Reflection:

1. La Fère was a small town, but strategically located in the south of Picardy, near the border between France and the territories of the Austrian Empire, continually at war. The kings of France had established in La Fère a hospital for the soldiers wounded in the incessant battles and for the convalescent soldiers, who were grouped in one of the corners of the room.
2. Hospitals were a room ventilated by windows at the top of the walls. The beds were lined up in three rows, next to the walls and in the middle. At one end an altar was erected to celebrate the Eucharist and to keep the Blessed Sacrament, becoming a kind of chapel. And in the churches only priests could speak, and, exceptionally, lay men, but never women. Sr. Juliana broke this rule by explaining the catechism, with the consent of Saint Louise de Marillac.
3. But this letter has another great importance: written only two months before the death of the saint, who already felt sick; but she had not lost the energy to program the new year that began.
4. She organizes the service in the hospital and through the streets of the city; she organizes catechesis, breaking without fear the taboos that dominated society; it is based on the prints that direct the steps of the Sisters; she breaks with the Vincentian criterion of doing everything in humility and without attracting attention; but always keeping the Rules, on the relations with men, so feared then.
5. This is a strong teaching to encourage and organize us all, Vincentians, in the coexistence and apostolic service of this new course 2017-2018 that begins in September.