Disciples

Our life is built upon an encounter with Christ. This encounter transformed our lives so profoundly that we left everything to follow him. “God alone,” said Gabriel Deshayes, the founder of the Congregation.

The Word of God, read and pondered daily, prayer, and the sacraments nourish this encounter.

Our lives bear the mark of our attachment to Christ. We adopt a way of life inspired by the Gospel, even taking vows.

• Vow of poverty: to live simply and modestly (the Gospel says, “Take nothing with you”) and above all, to share and have things in common.
  Vow of chastity: to encounter others with respect and loving care.
  Vow of obedience: to listen to others, whose words can be important in helping us choose, move forward, and seek.

Our life is marked by the Gospel teachings of our founders: Gabriel Deshayes, Michelle Guillaume, the first sisters, and the sisters who came before us.

This encounter continues every day of our lives. Whether we are praying, walking, caring, teaching, washing dishes, or farming, it is a constant presence. The Word of God dwells in our lives. However, it is necessary to set aside those special times when, in the solitude of our hearts or with the sisters of our community, we gather to worship, bless, glorify, ask forgiveness, and offer up gifts; to present to God all the people we have met and welcomed.

It is in our lives, from morning till night, that the Word flows between the banks of our homes, our streets, our encounters, the Word where God desires to dwell. It is in our spirit, which shapes us through the actions of our work, our sorrows, our joys, our loves, that the Word of God wishes to abide. The phrase of the Lord that we have gleaned from the Gospel at a morning Mass or on the subway, or between two chores, or at night in our beds, must never leave us, any more than our lives or our minds ever leave us. It wants to nourish, transform, renew the handshake we offer, our effort in our tasks, our gaze upon those we meet, our reaction to fatigue, our resilience in the face of pain, our blossoming in joy. It wants to be at home wherever we are at home. It wants to be ourselves wherever we are ourselves. The Word of the Lord demands our respect; If our life has possible pauses, it wants to possess both a little and many of these pauses; it demands that our mind be exclusively occupied with it, and requires the sacrifice of everything that is worth less than it. It wants us to pray for it while forgetting everything that is so insignificant compared to it… So be it.

Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964)