"I spent the entire night in the new World ... carrying the Blessed Sacrament to all parts of the land ... I had all my sacrifices to offer: a mother, sisters, family, my mountain! When you say to me 'now I send you', I will respond quickly 'I go"'.
In 1818 her dream became reality when Bishop Dubourg (again, a highschool named after him!) invited her to begin teaching the Indian and French children in his diocese. She arrived in New Orleans with her sisters and was surprised to find that Bishop Dubourg had absolutely no money to help support the Sisters. They didn’t let that stop them. They boarded a steamboat, which was a relatively new invention, heading up the Mississippi and came to St. Charles, Missouri. Their convent was in a log cabin near the riverfront. St. Charles was a frontier town. Rose described it as the most remote village in America, and they had to take care of themselves. These brave women managed not only to survive but to open the first free school west of the Mississippi. Shortly after, they moved to Florissant. The sisters did a lot of good there and made many converts. I know that when I worked in the archives, we had all of the old baptismal records of the many children the sisters helped enter the Church. Many of the old records are written in Latin but the Sacred Heart sisters wrote in French."We cultivate a very small field for Christ, but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds back nothing for self…. The truest crosses are those we do not choose ourselves…. He who has Jesus has everything.”