On a path of growth
We are women consecrated to the Heart of Christ, walking on the path of human and spiritual growth.
Together, we want to live cordiality, tenderness and compassion in a world in search of meaning, of peace, of justice and of love.
As baptized, we are already in mission as Christian, missionaries through the Father’s design of love. By our religious engagement, we are again in a new way in mission, and our whole religious life is entirely apostolic.
For us, spiritual life or apostolic life are from the same inspiration and springs forth from the same source: the mystery of Christ’s love. We are called to always strive to become our true selves, that is, disciples of Jesus Christ.
Our spirituality
In response to a love
Our spirituality draws its source from the contemplation of the Heart of Christ.
This contemplation molds within us the heart of the poor and illumines the way we look on the world.
In response to the Love that calls us, we are women consecrated to the Heart of Christ, walking on a path of human and spiritual growth. We want, with great interior liberty, to live together cordiality, tenderness and compassion, in a world in search of meaning, of peace, of justice and of love.
The Prayer
The Eucharistic celebration, prayer in common, as well as individual prayer, continually nourishes our passion for Jesus Christ.
“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.”
1 Jn 4,16
Jesus Christ is not a model outside of us. He is in us. He is an active model, inviting us to action. His charity urges us to meet his demands and to follow his path. It urges us to see the world not as a place to avoid, not as a mirror to be contemplated, but as a reality to be transformed.
Experience of God
The universe, all humans, myself and all that I am; all peoples, its history is my history, this is the field of my experience of God.
It is there that I can meet God, reach the Father, who calls to life, know the Son who incarnates divine tenderness, to commune with the Spirit who sows everywhere the seeds of salvation.
It is there that I can live, with Mary, with a gaze towards the fullness of Christ.
GET THE RIGHT TO RAISE FROM ROME
In 1924, Msgr. Rumeau, Bishop of Anger, insisted that the Superiors, the Canon Emile Girault, (1910-1930) and Mother St-Gaudent (1918-1932), send to Rome a request for pontifical approbation. It contained a brief history of “the good work”, recalling the different stages and the wonderful development since its origin (1823 foundation to 1902)
At that time, the Congregation had 1100 nuns distributed among 210 establishments in 12 dioceses, working for the education of children and the care of the sick. Despite the persecution, the Congregation assumed the direction of 200 houses, including 2 in Belgium and 14 in America. She could then avail herself of numerous episcopal installations, including in the first row, those of the bishops of Angers, Mgr Montault des Isles and Mgr Angebault to address a request to Rome in order to obtain the right to relieve from Rome.
An International Congregation
From 1914-1918, after about a century of existence, the Congregations of the Daughters of Charity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was of diocesan right, that is, it depended on the bishops of the diocese where the Sisters lived.
REQUEST TO ROME
A file was created and the text of the Constitutions was annexed to the file, with the approvals of Mgr Montault, Mgr Mathieu and Mgr Rumeau. The bishops of the dioceses where the Sisters worked sent glowing testimonial letters. Only the Bishop of Burlington refused to add his testimony to that of the confreres of Europe and America. This abstention failed to be fatal to the cause, which dragged on for six long years. Finally, in October 1929, after submitting a new, larger and more detailed dossier, a Capuchin monarch, consultant to the Congregation of Religious, passing through Angers, warned the Canon Girault that the affair was going to be concluded shortly. Cardinal Lépicier, future protector of the Congregation in Rome, had just handed over to the Tribunal all the documents required.
Cardinal Lépicier
OUR RELIGIOUS FAMILY ON SEVERAL CONTINENTS
Expansion of our family in many continents invites us to become aware of our belonging to an international congregation.
Our charism invites us to live in communion despite the distances and our differences. We believe in the strength of the bonds that unite us.
Moments of encounters and sharing among Sisters of different provinces strengthened the bonds we share. Welcoming the diversity of cultures, the sharing of gifts were a source of mutual enrichment, of knowledge and of reciprocal understanding.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITIES ALLOWS US:
- Expansion of our witnessing of universal fraternity;
- to be enriched by our differences for a better service of the kingdom;
- To develop an open attitude towards strangers in our society becoming more and more cosmopolitan;
- To correct racist tendencies (way of expressing oneself, preconceived ideas, taking side);
