Jesus Caritas

On the 29th June 1981 Little Sister Magdeleine wrote to the Little Sisters:

‘I have only ever wanted to carry out a work of love. Now it is up to each of you who have chosen to follow this path to continue making it a work of love. We must always remember that it is not our work but the work of God and belonging to the Church.’

1988 Tre FontaneThese words summarize how she lived out the last part of her life attentive to the life of the community but also with humility and a certain reserve. It was at this time that she sent all the Little Sisters the text of the ‘Rule of Life’ that she had worked on all her life as a commentary on the Constitutions. Right to the end she edited her diaries and the editions of her letters leaving a treasure still to be uncovered.

On the 8th September 1989 the community celebrated her jubilee. On her return from Russia that year, Little Sister Magdeleine declined rapidly and was never able to regain her strength. During the last two months she was in a state of total dependence but stayed lucid and attentive to everyone. She died on the 6th November. Until her last breath she never lost the love for life that characterized her, as well as a desire to meet with her beloved brother Jesus whom she had longed to be with for so long.

Through her death she left to the Little Sisters her ideal of holiness: to be fully human through living in and with Jesus.

She who summed up the ideal of the community in the words:’ Unity in Love’ must have been happy when her funeral Mass at Tre Fontane on 10th November 1989 gathered a crowd of friends of all religions, race, nationality and life-style. It was a sign that this woman, who was totally possessed by the love of God, had become a witness of the Father’s tenderness for all his children, beyond all barriers.

By chance, or mysterious coincidence, it was on that very evening of the 10th November that the wall dividing Berlin crumbled."

1975 Tre Fontane