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That Joy which comes to us from Another…
Let thanksgiving be our constant prayer
like the almond tree, the first to bloom
and see from afar the coming summer,
and the fullness of its harvest.
Let thanksgiving be our constant prayer… our childlike words of gratitude, quivering with joy, or a cry of amazement at the overflowing generosity of God, whose benefits are constantly poured out for us — God ‘in whom we live and move and have our being’. ‘Let thanksgiving be your first act in all things,’ Barsanuphus, the great spiritual father in the Gaza desert, advises one of his disciples. It is a choice to be made anew every morning, and all the more important as it goes against the tide of opinion so widespread in our society, that we are entitled to everything as our due.
Giving thanks… was it not everything to Christ, in his life, even if the Gospels don’t often mention it explicitly? At the heart of his prayer, of his relation to his Father, the source of every gift? Did it not express the secret impulse of his life: to receive his being from the Father and to give himself in return, totally, holding nothing back — all the way to the depths of the night in Gethsemane, to the cross, to burst forth again in the light of Easter morning?
To let the Son’s thanksgiving live in us culminates in the Eucharist. It is to enter into the very movement which is the deep constitutive source of our being. It allows us to welcome ourselves — and every other human being — as God’s gift. Our hearts expand, grow larger, breathe and then can sing: ‘All things come from God, through God and for God.’
This year we commemorate the first professions at Grandchamp. On 9th November 1952, to be exact, Mother Geneviève and our first sisters committed themselves together to an adventure of faith, with a lifelong ‘yes’. As we look back on the long way we have travelled since, we give thanks for the mercy and faithfulness of God through all the years, for the fertility of the seed sown 50 years ago, for the prayers and support of so many other communities, pastors, priests and friends who are still our companions on this journey.
Many things have changed in these 50 years. The Community especially has widened and taken root in other countries, even continents (Asia, Africa), and in other cultures. But God has not changed. Jesus looks at the multitudes of today and sees them in the same way as before. He invites us to bring him our five loaves and two fishes, in order to respond to the hunger of those he sends us.
What else are we to do but to be there, to sing together that Christ is alive, to stand together near the Source of life, pointing the way, often without saying a word, for those in despair who are searching for the meaning of life; to be witnesses, in the midst of the church and of this suffering world, to a communion which is always offered in Christ, to a newness of life which is always possible through forgiveness. The joy of our common vocation is ours to celebrate, and the gift of being together is ours to receive; to be, in our own small way, a house of prayer for all peoples. So it was this summer during our Council, with the presence of several Servants of Unity, of our Guatemalan sister Julia, of Marie and Rita from Lebanon, of Lallia, our long-time Muslim friend from Algeria, and of Dina, a Jewish American….
In our thanksgiving, in this jubilee year, we lift up the past, the present and the future all at once, offering up our lives anew and our praise for all God’s faithfulness, goodness, tenderness, and compassion shown to us, in love without measure. The risen Christ walks with us, commits himself with us, faithfully persevering with us through times of difficulty. He calls us to choose Life in the midst of this world full of death, and by the power of the Holy Spirit to receive in our hearts the dynamic of commitment. Are not the three monastic vows a way of resisting the worldly spirit which is found in the three fundamental temptations (always wanting more, now, binding others to oneself, and dominating them), and which is at the root of all ideologies? Even more, our vows lead us on a path of conversion, towards a transfiguration of all our created being.
During our Council, always an important pause in the midst of our community life, we wished to live in the spirit of Jubilee, receiving the renewal of our community life — though in the midst of very trying times. This year we lived through one ordeal after another, with the deaths of two sisters who were still very present in the midst of our daily lives: sister Heidi on the winds of Pentecost, after an illness which moved with lightning swiftness, and four months later sister Myriam, in the silence of the Hermitage on the eve of the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. Those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy, sings Psalm 126, to which we turn again at every service of profession, and at every resurrection service for the dead. Sowing in tears, the destiny of the seed which must die in order to bear its fruit… there we have the mystery of Easter, the promise of a complete reversal.
If our times of trial have shaken us and often left us feeling helpless, they have also rooted us more firmly in the confidence that our community is truly the work of God. They also gave an unexpected depth to the theme we had already chosen for our Council, ‘That Joy which comes to us from Another’, which is born of faith, of our communion with the risen Christ.
What theme could be better for our Council retreat than that of faith? Br. François reminded us of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words, ‘I would like to learn to believe’. That is what we are always doing, he pointed out: learning to live in faith and by faith. Faith is a ‘movement towards’, in which we are constantly making new beginnings; it is the only thing which can create ‘this eminently personal relationship with God, with Christ’. Faith is ‘everything’ in our lives and at the same time ‘almost nothing’, especially when we are confronted with suffering. ‘We cannot experience faith without singing, praising and giving thanks’, because it is fundamentally, and always will be, ‘a step taken in free grace’.
But can we really be thankful and rejoice in a world of such great suffering, when insecurity is growing under new threats of war, when thousands of human beings are being thrown into exile… and when the pain comes home to us in our own flesh? To the question which rises to our lips in the inevitable time of trial — why? — God gives no answer, but he lets himself be affected by it. In Jesus, God comes down into the thick darkness, the hell of evil, the abyss of pain, and opens a way for us. ‘The answer to all our whys,’ said sister Marguerite, ‘is not a because, but a greater love.’
In the evening of Easter day, a stranger travelled with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, meeting them where they were, in the midst of their weeping, doubts and questions. In the same way Christ walks with us, offering himself to be believed and loved but never imposing himself on us, opening us little by little to the reality of the resurrection, to a life that never ends. The day comes when our hearts burn within us as we listen to his voice, when joy rises up.
Joy comes to us from this Other, from the presence of the Risen One who travels with us, who invites us to live in him as he lives in us, to receive with gratitude his abundant gifts, as well as the inevitable times of trial, and with him and in him to walk through the valley of the shadow, making it a place of living water. Not an easy joy, but rather the joy of Easter which is still there even in the midst of suffering, in the communion with Christ, which brings us closer to others in their struggles. Let us dare to be poor in spirit, that we may receive him, the Other who has taken on himself all the weight of the pain which is too much for us.
My joy,
Christ is risen!
As the weeks and months go by…
At the heart of our daily life, we are called to discern all the little — and big! — signs of the Life which God gives us abundantly, and to live with the eyes of faith, about which br. François spoke to us. In a mysterious way, we were unknowingly being prepared for the difficult and painful times ahead, thanks to a week-long retreat with Dom André Louf in February and our Council retreat. This year we were just thinking we had come to the end of a period of changes, …
Then we were suddenly shaken and ravaged by the deaths of our sr. Heidi and sr. Myriam; a new round of changes and readjustments began, besides those already anticipated in noviciate assignments (return of sr. Hannah and sr. Birgit, while sr. Jutta and sr. Elisabeth moved to Sonnenhof). Sr. Hiltje is now responsible for the daily life at Grandchamp. At the beginning of November, sr. Hélène returned from Chalencon to strengthen the group at Grandchamp. Several sisters have had times of trial with their health, including hospital stays for sr. Eva-Maria, sr. Albertine, sr. Anne-Marie and sr. Minke. But we have not lacked for help — Andreas completed his year as an EIRENE volunteer at the end of summer — nor for angels! What a joy to be able to share the essentials of our life of faith and prayer with sisters from other communities, and their help in our work has often been a great relief: sr. Marie Albert of the Oblates de l’Eucharistie, sr. Marthe-Elisabeth from Pomeyrol, sr. Ursula Barthelmey, our neighbour, and sr. Raffaëla from Bose who is now at St. Elisabeth in Jerusalem, a real gift to our sisters there, and for us here since at the moment we could not spare a sister to go there.
A period of being stripped bare? Yes, and of giving up a number of things; a test of the body of the community? Yes, but God is already doing new things, see how they break forth! Three new postulants were received this summer: Gésine, Katungu Eve-Evelyne, and France. The future noviciate went as a group to Chalencon for Easter week for a brief experience of life in one of our ‘fraternities’. They made a good beginning in October with a week-long retreat with Karin Stahl. This year, as last year, the novices benefited from an inter-monastic Bible course, and visits to other communities: a day at Le Pâquier to learn more of Carmelite spirituality, another at the Maigrauge to discover the richness of life in a Cistercian order.
Retreat programme, and the mystery of encounters…
Between the meetings of many and various groups at Grandchamp, we try to offer various forms of retreats: sr. Christel proposed a spiritual practice for daily life, and led a ‘wandering’ retreat; sr. Irmtraud led the Epiphany retreat, sr. Françoise the one at Pentecost, and our friends Anne and Philippe Bécholey the Easter retreat.
Pastor Daniel Bourguet, the prior of the Third Order of Watchers, came to lead two retreats: one for the women Servants of Unity, who celebrated their 40th anniversary this summer and elected a new convener, the other for the Third Order of Unity (TOU).
Grandchamp, a little corner of the great field of the world, is sometimes a place of unexpected encounter for its visitors! Yeheskel Landau was very surprised to discover here, in June, two very dear friends — one Muslim, Mustapha, and one Christian, Tom. Such encounters are a wink from God, Visitations… What can we say of those we experienced with little sister Marlene from Frankfurt, and sr. Marie-Chrystyna from Poland, sr. Hannah Kleinberger from Jerusalem, sr. Agapie from Beni Suef in Egypt (Coptic Church) … and renewing visits with sr. Marie-Joseph and br. Raphaël from Bec Hellouin, br. Thierry from Ireland who made his ordination retreat here, sr. Luise from Ordo Pacis, sr. Bénédicte from Versailles, sr. Marie-Samuel from Valognes, and br. Daniel from Bose…
We had a moving reunion with Ruth and Loren Halverson of the Ark Community in the USA, with whom we experienced a powerful communion, and solidarity with them in their struggle for peace, their refusal to accept war.
Opening towards Africa
We mentioned this last year, but now it has become a new reality in our Community with the coming of Eve-Evelyne. She finally arrived here from the Congo, after many adventures. To hear her tell her story since the early 1990s, when she was first definitely drawn to a life of prayer, all we can do is marvel as we recognise the hand of God in her journey!
There were two trips to Benin, West Africa this year, one by Evelyne Roulet and Maurice Bodinier in May, the other by Evelyne with sr. Catherine in November. The President of the Methodist Church in Benin, Pastor Simon Kossi Dossou, attended the TOU retreat, and Pastor Samuel Dossou and Emile Faga were at the TOU meeting.
Sr. Judith from the little Protestant community of Bafut in Cameroun stayed with us briefly, as did Héleine Rehema Tabena, a young vicar from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Congo, sent by her church for an experience in community life. We also were glad to welcome little sisters Monika and Teya from Rwanda, sr. Happiness from South Africa and of course our faithful friends from Cameroun, Lucette and Ebenézer!
Due to the political situation, sr. Siong was not able to go to Madagascar as planned. We still keep the sisters of Mamré and our Malagasy friends in our hearts.
Conferences and ecumenical meetings
Sr. Pierrette and sr. Minke went to Bose in September for a symposium on St. Simeon the New Theologian; sr. Minke was there in May for a symposium on Charles de Foucauld, and sr. Anneke in June for the KAIRE meeting.
Sr. Pierrette and sr. Regina took part in the SDC meeting, and the committee came to Grandchamp to plan the next one. A visit in March from sr. Agnes and four of her sisters from St. André was a rich and happy time of sharing!
On 25 August, four of our sisters participated in the big ecumenical 75th anniversary celebration of Faith and Order at Lausanne Cathedral.
Because of her health, sr. Minke was not able to go to the EIIR meeting in Italy — the paper she had prepared to give there was read by sr. Marie-Chrystyna. She also had to give up the plan of going to Lyon to give a lecture at a symposium on the abbé Couturier, however she was able to send a written contribution. The spiritual ecumenism and prophetic vision of father Couturier have provided a firm foundation for our vocation of Christian unity. The bond established by sr. Marguerite’s visit to Lyon in 1940 has grown deeper ever since, and has made possible our openness towards Anglican communities. Abbé Couturier kept our first sisters and their vows in his prayers, considering that they held great promise for the church.
Ecumenical pilgrimages…
In the light of the Easter celebrations, sr. Minke joined an ecumenical peace pilgrimage in Israel and Palestine. It was Hildegard Goss who had the idea and organised this pilgrimage at the invitation of the Latin patriarch, Michael Sabbah. In this Holy Land so deeply in turmoil with all the violence and the suffering, he longed to see another sort of pilgrim, pilgrims of peace, who come to share their solidarity and support for those working for peace there, and for the suffering populations. The political situation unfortunately compelled the group to reduce the number of its participants from thirty to five, delegates from Pax Christi, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and Church and Peace, and also to shorten the programme of visits. Bethlehem was closed to the pilgrims, but they were nevertheless able to meet with many persons and peace groups, both Israeli and Palestinian, and were supported by an international prayer network.
After the pilgrimage, sr. Minke stayed on at St. Elisabeth for another month, to reflect on the experience of these encounters and to share with sr. Maatje and sr. Claire-Irène (sr. Mechthild had just returned to Grandchamp) the demands of their everyday life in the midst of despair, uncertainty about the future, suffering. ‘Jerusalem is like the womb of the world, everything is intensely concentrated here. If only all this suffering could be transformed into the pain of childbirth, giving birth to a new world: this would have an impact on the whole world. Let us commit ourselves to prayer, opening our hearts to a universal, all-inclusive love, which can also pass through the narrow gate of compassion for the other person, of forgiveness.’
Sr. Michèle was able to go for the third time on pilgrimage in Poland, at the invitation of Mother Marie Placide and sr. Hanna (Polish). Their programme included many encounters, with the Benedictines at Tyniec and at Biskopow, and friends in the Lutheran parish in Katowice, among others.
Echoes from our other locales
Algiers and St. Elisabeth
In Algiers, as at St. Elisabeth, the sisters continue to be a loving and a praying presence, in the midst of people who are suffering and longing for newness of life.
Sonnenhof
Sonnenhof is still a place of benediction! The sisters are very grateful for the experience of this year, for the loyalty of guests and groups returning, of pastors giving retreats and coming regularly to celebrate the Eucharist. After the break this summer and the changes which have taken place, they have returned to their daily life with enthusiasm.
Chalencon
At Chalencon, sr. Laure has taken the place of sr. Hélène for the time being, so they continue to be four sisters there. The number of guests they receive is slowly growing, and they are beginning to think of changes and needed renovations in the house; putting the kitchen and the dining room on the same floor, thus moving the chapel; fixing up another building which is unusable at present. Can this become reality?
Woudsend
A few lines from Woudsend, from sr. Christianne: ‘With the groups we receive here, we are continuing our search together for a liberating spirituality which faces up to the current situation. Three themes have been suggested, each of which in some way unites action and contemplation: a concrete approach to our own inner space; the question of what poetry and dialogue might contribute to our daily life; and finally, spirituality and non-violence according to J. and H. Goss-Mayr, in connection with the insecurity and fear of otherness in our increasingly diverse society. These are current problems which affect us personally and also open us to solidarity in resistance.’
In the light of the communion of saints
The Lord has called home several members of our families and close friends. With so many others, they have joined that great cloud of witnesses and entered into the joy of God’s kingdom! Mother Claire de St. André, Irmgard Buck, Madame van Tienhoven, Charles Legland of the Arche de St. Antoine, Monsieur Popesco, Pastor Maurice Robert, Françoise Hatey, Father Ion Bria, Christiane Peter… TOU members Catherine Schneider and Elisabeth Lieberherr; and our neighbours René Ducommun and Claude Bovet, the latter soon after moving back into his farmhouse, magnificently renovated, where he had hoped to spend a happy retirement…
We don’t want to end this newsletter without telling you how much support we have received, and continue to receive, from all your signs of friendship, your prayers, your messages from near and far when sr. Heidi and sr. Myriam left us. Our deepest thanks to all of you!
We wish you a blessed Christmas season and a good and happy new year, in the expectation, ever new, of Him who is to come!
sister Pierrette and her sisters
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