Our community is part of the monastic tradition in which common life has its origins in the first Christian community in the early Church, born at Pentecost.
According to the Acts of the Apostles:
They shared their possessions according to each one’s need,
together they praised God everyday in the temple,,
they broke bread
and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,
Corinthians
(Acts 2,42-47 and 4,32)
«Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.»
(1 Corinthians 10,17)
Our common life is called to be a sign of visible unity in the Church, as expressed in the icon of the Trinity. Love passes between the three different persons of God who is ONE.
God is communion.
God is the love above all love, always offered, self-giving, love that is always open to the other, making way for the other…
To live in community is to live a parable of communion: in joy, simplicity and mercy, as in a dance, always moving towards…
A parable of communion: icon of humanity reconciled.
In our common life we seek to be a sign of reconciliation with all our differences united in a single, unique source: the Risen Christ.
We remember this each day as we pray:
“Lord, may Christians reveal the communion that is in you; may they be one so that the world might believe. »
Life in community: no unity without pluralism
Living our differences in unity and not in division in order to grow as a single body, with a single community heart, with patience and creativity, persevering, so that differences evolve towards complementarity, united in love and truth, towards diversity reconciled according to the image of God.
« Rabbi, why are human beings so different from each other?
Because they are all in the image of the One God. »
(Wisdom of a tsaddiq)
By its very nature, all life shared in community is turned towards God and towards others. It can move mountains of indifference and bring to humanity a unique quality of the presence of Christ
It is yeast in the dough.
Within community life there is energy of openness to others.
Life in community is a calling, with grace and gifts, demands and responsibility.
It is not possible without an inner life rooted in attention to the Word of God.
In the silence of prayer, the Word works a transformation from self-centred love to a love capable of seeing a unique person in the other who is different; we can grow towards the other, able to welcome the other as a gift and not as an enemy.
Our vocation opens us day by day to our neighbour, leading us to grow as women of openness and welcome.
In our hearts we cannot separate rootedness and outreach.
«How very good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity. »
(Psalm 133,1)
Community life is built through our differences and through our sharing each other’s poverty and failings. It is a daily struggle to become people of relationship.
God is relationship.
To dare relationship is to accept my poverty and that of my sister, to become inter-dependent.
It is daring to say: ‘I need you’ instead of saying: ‘I can manage by myself’. Life together brings out the limitations and failings of each one, it is the place, the space where I am open to the other, where I risk loving and being loved.
« You are no longer alone, in all things you are advancing together with your sisters. With them, you are called to live the parable of community. »
« You are called to freedom.
Your past is buried in the heart of Christ, and God has already taken care of your future. »
(The “little source” of Taizé, adapted)
Community life: where we gather the fruits of sharing our gifts and our frailties.
« By sharing, you are among those who, with very little, generate a fine human hope. »
(The “little source” of Taizé)
Community life: the place of forgiveness and of celebration.
What would we become without forgiveness that opens us to constant newness of life?
A way that goes from ‘one beginning to the next, by beginnings that never end.’ (Gregory of Nyssa).
« Will you let yourself be challenged by that absolute of love,
the call to forgive even seventy times seven times, in other words always? »
(The “little source” of Taizé)
« Never resign yourself to the scandal of the separation of Christians who so readily profess love for their neighbour and yet remain divided. Make the unity of the body of Christ your passionate concern. »
(the Rule of Taizé)
« Remain in my love »
(John 15,9)
At our profession service the prioress asks us: “What do you desire?”
The sister replies: “The mercy of God and the communion of my sisters.”
« Desiring as you do to give your life because of Christ and the Gospel,
always keep in mind that you are advancing with him towards the light, even in the midst of your own darkness. »
« If you were to lose mercy, you would have lost everything. »
« With almost nothing, you are a creator of reconciliation in this mystery of communion that is the Church. »
(The “little source” of Taizé, adapted)
