Charles de Foucauld prayed that the Lord would send “holy little brothers and little sisters of the Sacred Heart wherever they are needed”. Fourteen years after her death, Little Sister Magdeleine founded the first fraternity of the Little Sisters of Jesus in the Sahara. How are these nuns imbued with the spirituality of Charles of Jesus?
In Toulouse, the Little Sisters of Jesus come to rest after a long immersion in a foreign country. So little sister Denise-Germaine spent forty years in Serbia and Croatia, working in factories. It was in Pakistan that little sister Martine-Roberte was immersed for thirty years with handicapped children. Little sister Magdalena-Giuseppe, for her part, took care of the reception, cleaning and cooking of the traveling circus employees. Their presence responds to this aspiration of Brother Charles “The goal would be to lead as exactly as possible the life of Our Lord: living only from the work of the hands, following to the letter all his advice…”
live a free friendship
little sisters of jesus
Work is only a pretext to be in the midst of their brothers and live “a free friendship”, according to the expression of their founder. Neither missionaries nor at the service of a charity, the nuns only want to be a presence. They listen to each other by giving them all the room. “Being there, only,” says little sister Denise. “We had no reason to be there other than friendship,” she continues. This true friendship inspires confidence and encourages confidence. While no word on the faith was possible under the communist regime, there was only “the Gospel to cry out with all one’s life”. At the fall of the wall, a leaden screed rose up and revealed the thirst for God. Several “friends” have converted.
“Add to this work many prayers”
“In one of the circus caravans, the Blessed Sacrament was always present,” recalls little sister Magdalena. Let’s not imagine a partition between work and prayer. “Prayer and life are mixed together,” says the Italian nun.Little sister Denise confirms it. “Before leaving for the factory, I got up very early to pray. I thus went to work with the strength of this prayer. When I had difficulties at the factory, it fueled my prayer”.
Little Sister Martine adds that the prayer is done in the name of others. “We don’t pray for our own little holiness. We carry the world through our life, offering to God everything we do. And He saves”. This desire echoes that of Charles de Foucauld: “My God, make all humans go to heaven! »
Like the universal brother
The Little Sisters of Jesus appropriated Charles de Foucauld’s desire to be “regarded as their brother, the universal brother”. Their presence raises questions in Muslim countries. How can women live without being married or Muslim? Little sister Martine smiles. “In Pakistan, the Muslims asked us to pray for them because they thought that God listened to us more! Our simplicity of life intrigued them”. It is not rare that, in this very ordinary life, an emulation is created. “We were stimulated to live our respective faith as well as possible”. “Evangelize each other mutually”, completes little sister Denise.
“Father, I surrender myself to you”
Saying this prayer of Brother Charles daily is a commitment of the Little Sisters of Jesus. “It’s a daily challenge” they confess together. “Giving up when everything is going well is easy. But when ‘it gets stuck’, it’s something else! »
Through the ordinary of their lives, the Little Sisters of Jesus are a “presence in this world that God loves”.
Today the nuns experience another form of abandonment. In old age, they try to let themselves be “swaddled”. Like the Child Jesus, according to the intuition of little sister Magdeleine, they try to abandon everything: the desire for fraternities that are not renewed (there are no new vocations in France), health who declines.
But this abandonment is a source of graces. Always welcoming, what unexpected friendships, what new joys! Through the ordinary of their lives, the Little Sisters of Jesus are, like Saint Charles de Foucauld, a “presence in this world that God loves”.
The “spiritual families” of Charles de Foucauld
The spirituality of Charles de Foucauld guides the little sisters of Jesus