As part of the Poitiers 2026 Session, which is bringing together 29 sisters and brothers of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Picpus these days, we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Peace with an opening talk by María del Mar Pérez sscc titled "Mary, consecrated woman, disciple and sister."
The talk traced Mary's presence in the charismatic origins of the Congregation, in the Constitutions of the Brothers and Sisters, and in the daily living out of the three religious vows.
Marian devotion in the founders
María del Mar recalled that for both the Good Father Coudrin and the Good Mother Aymer de la Chevalerie, Mary is inseparably united to Jesus, a union symbolized in the emblem of the two Hearts. In the Good Father this dimension was expressed above all as intercession: even as a young man he asked his father to persevere in doing good "through the intercession of so effective a Mother," and years later he pressed the Holy See to include Marian feasts specific to the Congregation, moved—in his own words—by "a great devotion to the Queen of virgins, to whom we owe so many things."
Mary also accompanied the birth of the Congregation's missionary adventure to the Sandwich Islands, when the Good Father asked the whole religious family to pray a Hail Mary every night "until we receive news that our missionaries have arrived."
In the Good Mother, on the other hand, the relationship with Mary is marked by humility and predilection: Henriette discovers in her the model for "letting herself be loved" by God despite a sense of smallness and unworthiness, and finds there the strength to sustain her sisters in difficult moments.
Mary in the Constitutions
The talk highlighted six Marian traits present in both Constitutions—where Mary's name appears in 10 of the 153 articles for Brothers and in 16 of the 170 for Sisters: companion on the journey, woman of the Gospels, disciple and follower, woman attentive to others, woman of her people, and woman of wisdom, capable of "savoring" life and discerning in interior silence.
It was also noted how each of the three vows—chastity, poverty, and obedience—finds in Mary a concrete reference in both constitutional texts, from her "Let it be done to me according to your word" to her condition as "poor one of Yahweh" sung in the Magnificat.
Hearts united
The talk concluded by recalling that the union of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the foundation of sscc consecration according to article 2 of the Constitutions, is also reflected in the founding charism itself: a man and a woman, the Good Father and the Good Mother, united to give life to one same religious family.
After María del Mar's talk, several workshops took place.
Video message from María del Mar alongside the Our Lady of Peace:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2237996743620824
07/09/2026