SELECTED SAYINGS OF MOTHER MARY CHARLES MAGDALEN WALKER

1. No work is of greater importance for God’s glory than the education of the young.
2. …I want to take hold of great multitude of our girls, and ground them in the elements of Christianity and civilized womanhood.
3. Those who form the character of the children form the character of the nation.
4. It is in the school that we must get a hold on the children and bring them within the influence of grace.
5. It is wonderful to look back and trace the workings of Providence.
6. After all that God has done in the past, I can have no fear of the future.
7. I have received far, far more than the hundredfold of consolation, and can never thank God enough.
8. Do you ever wonder why God specially loves you?
9. May Our Lord help you and not allow what awaits you to be too difficult.
10. Christ is the Solution of all my difficulties.
11. God can smooth things out and repair injuries done in ways which we cannot think of.
12. I feel that light and help come just at each step when they are actually needed, and not a bit sooner.
13. There is no use giving your orange tree, if you are not prepared to give also the fruits.
14. I must put all personal feelings aside now and consider the work for souls.
15. The work of God must be done at all cost no matter the inconveniences.
16. By doing what I believe God asks of me, I shall lose most of my friends.
17. God is certainly helping our efforts even though we often seem to be stumbling blindly in the dark.
18. The work which God has given us to do is of a supernatural kind and needs a supernatural help.
19. I will go ahead as long as I can, trusting in Divine Providence.
20. God is sending us so many blessings.
21. It is only prayers that is keeping the work going.
22. Prayer can do all things, and there is a very possible way for all difficulties to be done away with.
23. The answer to our prayers will come in God’s time, but come it will, I am sure.
24. Only prayers can win the favours I want.
25. My desire to work and die on the Foreign Mission is as great today as when I sent my petition to the Holy Father in 1922.
26. If we wish to learn to live with Jesus and at the same time to work for Jesus, His Mother must be our model and our guide.
27. Close union and constant recourse to our Lord will help you.
28. I am more than ever convinced that we must lead altogether supernatural lives if we really want to make true Christians of the women and girls.
29. To desire only to please God, to fear only to disappoint Him, means perfect peace.
30. Only the best is good enough for God, no matter the inconveniences.
31. God knows all the needs of His children in Africa and He loves them infinitely more than I do.
32. God is sending us, so many blessings.
33. Be docile to thine Unseen Guide,
    Love him as He loves thee:
    Time and obedience are enough
    And thou a saint shall be.
34. It is God’s will, I have done all I can, I am satisfied and in peace.
35. No man ever guarded and cherished and cared for the woman he loves as He will cherish and watch over you if you live only for Him and abandon yourself with perfect trust to His care.
36. I have received, far, far more than a hundred-fold of consolations and can never thank God enough.
37. God works in a special way through those consecrated and united to Him.
38. After all that God has done in the past, I can have no fear of the future.
39. They are children to be taught and trained in the love of God, for the purpose for which life was given-to love God and neighbour – to live as children of God.
40. It is wonderful to look back and trace the workings of Providence.
41. There are souls to be saved, pagans to bring to the knowledge of God-the few who had a little knowledge of God, need to be helped to deepen it.
42. O Prince of Peace! O Word of God! Let there be quiet in my soul when in prayer.
43. If the Caritas Christi has really gripped the soul, its urging to apostolic labours will at once be felt.
44. We want each child to keep true to God all through life’s allurements, dangers and sorrows.
45. I love the people old and young. Human nature is the same everywhere and kindness opens the heart of all.
46. I must leave all to God and wait and pray.
47. We have an enormous opportunity of guiding and forming the character of the young generation and so determining the form of civilization that is coming so quickly to them.
48. There is good in the girls, but we need to go slowly and to lay deep foundation.
49. I cannot take back the consecration I have made of my life to the Missions.
50. Pray for one another, help one another. And intensify your spirit of service and sacrifice wherever you are and in whatever you do.
51. We certainly do not understand what God is doing but He knows. “Be still and know that I am God.” This is my greatest source of help.
52. Our share in His shame and humiliation will generally be in looking foolish and feeling foolish in the little things of daily life.
53. No one can do enough for God.
54. All our works of Charity and Zeal have for their ultimate object, the drawing of souls to God.
55. I am confident that God will give me the necessary help and grace to carry on.
56. Every time I hear the clock strike, I pray for all the members of the Congregation both living and dead.
57. One of the most striking things about my girls is that they are so business-like and capable all-round.
58. Lay Thy Hand upon my troubled soul, say to its passions, its cares, its restless desires, “Peace be still”, that in the stillness, I may hear what and how my God wouldst speak to me.
59. We must be the mainsprings and guides of the work until such a time as the Natives can do without us.
60. Nothing else matters, only souls!
61. Every one of us is poor in the sense that we all depend on others for help in sickness, guidance of one kind or another and education, to mention but a few of our common needs.
62. It is the casual and accidental difficulties of life that test character.
63. Every religious, in fact, every Christian, has something to give up.
64. I had to pray earnestly to God, that if this work is for Him and is to continue after my death, He has to inspire Nigerian Girls to the religious life.
65. Suffering and death level all ranks, and bring all within the scope of Charity.
66. True politeness and true charity both consist in trying to put people at their ease, and in sparing inconvenience, discomfort or pain.
67. But God is above all, and over all, as I well know if I die today with my work only begun, it will be worthwhile.
68. When our dear ones go, it certainly lifts our hearts from earth, but then, what a happy welcome from our Lord.
69. All who share in Apostolic work must in their degree fill up in themselves those things which are wanting to the sufferings of Christ.
70. What is this for eternity? The darker the night, the nearer the dawn.
71. A certain amount of suffering there must be, it is the price of the true success of the work, “the filling up of those things that are wanting to the passion of Christ.”
72. But all these misunderstandings and sorrows are part of the price for souls. Nothing matters but souls.
73. I consecrated my life to the Missions and if I may no longer work actively, I will try to fulfil my Intention by praying for them.
74. The darkest hour is before the dawn.
75. My hope has always been to have many Convents of Native Sisters scattered throughout the Country.
76. Penance and mortification are not only for religious but also for all Christians. Penance and Mortification, strengthen one’s character.
77. God has given me the grace to fit into culture and people and so I am sent by Him.
78. Children keep happy, work hard, be your brother’s keeper in the loving Fatherly care of God and His Blessed Mother.
79. I must put all personal feelings aside now, and only consider the work for souls.
80. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, the work of God must be done at all cost.
81. Our great want is prayers. Prayer alone can do the work that has to be done here.
82. Your success will depend on your ready acceptance of the will of God in every event.
83. We go to prayer to please God, not to please ourselves.
84. To be able to hear the voice of our Lord, listening to Him attentively in prayer, you need silence and recollection.
85. You should accept every order and appointment with the same expression of our Lady: Behold the Handmaid of the Lord.
86. Our Lady should be your first Patron Saint because Jesus cannot be found without His Mother.
87. Make the saying of the Rosary your special devotion.
88. I love every inch of the ground and everyone in it; I love and respect them.
89. Every step of my life God has led and I have followed.
90. I have received far, far more than a hundred-fold of consolations, and can never thank God enough.
91. MAKE EVERY ACTION A PRAYER so that all you do and say will be blessed by Him.
92. God has blessed the work beyond all hopes. Thanks be to Him.
93. Your life and action all through the day should reflect His Presence in you.
94. Solid Christian teaching can be given only in a truly Christian home, by a Christian mother.
95. Lord, thy will be done not mine.
96. He began everything with prayer and ended with a prayer of thanksgiving for having fulfilled that particular will of His Father.
97. In spite of the devil’s opposition, the work is keenly absorbing; in fact that opposition only arouses new zeal.
98. It was always His Father’s Will, not His own.
99. And because He had His Father’s will always in His mind that made it easier for Him to meet every situation.
100. Our Lord’s own Penance and mortification was detachment.
101. Have special devotion to the passion of our Lord which will be strength and courage in your service of God.
102. Every teacher is a Catechist and an Apostle.
103. Work together in mutual help.
104. God is certainly helping our efforts even though we often seem to be stumbling blindly in the dark.
105. Love one another, where there is love, there God abides.
106. I am perfectly satisfied that things are arranged as God wills.
107. In heaven we shall all understand each other’s motives and actions.
108. And love is the answer.
109. Love one another, pray together, help one another work together. We do not go to heaven alone.
110. God can do all things.
111. Teach them (the children) to speak the truth, to be honest in speech and behaviour, even if they have to suffer for it.
112. Be constant in training children in what is right, what will help them to be good citizens of their nation, to be good Christians, God fearing, God loving, at all times.
113. God can smooth things out and repair injuries done in ways we cannot think of.
114. God works in a special way through those consecrated and united to Him.
115. Be your brother’s keeper…
116. In form, the education must be about 50% literary and 50% practical training.
117. Montessori is different from kindergarten, it develops different qualities in children.
118. You cannot give to people what you haven’t got.
119. Even our mistakes He does not allow to do injury.
120. Only prayers can win the favours I want….PRAY, PRAY, PRAY,
121. It is only prayers that is keeping the work going and I pray daily for you and the Congregation.
122. Amidst the songs of Angels Mary is listening for the whispered prayer of the least of her children.
123. Anybody under whom you are working, you have to obey.
124. Pray, Pray, Pray, the work of God must be done at all cost, no matter the inconveniences.
125. Obedience is the most essential of the religious vows. Through it every action of ours is brought in conformity with the will of God.
126. You cannot give away an orange tree and continue to pick it fruits.
127. Poverty will prevent you ever again being independent owner of anything, and you must use according to the direction of superiors what is entrusted to you for yourself or for your work.
128. By the vow of chastity, you will live, even in this place of exile, as angels live in heaven. You will enjoy the beatitude promised to pure hearts, that of seeing God and enjoying His sweetness in communion and prayer.
129. Take notice of your sister and tell her if you notice anything that is not right about her.
130. Our Lady is to be your inseparable companion.
131. If you are a child of Mary, you must imitate your Mother in every way. She was humble, obedient faithful to her work, trustworthy.
132. To really know that we love God is shown in the love and care we have for one another.
133. You must live as children of the same parents being kind and generous to each other.
134. Show special love to children who are the future of the Church in Africa.
135. You have all my prayers.
136. Intensify your spirit of service and sacrifice in whatever you do.
137. Mary went into the home of Elizabeth, she offered the usual loving greetings, and her days passed in ordinary and simple actions, yet at her mere presence a mighty tide of grace broke upon the inmates of that home.
138. Having given yourself (to God) you need to intensify your prayers and your offering.
139. With the giving of yourself, your heart, your mind and will, you give up also any other material things.
140. If you stood before our Holy Father you would not give much thought to the presence of his Noble Guard.
141. You will need to visit Him often in the Blessed Sacrament.
142. God calls some to religion early in life, others later.
143. Pray to Him, especially, the PRAYER FOR GENEROSITY that’s what you will need most in the life of love and service of your people.
144. It is lonely without the Blessed Sacrament.
145. The Holy Eucharist is the food of our souls. It helps the soul to live just as material food helps the body to live.
146. Visit and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a must for a Religious and an opportunity to advance in her relationship with our Lord.
147. At Holy Communion ask for courage and faith to meet any event, especially that He accepts the offering of your poor self and to help you overcome all those things that could be a hindrance and to acquire those virtues that you need for perseverance.
148. I have great devotion to Divine Providence and I say the Litany several times in the day when difficulties come.
149. All my trust is in Sacred Heart.
150. Praise be to Divine Providence ever conformable to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
151. The letters – I.H.S on the small hosts stand for “Jesus Christ Conquers,” in Greek.
152. I trust in the Sacred Heart, and I will trust.
153. The children are beginning a Novena of Novenas, eighty-one days prayer, to the Sacred Heart, for the gift…to build the Church- the Church of the Sacred Heart.
154. The Blood of Christ surges within you.
155. Personal private cultivated, will be your guide.
156. Give yourself a penance of resisting some inclinations, some desires, which though, may be good in themselves but not helpful for growth in the spiritual life.
157. Neither affection nor familiarity can do away with the necessity for certain reverent reserve in conversation and in manner while at prayer.
158. Every Missionary must be prepared to turn her hands to many works besides the actual one which is her special strong point.
159. The Kingdom of God lies in your hands this day: it is through your behaviour that He will extend His Kingdom.
160. It is at the Holy Mass that you have real personal contact with Him, when you receive Him in Holy Communion and renew your love, and ask Him for what you need for yourself and for all those you serve, for His sake.
161. The Holy Mass is the greatest meeting point with our Lord.
162. It is very important that you study His Life and Work in the New Testament.
163. I feel confident that Divine Providence will always let me have enough to go on.
164. Go to the chapel and tell Our Lord.
165. I will go ahead as long as I can trusting in Divine Providence.
166. It is in prayer that you will always find God and his Will.
167. Divine Providence ever conformable to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
168. God will provide when the time comes.
169. God is perfect and to see Him and live with Him after death, one must be as perfect as He is.
170. His “COME FOLLOW ME” means, do as I did, without counting the cost.
171. Our Divine Lord’s call takes many different forms. What He looks for from us is that Will which leads us to go because He calls.