Michelle Duppong's Legacy of Faith - He Leadeth Me x SEEK

Mark has worked for Focus for 18 years and currently serves as Senior Director of Mission Partner Development , and a fun fact about Mark is that he was also a friend and former supervisor of Servant of God , michelle Dupont , so thanks for joining me today , mark .

And I thought that that particular verse was such a wonderful verse to describe the life of Michel Dupont .

So the reason why I think this is because this verse it happens in a very specific place in the Gospel of John , where the Israelites , jesus , has just gone to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles , and so on one of the days of this feast , they have a ceremony where they light the candelabra in the temple .

And when we think of candelabra , we might think of something that's big enough to put on our kitchen table . But these were giant candelabra . There were four of them , and it was in the court of the women . Everybody would gather there , so Jesus would have been in the court of the women .

Everybody would gather there , so Jesus would have been in the court of the women . And they get four Israelite boys to climb up these giant candelabra that were 75 feet high and they would light the oil in the candelabra and it would illuminate the entire temple and also the city of Jerusalem .

They said that the light from the candelabra in this ceremony was so bright that every courtyard , every house in Jerusalem saw the light from this candelabra . So it lit not only the temple but all of Jerusalem .

And so when Jesus tells the people , I am the light of the world , they have just celebrated this feast and they're thinking that the light of the temple lights up Jerusalem . But Jesus is saying that he's even greater than that light , that he's the light of the whole world .

And for me , this was an image of Michelle , because Jesus dwells within her and he's the light of the world . And his light shone through Michelle in a very profound way during her life , but even after her death .

Now that she's a servant of God and her cause for canonization has been opened , she's become a temple that the light of Christ is able to reach the whole world through . Now you knew Michelle personally . How did you experience Michelle being the light of Christ when she was a focused missionary ?

One is actually the Easter vigil , and I think this is one of the ways that we see the light of Christ in the midst of the world , and I think seek is a great experience of this as well , when you're in the darkness and then the whole church is illuminated in that way , and I think that's one particular way we can experience the light of Christ .

I've heard Sikh described as kind of that lit up experience , where you see all of these little flames come together in order to create a much more significant illumination . I think the other way is the way that we experienced it with Michelle .

You hear stories of people who can come in and light up a room , and I think that's definitely true with somebody who has a very charismatic personality , who can kind of encapture people's attentiveness through the way that they carry themselves or whatever else it is . Sometimes it's kind of the extrovert that kind of has they don't .

They don't have conversations , they have audiences , so to speak . Michelle lit up the room in a very different way when she would engage someone . It wasn't like she was doing it , it was the light of Christ that lived within her that poured out , and I think that she , she believed .

You know , I've I heard Curtis Martin say it once do we really believe that what we believe is really real ? And I think Michelle believed in the light of Christ , she believed in the sacraments , she believed in the divine indwelling of the Trinity within her soul .

Because of her belief in the power of Christ dwelling within her through her baptism , that shone out through her . And I think this was one of the tremendous ways that people experienced Michelle .

It's not unlike what you hear others talk about when they encounter some of these tremendous saints St John Paul II , st Teresa of Calcutta that they would encapture your attention . And Michelle was like that .

And she did that in the way that she smiled , in the way that she talked to you , in the way that she helped you to see that she believed that God's grace was real and it lived in you and that we were all called to be saints .

I don't know that there was ever an encounter that I had with her where that reality didn't come up , that she believed that we are all called to be canonizable saints , and she desired to see that become a reality within her life and within the life of everybody else that she encountered . And so I think that light just pours out .

And yeah , it's not like the darkness fights back against the light . When you flip the switch , it just the light overtakes it . And Michelle was like that Such great joy , such great presence of mind and heart and her desire to immediately go to prayer with almost everything . And I think we all , if we're striving to follow Christ , say like I'll pray for you .

You never had any doubts that Michelle was actually praying for you , and I think that's how Christ's light shone through her and how she illuminated the lives of so many people that she encountered during her time with us on this earth .

The church will determine that over a very long process . But at the same time her cause has been opened and it's so neat to think about the fact that Michelle was an ordinary person . She was a farm girl Like . She wasn't having visions of Jesus at five years old like Padre Pio , and she never found a religious order .

She didn't do some of the great things that we see in the lives of the saints . And yet sanctity is for everyone , even people who live very ordinary lives . Now that leads me back to the scripture verse . That is the theme for conference . It says no one who follows me will walk in darkness . So this theme follow me . That's the theme for seek .

What do you think it means to follow Jesus ?

When we desire to follow Jesus , when he calls us to follow him , what he's asking us to do is not to make him one of the features of our life , but to make him the lens by which we live and experience the entire world , that we focus on him so much and we follow so closely that it kind of crowds everything else out .

And to be able to put our attention on Him and to follow as closely as we can in the midst of that , it means to do what he asks us to do the way that we respond to the teachings we encounter in the scriptures or the teachings of the church , to conform ourselves into His likeness , as we say , in Focus and a lot of other sources , to be covered in the

dust of the rabbi . How do we walk so closely to him that the very steps on the ground that he made would cast dust up onto us , that were that close , that were in his cloud of dust ?

And I think that's what it means to follow Jesus , and I think sometimes we have a tendency to think about all the big things that well , what if that means I have to give up everything that I possess ? Or it means that I have to become a strange person in the midst of the world or give up all of these particular ways ?

When Jesus tells the parables about finding the treasure in the field , it's easy for us to think that , wow , that must have been something really tremendous . It's adding to our own treasures . But that's not what he's talking about .

He's talking about something that is so far beyond our capacity to understand how great it is that we would be desirous , eager , chomping at the bit , so to speak , to get rid of everything , to sell it all , so that we can go and possess this particular treasure . That's what Jesus offers to us . It's accessible to all of us .

He is the treasure in the field . But I think the other side of it is . I think when he looks at us , he sees us as being the treasure in the field , and to recognize that following Jesus isn't just my effort . For him , it's the reality that God found us .

We are the treasure , maybe mired in the dirt and the muck of the field , and he has given everything . He has divested himself of heaven , he's come into the world , he's taken on flesh and desires to pour out his entire being in order to possess us , and he gives everything away so that we can be possessed by him and to encounter him .

And I think it's that kind of twofold way of following . It's not just that we desire to follow him , it's he says . It's not that you have chosen me , I have chosen you . And , first and foremost , to recognize the call to follow him is a call from him and to be close to him , and I think that's what he's inviting us into .

I think that's , if you're hearing this today , it's because he's asking you today to let go of the things that are holding you back in order to allow yourself to follow him .

Let him get rid of those things for you , whatever those are , and to follow him closely in whatever way he leads it and you're not going to know the steps or the path or all those things but to trust that he is calling you to follow and he's going to take care of everything that is needed so that you can follow him closely .

Sometimes it's so easy to look at all of the things that we do and think about the sacrifices that we make in following Jesus and we forget that his yoke is easy and his burden is light , and that he's the one who gave up everything to possess us . Now , when we talk about following Jesus , how did you see that in Michelle's life ?

makes to us are true , that he's not going to leave us abandoned or forsaken . And I think that she believed that and then also desired to see his invitation to fulfill the Great Commission to be realized , and I think that she believed that that was possible .

That's why she believed in spiritual multiplication , the little way of evangelization , that she could do that in the lives of a few people . But the way that she did it was , first and foremost , to be filled up , as a reservoir is filled up , so that God's grace can pour out of her into everything that she did .

She was very committed to a life of prayer , very committed to a sacramental life as well as to seeing every circumstance as being from the hand of God , and I think she sought to live that in the little ways so that she could then later be faithful in the big ways as well , which we saw in her life when she was ultimately diagnosed with cancer .

But she was able to endure that with joy because she was so committed to getting up on time , to going to the chapel when it was time , to loving the people that God had put in her path , to finding him in the midst of the daily circumstances that oftentimes she would have not chosen for herself , but to encounter him in all of those things and to see them

all as gifts from God . And I think that's how Michelle really sought to follow God by being faithful in those little things , whether or not it was raining or sunny , or if somebody showed up for her Bible study or not , but to trust that God's hand was in all of those things .

When Michelle was diagnosed with cancer I remember talking to one of the members of her family and she said that there was an article written after her cause was opened that said something to the effect of Michelle fought bravely but eventually she lost her battle with cancer .

And this family member said the battle was never with cancer because she believed that God had sent her that cancer , that he wanted her to have that trial . The battle was with being discouraged sometimes , and another friend of hers said that it could be easy to fall into discouragement on campus when nobody showed up to your Bible study .

And yet Michelle would struggle , she would fight that discouragement and she would trust that God's hand was in everything and she would keep praying and she would keep reaching out and she was faithful in that little way .

And then eventually , when she got sick and there was a much greater trial there , she had learned how to continue to trust God in those smaller trials continue to trust God in those smaller trials .

You have to do all of those things for a harvest to come about , but it's only God that causes the increase and I think she saw life in that way as well . She believed firmly . I can't tell you how many times I heard her say that we are all called to be saints and God provides us with the grace that we need .

But it's not in what St Josemaria Escriva calls mystical wishful thinking . It's not in that , oh , if only I was over there doing those things , then I could be a saint .

It's actually in the day-to-day circumstances and Michelle saw that , whether or not it was the team having to plan an event , or getting students lined up to do things , or coordinating the bus travel for a Sikh conference or whatever , whatever the things were , she saw God's hand in the circumstances as they are , not as she would have liked them to be , and I

think , yeah , she wanted to see people find God in all of those little ways and I think when we allow faith to inform the way we see and experience the world , then we see God's hand in everything . When we don't have those eyes , then it's difficult to see God at work . But she had the eyes of faith to see God's hand in everything .

There was nothing that happened or came about that wasn't from his hand in some way , and she sought then to embrace and experience that with the joy of a daughter of God .

And then one of her greatest dreams in life , one of her greatest desires , was to have a large family . And I remember I met her when I was visiting North Dakota . I ran into her at a nursing home when I was visiting someone else there . So was she , and she told me I've got this surgery coming up . I've always wanted to have a big family .

They don't know how far the cancer spread and it's only when they open me up that they'll know if they have to remove my womb or not . Can you please pray with me and I remember praying with her that she would have a lot of children , and yet they did have to remove her womb .

And people who knew Michelle talk about afterwards that was her greatest suffering , and people were rejoicing after the surgery that she was still alive , and yet she was bearing this cross . I can't bear my own children . And yet , in the midst of all of this . People talk about how she had such tremendous joy and how she underwent this deepening of her faith .

I remember hearing a religious sister who went to visit her towards the end of her life , and she said that coming into Michelle's presence was like entering into a chapel . She could sense Jesus with her so strongly .

And so I guess that's just a lesson to me , that even when you do feel like you're walking in darkness , it's the light of Christ that keeps you moving forward , just like it was for Michelle .

She said to you but Michelle was a farm girl , she was practical and she had a sense of humor , and she said that if there was a tree that wasn't bearing fruit and it was struggling , you would beat it with a chain , and so I imagine she would tell me that the struggles that I was going through were God trying to help me bear more fruit .

What do you think ?

And I think that she would encourage people to bring the anger , the frustration , the fear , all that and just pour it out to God before the Blessed Sacrament .

She had a deep love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and I think that she had a real close intimacy with him there , and I think she would encourage everyone to go there first and pour out your heart to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and then trust that he's going to take care of things the way he desires .

And everyone comments how when you were with Michelle , it was like you were the only person in the room , and this priest said that it was because she believed so strongly in Jesus's presence in each person that it was almost like she was adoring the blessed sacrament present within the person .

So every poor person , every destitute person that she encountered on the streets of Calcutta she saw Jesus in . And Michelle believed .

Everyone was called to be a saint and to reflect the glory of God and I think Michelle , when she would encounter anyone , then saw Christ and I think that's one of the reasons why she was able to smile so much when she would encounter people .

And she , yeah , she brought that same disposition that she would have an adoration , that attention , that focus on Jesus and the blessed sacrament into the attention and the focus on Jesus that she found in me and that was looking back on it .

I think that's probably what I was experiencing when she would come to me with her arms wide open and excited and smiling . I think she was encountering Jesus in me . I don't imagine anybody's really that excited to see me , but to find Christ in me .

I absolutely think that she saw that how we can all be receptacles of Christ in that way , and we can all look for it and find it as well .

I got to see both the many of the easy things and the beautiful fruitfulness within mission , but also then to talk with her as her supervisor about the difficulties on team life or whatever else , and I just want to help people hear the story of how she lived her life and how she encountered God and everything , and also to extend the invitation that I believe

she extended to everyone that we're all called to be saints .

The other part of it and this was on the day that Bishop Kagan of Bismarck announced to the focus missionaries that they were opening the investigation or opening the cause Monsignor James Shea , the president of the University of Mary , messaged me and said , hey , they're going to announce that the cause is open , or maybe he said that they just opened the cause .

I can't remember exactly , and I remember not being surprised that it was just not a disposition of like , oh wow , I can't believe it was . Of course , this is the path that I knew that Michelle wanted to walk . This is where she desired to be and it's becoming a reality . I never doubted that they would open the cause or the investigation .

I just didn't think it would happen so quickly after her death , only a few years after her death , and so I wanted yeah , I wanted people to know that we're all called to this and the first place that we have to start to pursue holiness is to desire it , and I think that's what Michelle had , and I wanted people to see that and to know that .

And I believe that her story is powerful and it's accessible . As you said , she's a farm girl from North Dakota . She's not the founder of an order , she didn't walk on water . She didn't raise people from the dead . That we know . Who knows , maybe one day we'd find things out like that , but she's really accessible and I think we need that right now .

We have our eyes fixated so much in our day and age on these really big saints St John Paul II , st Teresa of Calcutta and I think there's a new emergence of accessible saints Blessed Pierre Giorgio Frassati , blessed Carlo Acutis .

Servant of God , michelle de Pong I would love to see her cause continue and for people to know , even if she's never canonized , that she is . I think she's notable and we should look at the way that she lived her life and that we can all live this way .

Love the people that God has put in front of you , accept all things as coming from his hand , have just bulletproof hope that God is working in all these things , and so that's why I agreed to be interviewed is because I wanted people to know she was pretty , pretty amazing , but we can all be like that too .

She just availed herself of the graces that God made available to her , and you and I can as well .

You , I interviewed a lot of the people who are featured in the film , and one of the things that is so remarkable to me is that we had over 30 hours of footage of people wanting to be interviewed , and when we made our trip to North Dakota and to Lincoln , nebraska , to interview people who knew Michelle , it was just so telling of Michelle's holiness that we

had a list of people who we knew we wanted to interview . And yet I was getting phone calls and text messages , people interrupting the interviews to tell me please , can I be interviewed ?

I've got a story about Michelle Dupont that I really want to share , and I think that's particularly notable in that most people don't want to be filmed saying something , and yet people were just coming out of the woodwork to tell us I have a story about Michelle Dupont .

That's remarkable and , like you said , she didn't do anything that the world would consider extraordinary . She just had an incredible love of God and a zeal for souls that touched so many hearts and continues to .

Yeah , and I think I'm not surprised that people would want to tell the stories . My fear would always be that there would be kind of like this Catholic celebrity thing that's taking place . But I think the radiating joy , as the theme of the movie , makes so much sense . It just continues to radiate .

The stories , the impact , the things that she said , the encouragement that she offered , the joy that she shared with others just continues to radiate then in the people that knew her or encountered her in profound ways . I think it's just going to continue .

I think God has great plans for the joy that the people who have encountered her are able to live with and will continue to spread that as well .

To wrap up the episode is there any memory of Michelle that you'd like to share with people , or anything about her life that you would want them to know ?

And I remember her telling me a story about when she was at South Dakota State University , how she's encouraging these girls to start taking on sacrifices for others , to think about the people that God has put into their life and to pray specifically for them . And with intentionality .

And she went , I think she went to the Walmart there in Brookings , south Dakota , and bought like a plastic armor set , like a breastplate and a helmet and a shield and a sword . And then she associated each of these items with a particular mortification , like , if you have the shield I don't remember what they are I'm going to sword .

And then she associated each of these items with a particular mortification , like , if you have the shield I don't remember what they are , I'm going to make it up If you have the shield , then you're going to take for the next week you're going to take cold showers .

If you do have the breastplate , then you're going to sleep without a pillow , and after a week or two of the girls taking these intentions and thinking about the women that God has put in their life and praying for them by name and then offering these mortifications to God on their behalf , she got them back together and said how is it ?

And she said they just told me how difficult it was and they'd done these things before . You know , when you're young you sometimes take cold showers or whatever , for whatever reason , but how much harder it was . And she said that's because souls are attached to these sacrifices .

And I think that's an amazing thing for us to remember that we're not just praying , we're not just launching Hail Marys or our fathers out into the ether , that we're trying to connect the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ to the souls that are in need of it First and foremost my own , but then all of the others as well .

And I think that she really wanted us to see how everything that we can do can be redemptive , everything we can do can be formative , everything we do can be oriented to the glory of God and the fulfillment of the great commission , and to be intentional about those things and to seek for those things , commission , and to be intentional about those things and to

seek for those things . But that's the story that comes to my mind is how she wanted to see everyone encounter Jesus .

It'll be in over 700 theaters across the country , so you can look up the website wwwfathomeventscom to find if it's in a theater near you , them eventscom to find if it's in a theater near you .

And we also want to encourage everyone come to seek and invite friends to come to seek or , if you're not able to come , consider sponsoring someone so that they're able to come . Michelle loved conference just for what you were talking about , mark where you see all of these flames come together , these flames of faith , to help inspire each other .

20,000 people all gathered together in the name of Jesus . That inspires us to live our faith well and also to share that faith with others .