St. Louise’s spiritual life is particularly characterized by her constant openness to the Holy Spirit. In one of those intuitions that bear the mark of their authenticity, she combined devotion to the "yes" of the Annunciation with devotion to the feast of Pentecost. Like the Virgin Mary, filled with grace by the power of the Spirit and present at the side of the Apostles from the origins of the Church, she found in the action of God the source of her strength; she felt that the fidelity of the Company would have as its model and guide the Marian "fiat." She knew how to make others grow in the spirit of prayer in which she lived, after the example of Mary. (St. John Paul II on the occasion of the 4th centenary of the birth of St. Louise de Marillac, 1991.)
