Jesus Caritas

On the 31st August 1954 Little siter Magdeleine wrote in her Diary:

'If I were told to define the mission of our community in a single word, I would not hesitate for a single moment to cry, 'Unity'. All our vocation can be summed up in the word Unity.'

This last chapter of the Constitutions of the Little sisters spells this out.

India, Bangalore community 2007

Final chapter of the constitutions of the Little sisters of Jesus

The rule of life of the Little Sisters of Jesus, the rule which is at the heart of their vocation, is the pursuit of Unity as willed by Christ, who died to gather together the scattered children of God&. Jn 11:52

However, it would be illusory to seek after this Unity, which is born of the Spirit of Love, if the little sisters did not live first of all in deep communion among themselves.

I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you,you also must love one another. Jn 13:34

Their communion will mean that even though they are widely scattered, they will form throughout the world a genuine family, close-knit in sisterly love, over and above all frontiers. The growth of this mutual love will keep step with the growth of their love for their beloved Brother and Lord Jesus.

Unity in Love, the supreme desire of the heart of Jesus, calls the little sisters to regard every person as their brother or sister and to combat every form of discrimination or exclusiveness. It calls them to solidarity with those who struggle to build a more just and loving world, without letting themselves be drawn into the spiral of violence in the conflicts between classes, nations or races. Mt 5

Their vocation to intercession will bring them to live each day in passionate longing for unity at the very heart of human suffering. In union with those who are victims of evil, they will lift up this suffering to God in an earnest prayer of supplication, thirsting for justice and truth. Mt 5:6

Like Jesus himself, the little sisters will have a preferential love for the poorest and most disregarded, but nohumanbeing will be excluded& from their hearts. Mt 5:5 And they will be ready to lay down their lives for each one of them. Mt 5:7

They will respect the mentality of every country and be receptive to its values, heedful of its aspiration and its needs. By means of their vocation as little sisters they will carry the whole world in their hearts and prayer.

They will never give up seeking unity, and wherever they are they will be elements of peace and reconciliation, witnesses to Christ and the hope that he brings to the world. Mt 5:9 But they will never attain universal love without sincere humility, which will help them acknowledge the flaws and limitations of their ownbackground, nation and race, without, however, disowning the authentic values there. Mt 5:3

This humility will help them free themselves both from attitudes of superiority, which crush others, and attitudes of inferiority, which make for withdrawal and isolation. Both tend just as much toward separation and are opposed to unity in love.

As they become aware of the roots of evil in their own hearts, they will realise how closely Gospel liberation, the cornerstone of genuine unity among people, is linked to personal conversion of heart. Mt 5:8

This conversion will be the little sisters' lifelong work. It will come about through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to the degree that the little sisters put on the mind and heart of Christ and let him live in them. Ga 2:20 Ph 2:5

Convinced that a new world cannot be built up without the cross, the little sisters will offer their lives as a living sacrifice each day, so that Unity in the Love of the Lord may reign among all people. Mt 5:10-12

'May his name be held holy! May his kingdom come! May his will be done! May every heart love him, May every soul praise him on earth as in heaven. To him with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be praise, honour, glory and blessing, for all ages. Amen'

Brother Charles of Jesus, ‘Reglement des petites soeurs,' chapter 40.