Daily verse:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3, 5-6

The life of St. Frances:

Once her order founded, Frances welcomes many novices, whom she teaches prayerful intimacy with Jesus, compassion, and self-denial. She opens an orphanage and a school adjacent to the convent. 

A couple of years later, in 1882, Frances establishes a second foundation, followed by a third one in Milan in 1884. Having covered the province of Lombardy, Frances wants to open a house in the Eternal City, which required a formal Papal approval of the rule of her order. The Archbishop of Milan tries to dissuade her, but he eventually allows her to travel to Rome in September of 1887. 

For Frances, it's quite an adventure, as she never ventured outside her region. Her first action as she sets foot in Rome is to pray at the altar of St. Francis Xavier in the Church of the Gesu. 

Frances encounters several obstacles, among them Church bureaucrats who try to discourage her or slow down all her requests. Ultimately, thanks to Frances enthusiasm and determination, her order was granted the approval of His Holiness Pople Leo XIII in March 1888. 

During her stay in Rome, Frances encounters Monsignor Scalabrini, the founder of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, an order whose purpose is to help the Italian immigrants in America. Monsignor Scalabrini thinks that religious women would be of tremendous help to the priests of St. Charles. He obtains a letter from Archbishop Corrigan of New York, formally inviting Frances' missionaries to establish a house there. At the same time, Pope Leo XIII meets with Frances, and asks her to make New York her mission - "Not to the East, but to the West!"

Frances, in blind faith and perfect obedience, embarks for America almost immediately, with a group of nine sisters.  

Quote by St. Frances:

I will go anywhere and do anything in order to communicate the love of Jesus to those who do not know him or have forgotten him.

And so did she, instead of China, as the little girl had once dreamed, her "anywhere" was New York, and her "anything," as we will discover, was a magnificent work of merciful service to the poor.  

Prayer:

O my God, I thank you and I praise you for accomplishing your holy and all-lovable will without any regard for mine. 
With my whole heart, in spite of my heart, do I receive this cross I feared so much!
It is the cross of Your choice, the cross of Your love. I venerate it; 
nor for anything in the world would I wish that it had not come, since You willed it.
I keep it with gratitude and with joy, as I do everything that comes from Your hand;
and I shall strive to carry it without letting it drag, with all the respect and all the affection which Your works deserve.
Amen.
By Saint Francis De Sales

Pictures:

1) "The Emigrants," by Antonio Rocco, 1910 - CC0. 

2) Frances and the sisters who embarked to New York.