Jesus Caritas

El Jardin, with friends in the park

Three Little Sisters live in an apartment in La Candelaria, a neighbourhood near the central historic district of Mexico City. Mauricia, who coordinates our communities which reach out to people in the worlds of prostitution, drug addiction, and prison, spent some time with them last year:

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With the mother of a prisoner

A number of little sisters dedicate their lives more exclusively to people in prison. One of these communities is in Ikebukuro, Japan. Back in 1980, two of us wanted to find a way to live among people in prison. Some little sisters had been able to do exactly this, living as voluntary prisoners for many years in European prisons. We wrote to the Justice Ministry, as well as to five different women's prisons, hoping they would let us do the same in our prison system here in Japan but we were refused.

Then about five years ago, I happened to meet a sister from another congregation who was involved in prison ministry who told me it was possible to visit inside the jail. She was happy to introduce us to some of the people she knew "inside," since she herself was preparing to leave Japan. And so the door opened before us...

France Marseille

Little Sisters Liliane and Marie-Raymonde closed their community in Marseille, France, last February after many years of presence to the women in the port city's world of prostitution. They both now live in a retirement house in Aix-en-Provence.

'The Little Sisters will be immersed in the midst of those the world condemns and despises (prostitutes, drug addicts, prisoners...), seeking to love them with the respectful tenderness of God.'_{(Constitutions art. 56)}

It was in that spirit that, in 1955, two little sisters founded a community in Marseille as a first step toward the world of prostitution. Later, others began similar communities in Belgium, Italy, Japan, Korea, Germany, and Paris.

After having finished my studies in Seoul in the fraternity of Pomun-dong, I have now been in the fraternity of Samsong-ni for seven months. It is in the town of Goyansshi like the north gateway to Seoul. It is there that the road for reunification begins and goes towards the North. On one side of the road there is a village, and on the other a small agglomeration with a school, a bank, a police station, several small shops spaced out, and even a small market, although we do not go there often.

written at the beginning of Advent

The Little sisters from the Circus Community in USA send their Christmas meditation.

Fr Gerry from Clonard Redemtorist Monastery in Belfast spent the day with the Little sisters of Jesus during their Regional gathering to share about Eucharist and reconciliation and his own experiences both through belonging to the Jesus Caritas Priest's Fraternity and also based on his life in Belfast.