A guide to the whole Jesus Caritas website.
Click on: Site Map
Search Jesus Caritas using DuckDuckGoJESUS CARITAS SITE MAPA guide to the whole Jesus Caritas website. |
News from ParaguayAs Xavier tells us, the Fraternity has been in Paraguay since 1970, and Xavier himself as been there from the beginning. The closeness to the Brothers of Mary is the consequence of the fact that both groups draw their inspiration from Father de Foucauld and their vocations are very similar. So why not be closer to one another, and support and help each other?
Our fraternity in Paraguay is quite original because it is made up of four brothers who belong to two different groups in the spiritual family of Brother Charles. Alexis and Gilberto, originally from Costa Rica (Central America), are part of the movement of lay people called "Brothers of Mary" and they have adopted the Feast of the Visitation as their own feast day. Juancito and I, Little Brothers of Jesus, have formed a larger fraternity with them for the last six years. Let us get back to our wider fraternity. In terms of our wish to strengthen our ties, we looked for a place which could meet all our needs. Luckily it was then that we found the "Saint Monica Home", in the country, on the outskirts of the capital Asunción. This Home had two hectares of grounds which nobody was using, which gave Alexis the possibility of working the land. As for Gilberto, our proximity to public transport routes allowed him to move about easily, as his job as an electrician and plumber required. Juancito would have enough to do with looking after the Home, and me, who was 80 years old - by the grace of God! This Home was an institution for the care of young single mothers with their babies. Generally, there were about ten young people in the home, aged from 12 to 18 years. The children were between 1 and 6. It was very special environment then, which justified our presence. The founder and director of the Home was the wife of a General and she too was gifted with an unquestionable authority. Alexis then decided that he would leave the place this year, once the harvest was over. The one who was affected most by these changes was undoubtedly Juancito. He had invested a lot in the buildings as well as in the garden, the fruit trees, and in general, everything which could give the place a more pleasant and welcoming aspect. Then too, during the five years that the Home had been open, he also formed friendships with some of the young mothers. The failure of the Home should not be confused with our efforts at community life together, and the closing of the Home did not affect that. On the contrary, for us, the experience seemed quite positive and allowed us to live in a true fraternal friendship. To end with, I would say that our way of living in fraternity is genuine and that it is not necessary to enclose it in quite specific categories. In all fraternal and community life the brothers themselves should be the primary beneficiaries. We need to find the common denominator that unites us. In our case, there is no doubt that this is our vocation of Nazareth as our Brother Charles understood it. And we try to build our fraternity from that, centred on this Gospel mystery. |
From this or neighbouring countriesInspired by Brother Charles... |