Jesus Caritas

Cardinal KasperAn interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper, on the mission of Brother Charles for today.

Little sister Jeanne 2008

Little sister Jeanne and Little sister Annette, on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, visit Bethlehem and share the meaning of Bethlehem in the life of the Little Sisters.

Magdeleine in her van

Throughout the life of Little Sister Magdeleine, a number of themes recur somewhat like leitmotifs. In a way, they confirm the fidelity with which she followed her vocation. As far as I am concerned, it is the leitmotif of the 'border' that impressed me the most.

'The Green booklet'

Our political and literary history is criss-crossed by what we call manifestos, that is, writings that give the public a summary of new ideas incarnated in a movement of thoughts and works that mark an era.

In 1946, when the text of Little Sister Magdeleine which was to become known as the "Green Booklet" was published, we received it as a manifesto of a new concept of religious life. For my confreres and me, who were seminarians at the time, these pages seemed revolutionary and inflamed our enthusiasm.

El Abiodh Tent with Fr VoillaumeIn this article Brother René, founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus, describes the place of nomadism in Little sister Magdeleine's life and her love for all minority populations.

Little Sister Iris-Mary invited the suthor, Kathryn Spink, to Tre Fontane to speak about Little Sister Magdeleine.

The major intuitions of Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus 'He took me by the hand and blindly I followed.' In attempting to assemble the pieces of Little Sister Magdeleine's life for her biography one of the things that impressed itself very strongly upon me was the extent to which she was not one who came to know God or his will through rational thought or discursive reasoning. Her life and the history of the Fraternity, as she recorded them, were repeatedly defined in terms of God having taken her by the hand and of her having blindly followed.

"What was most striking on meeting L.S.Magdeleine was how she was open and in tune with life around her and how she knew how to respond with an amazing flexibility. Above all it was how she kept her eyes and heart centred on the ordinary life of the One who had fascinated her, Jesus.

"FAITH gives us new vision, new tastes, new ways of living".

So wrote 'Brother Charles of Jesus', as Charles de Foucauld came to call himself. That was in Nazareth, in 1900, where Charles was exploring for himself (and for us in our here-and-now - for Charles was always conscious of those who would follow the furrow he was tracing) the meaning and implications of his re-discovered faith as a follower of Jesus.