectors, each with its own center of worship, and each with religious men and women grouped together in a pastoral team to assist the parish priest and provide coordination. Sister Marie who belonged to this parish, was assigned to the Pascana sector. She was fully committed there to building a community complex that included the chapel, a day-care center, a library, a medical center with a classroom for handicapped children.
Sister Marie's last major achievement was the La Fe de Maria (Faith of Mary) school, which over time grew into a large school for kindergarten, primary and secondary levels, and became a highly regarded center. Moreover, in collaboration with the Comas municipality, Sister Marie saw to the development of a park to be used as a recreational center and a venue for important school meetings.
Sister Marie's heart was filled with missionary fire and great trust in Providence. She committed herself without counting the cost, drawing strength from the source of the Eucharist to live her Dominican Missionary Adorer life and to serve like Jesus himself.
Sister Marie was strong-willed, determined, and resourceful. Trials never extinguished her enthusiasm even when illness struck from 1982 on. Our sister never talked about her health. After an operation or treatment, the very next day she was back at work at school. If we asked her how she was? She'd reply: "Everything's fine, Madame la Marquise[1]..." True and authentic, she had to learn little by little, and with some difficulty, to reconcile truth and gentleness. With God's grace and her unfailing courage, she succeeded.
Our sister was a demanding woman, with great poverty for herself, but compassionate, especially for the poor, and totally devoted to those who needed her services. How many anonymous acts of charity Sister Marie performed, secretly recorded in the Heart of her Lord.
January 4, 2010, became a significant day for our ardent missionary, as she reluctantly and definitively left Peru, due to illness that had visited her so often. Despite her state of health, she continued her life of prayer and adoration, and continued her mission during ten years as a receptionist in Quebec, reciting her Rosary for those who confided in her. In the community, she was involved in a thousand and one small services, including plant care, in which she exceled. This is how she lived the gift of herself up to the end.
Even in her illness, Sister Marie was attentive to others, helpful and generous. Those who knew her appreciated her closeness, her warmth, her patience, and her ability to listen. During her last years, our sister especially loved to be close to her natural family, brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, whom she cherished and for whom she had a special place in her heart.
Sister Marie Godbout: une femme profondément missionnaire! An educator, architect and dedicated to serving the very poor! These simple words sum up her life. Missionary in Peru, missionary in Quebec!
Let us thank her once again for the gift of herself, for a life well spent, especially with the Peruvian people, whom she served with such love and devotion for over 40 years. The many testimonials we have received express this eloquently.
May God our Father, who chose our sister Mary, welcome her to his eternal home.
Sister Marlaine Lalancette, o.p.
Prioress General
[1] These are words of a French popular song: “Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise” by Paul Misraki and popularized by Ray Ventura.