Memorial Mass for Victoria Brown,EMD
Homily Sr. Dot Trosclair
September 1, 2007
Readings: Revelation 7:13-17
Luke 10:38-42
MARTHA, MARTHA, YOU ARE ANXIOUS ABOUT MANY THINGS. THERE IS NEED OF ONLY ONE THING. MARY HAS CHOSEN THE BETTER PART. (Luke)
How many times we have read and prayed with this gospel, heard homilies and read commentaries about this Martha and Mary passage. Deep within we would all prefer being a little more like Mary and a little less like Martha. Perhaps we even envy the Marys who can simply sit and be attentive to Jesus while the rest of us carry the work of the day. The Mary side of us wonders why the Martha cannot settle down just a bit. Victoria Brown, daughter of Paul and Amilee Brown and Eucharistic Missionary of St. Dominic for 67 years is the best blend of Martha and Mary I have ever known.
Listen to what some of her sisters both EMDS and St. Catharine Dominicans say of her:
Vickie was a woman of fidelity and kindness. She was totally steady in her faith, her religious life and in ministry.
She was quietly patient never criticizing anyone
She listened to the very old, the very young and all those in between
She enjoyed her vegetable and flower garden - especially her precious roses
Vickie was so gently steady, generously giving of her talents for the sake of community as seamstress, cook and gardener
She was a quiet, but welcoming person who touched many lives but never sought the limelight
a salt of the earth woman faithful to the end to her beliefs and commitments
I felt at peace when I was in her presence
At age 11, Vickie had malaria and was taught catechism by Catharine and Margaret, our co-foundresses. It was at this time her heart was stirred to give her life to God; she wanted to serve and pray as she saw Catharine and Margaret Catharine and Margaret minister to others. Vickie throughout her life ministered in many parishes in Arizona, New Mexico and Louisiana. On her missions she taught catechism to children and adults, visited homes, sewed, cooked meals, laughed and cried with families, celebrated baptisms, weddings, funerals, picnics and parties; prepared churches for the celebration of the Eucharist, visited the sick and elderly, brought them to the doctor, cleaned their homes - always with a warm smile and a word of faith and hope. She was a companion to many as they completed their life and entered into the arms of God for all eternity. She could often be found in the chapel and most times had a rosary on her person. One of our Sisters tells this wonderful story.
She was my superior on my first summer mission as a postulant. I learned to drive on an automatic shift car. The novitiate car that I occasionally drove was automatic. Fara, not driving herself, told Mother Margaret that I drove. Vickie had an out of state license. Sr. Maria did not drive. The other postulant, Velda, drove only on country roads and did not feel ready for highway driving or diving out of New Orleans. Well, when I saw the car I protested that I couldn't get us to French Settlement in a stick shift car. Sr. Ann give me a 15 minute lesson and we bucked out way out of the Motherhouse backyard and Sr. Ann saw that when I had to stop for a red light at the next block I killed the motor a few times and bucked around the corner. About three block from the Motherhouse Sr. Ann pulled up beside us and said, "Mother Margaret said for Sr. Victoria to drive and for Sr. Noel to learn during the month to drive back to New Orleans. It was such relief of me. Vickie drove wonderfully but she was so worried that she would be stopped by the police that we said the rosary all the way.
During the month I learned the stick shift. Almost! I really had a smooth touch with shift except on an incline. The law then demanded that when crossing a railroad the car had to stop before crossing the track. Stop just before the track. My problem was that the tracks were almost always on an incline. I could not negotiate the clutch on the incline and kept rolling down the little hill. Rolling down over and over. Finally I would just ignore the stop by the track and go over. Vickie kept encouraging me, coaching me, I kept sliding down the incline. It went on for a month.
The drive back to New Orleans was fun. We packed a picnic lunch and we recounted stories of a really lovely month of summer vacation school in a tiny, poor, community of faith and hospitality.
We were getting close to New Orleans and Vickie said, "Lets say the Rosary. We will be home soon." So we began, "Holy Mary, mother of God..." In the first decade we turned a bend and as the deep green forest fell back I saw it, the Huey P. Long Bridge over the Mississippi River. I had forgotten that we had to travel over the very high; very, very narrow bridge! I said, "Sister Victoria, the bridge!" I can't drive over it!" St. Victoria said, "Hail Mary, full of grace..." Again I tried, "Sister we will slide all the way down that high bridge. I can't!" Vickie said, "Blessed art thou among women". We were there. I knew that I could not slow down. When I slowed down I could not up shift. God help us! I did the only thing I could think of. I gunned the car up the steep incline, weaving in and out of the right and left lane. You understand, I could not slow down. Weaving in and out of the right and left lanes backwards was not an option. I could hear Sr. Maria in the back seat gasping and Velda giggling. When we were at last on good old Louisiana flatland, and the rosary was completed. I said to Vickie, Sister, you started the rosary when you knew we coming to the bridge, didn't you?" In her quiet gentle way Vickie responded, "Yes. I knew that you could do it but you did not. Our Lady helped you."
Vickie served as Martha - she served tirelessly and generously but without complaining; she was also PRESENT like Mary sitting quietly and listening. What a model for us who struggle. She was a contemplative in action. Her service and presence was ONE, there was no dichotomy.
Post Katrina, when our sisters who were in Columbus traveled to St Catharine, Vickie stayed on at Columbus because she was too ill to travel. She was so frightened by being left behind that since that time, she just wanted to go home. For someone who was so quiet and accepting, she was very verbal about being left behind. She came to St Catharine and was loved into being “at home”, but only for awhile. God was inviting her HOME through her difficult illness.
Vickie suffered a lot - probably more than any of us realized both physically and spiritually. We recognized it in her tears - didn’t we. Life was heavy and burdensome. No matter how hard Vickie tried, she could not will herself to health. God was preparing her for her final HOME-COMING. Try as we might we could not make her feel better. We could not bring her the comfort she so desired. We would have loved to dry her tears, to make her comfortable, to take away the pain and fear. She wanted to live - to go home. Those final steps needed to be between Vickie and Jesus. Her final words that any of us heard were: JESUS COME, COME JESUS - In her final moments she was ready for Jesus and Jesus was ready for her.
FOR THIS REASON VICKIE STANDS BEFORE GOD’S THRONE AND WORSHIPS GOD DAY AND NIGHT IN THE TEMPLE. THE ONE WHO SITS ON THE THRONE WILL SHELTER HER. SHE WILL NOT HUNGER OR THIRST ANYMORE, NOR WILL THE SUN OR ANY HEAT STRIKE HER. FOR THE LAMB WHO IS IN THE CENTER OF THE THRONE WILL SHEPHERD HER AND LEAD HER TO SPRINGS OF LIFE-GIVING WATER AND GOD WILL WIPE AWAY EVERY TEAR FROM HER EYES. (Revelation)
Dot Trosclair, OP
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