Little Sister,

                You want to give your life to our Lord following the example of Brother Charles who was called the Little Brother of Jesus and who chose to call Jesus his "beloved Brother and Lord."  Perhaps you are wondering if our Fraternity really corresponds to your ideal and to the ideal of Brother Charles, whom you have chosen to lead you to the Lord.

                 Come and see,  said Jesus to those he called.  So you also, Little Sister, come and see.

                We are not the only group inspired by Brother Charles of Jesus (Father de Foucauld).  Another congregation already existed when we began and many other groups could follow.  A new family is growing up, which the Lord has willed to answer.   We chose Brother Charles of Jesus on purpose to be our father.  He really is our founder, even if he died completely alone.  In his suffering and solitude he was like Christ, and his death became a new seed of life.

                  Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain, but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.   (Jn. 12:24).

Brother Charles did not found us through a written rule but rather by interceding prayer, self-sacrifice, dying, becoming holy, in short, by loving.  (Brother Charles of Jesus to Suzanne Perret, Dec.15, 1904).

                He alone is our founder, I am only trying to understand his thought and pass it on to you, looking more at the lessons of his life and of his death than at his rule.  Brother Charles of Jesus cannot be confined or limited by a rule that he never actually lived himself, alone or with others.

                In is first rule he spoke about strict enclosure, while he lived in the Sahara with only the desert as enclosure most of the time.  In this rule he planned that the Sisters should be cloistered, leaving their monastery only to go from one community to another.  He, on the other hand, was above all a nomad, traveling all over the Sahara, going from tent to tent and showing us how to be totally available.  He also left us an example of very generous and fraternal hospitality.

                 "The fraternity is a beehive from 5 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m."   (Brother Charles of Jesus to Mme. De Bondy, July 12, 1902).  "I never stop meeting people and talking to them; slaves, poor people, soldiers, travelers, those who are ill or who come out of curiosity."  (Ibid., August 29, 1902).
There was no limit to his love, and he was always ready to help or to listen to anyone without distinction.  It is this love which I want to try to bring you to understand so that you can see if you can follow humbly after him.
 
 
 

Giving your life for the redemption of the people of Islam
and of the whole world,  you must be ready to die to yourself
each day through self-sacrifice
in union with Jesus on the cross
 

Little Sister,

                Do you really know what it means to follow Brother Charles of Jesus, the "Universal Little Brother"?  Like him, you must be prepared to love everyone throughout the world, making the salvation of all men the work of your life ñ a work you will carry out above all by prayer and desire.

                Do you realize just what this vocation demands and what its consequences are?

                The Love of the Heart of Jesus was so great that it took in the whole world.  To return this Love, you must be ready to go to the ends of the earth "crying the Gospel" with your very life, rather than by your words.

                "You ask me if I am ready to go elsewhere than to Beni-Abbes for the spreading of the Gospel.  I am ready to go to the ends of the earth and to live till the last judgment." (Brother Charles of Jesus, letter to Bishop Guerin, Feb. 27, 1903).

                To be a savior with Jesus and to "cry his Gospel by your life" you must be ready to leave your family, background, country, language, customs, ways of thinking and all you hold dear.  You will then be able to belong to those you have been sent to by making your own their language, customs, and even their mentality, however different from yours they may be.

                 You must become concretely one with your new people.  Wanting to love is not enough, for you must become one with them in all the hard realities of life.

                 You will not always be understood.  Your own people, your own race may hold it against you, saying you have deserted or betrayed them, and your new family, whom you have chosen with so much love and loyalty, will find it difficult to believe in your sincerity.

                 To prepare yourself you will have to study, perhaps for years, the language, customs, religion and the authentic culture of the people God has chosen for you.  And no one, absolutely no one, must be excluded from your love.  You must not forget those who are the hardest to reach, in countries and also in situations that seem impenetrable or hostile.

                 Fear of failure or danger must never hold you back:

                 "We must never hesitate to ask for the most dangerous posts, which call for the most sacrifice and self-denial.  Leave honor to those  who want it, but danger and suffering, let us ask for them always."  (Brother Charles of Jesus to Louis Massignon on the morning of his death, December 1, 1916).

                You should choose to live among the poorest and most forgotten "where no one else would go" : among nomads or other ignored or disregarded minorities.  Look at the map of the world and see if you can find a handful of people scattered over a large territory and difficult to reach for those with a different form of apostolate.  You must really choose to go there, otherwise no one else may ever come to tell them that Jesus loves them, that he suffered and died for them.

                 The Good Shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep to go after the one lost sheep.

                 So do not listen to those who would tell you that it is a waste of time to travel the world over looking for the lost sheep because there are huge numbers of people waiting for you elsewhere.

                 Christ died for the lost sheep.  He paid for it with the price of his Blood.

                 "If there were only one Eskimo family far away, near the North Pole, and if it took two years to get there, I say to you, go to them, for they also have a right to redemption."  (Words of Pope Pius XI to a missionary).

                 This is, in fact, your vocation.

                 "To live this vocation, you must be ready to do without and to follow Jesus, going where he would go in search of the lost sheep, the farthest away, the most forsaken brother of Jesus, the most disabled, the brother in the greatest spiritual need, in the deepest shadows of death," as Brother Charles wrote. "Do not be afraid of all you will have to face in order to reach them: long tiring and dangerous journeys and all that men may think, say or do against you."

                 Have you realized what all this will mean in the way of physical suffering due to the change of climate, food or customs?  You may also find spiritual disappointment, because you may never see the fruits of your labor.  Most of the time, you will sow and jot reap; like Brother Charles of Jesus, perhaps you will never see a single person come to Christ because of you.

                 You will have to be able to accept insults and mistreatment.  Do not be afraid of the difficulties and the sufferings inevitable in your life as an apostle. Be glad if you have the honor and joy of suffering, and of being disregarded and ill-treated for the love of your beloved Brother and Lord Jesus:

                Then let us bless God and thank him for he gives us the grace of all graces, the favor of all favors that of giving him proof of the greatest love.
                  A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. (Jn 15:13).

                 "It is the grace of all graces, the joy of all joys, the greatest joy that one can receive in this world and which will be followed immediately by the eternal joy of the other world. "  (Brother Charles of Jesus, Meditation on Ps 22) With this in mind you will not flee persecution and you must be prepared to die without putting up any resistance unless you are asked to do otherwise through obedience.  You will give your life in union with Jesus' sacrifice as you offered it on the day of your religious profession.

                Having spoken to you of the whole world, laid wide before you so that your love and your zeal may be without limit, we will then ask you to share the Fraternity's special consecration to the Muslims, your brothers of Islam.  We will ask you this because of Brother Charles of Jesus. Though he wanted to be the "Universal Little Brother" and to see fraternities spread all over the world, he chose to live among the people of Islam and he offered his life and death for them.

                Brother Charles of Jesus is your father and it is only right to share his consecration.  Perhaps you will not understand this immediately, for you may have felt called to give your life for another people whom you love particularly.  Or maybe you are afraid that this will keep you from hearing the call of the world as a whole.

                There is no need to be afraid.  This special consecration will not put a limit on the universal scope of your zeal.  Jesus, the Savior of all men, is your example.  His heart love infinitely and without exception every human being, people of every walk of life, every nation, every race.

                On the day of your religious profession you will offer your life in self-sacrifice united with Jesus on the cross, for the sake of the people of Islam and of the whole world.  You will renew your offering every day at Mass, but this will not keep your from loving faithfully the people who have become yours by adoption.  Jesus died to save all the people of the world, yet he too chose a certain people and lived, suffered, and died among them.

                Brother Charles gave his life in the land of Islam, and you must understand that he wanted this land to be the heritage of his disciples.

                You must learn to have as he did great faith and hope for the redemption of the Islamic peoples, faith and love like that of the early Christian martyrs and apostles.  Your love must be so strong that you will be able to give your life with joy in union with the sacrifice of Christ on the altar, who died to redeem all men.

                Your love must grow for these your brothers who still do not know Christ as savior, just as it must grow for every man so that all may be united in Christ's plan of redemption. And so by prayer and this daily offering of yourself you will be able to accomplish to the full your vocation as an apostle consecrated to the redemption of the people of Islam and of the whole world.