VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church needs to strive continually to make sure it is focusing on the essentials of Christian faith – Jesus and charity – and not “get lost in so many secondary things”, Pope Francis said.
St Charles de Foucauld, who was canonised on May 15, is a great model to follow in placing the Lord and service to others at the centre of one’s life and action, the Pope said on May 18 during a meeting with members of the Charles de Foucauld Spiritual Family Association.
The association brings together the Little Brothers of Jesus, the Little Sisters of Jesus and 18 other religious orders and associations for priests, religious and laypeople inspired by the French-born saint.
Pope Francis said he, too, was inspired by St Charles de Foucauld’s life and writing.
“His spirituality did me so much good when I was studying theology, a time of maturation and also of crisis,” the Pope said. He learned of the saint through Father Arturo Paoli, an Italian member of the Little Brothers of the Gospel, who lived and worked in Argentina and through the books – “which I used to read all the time” – of Father René Voillaume, founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus.
St de Foucauld’s example “helped me so much to overcome crises and to find a way of Christian life that was simpler, less Pelagian, closer to the Lord”, the Pope said. “I thank the saint and bear witness to this, because it did me so much good.”
Pope Francis asked members of the association, “like Brother Charles, to continue to imagine Jesus walking among the people, patiently carrying out hard work, living in the everyday life of a family and a city.”
“How happy the Lord is to see that we imitate him in the way of littleness, humility, sharing with the poor,” the Pope said.
“The simple purity of the Gospel,” he said, is found in silence, prayer, adoration and service to others.
Following Jesus as St de Foucauld did leads to “universality”, he said. “The new saint lived his Christianity as a brother to all, starting with the least.”
“He did not aim to convert others, but to live God’s gratuitous love, implementing ‘the apostolate of kindness'”, and being a brother to every person, whatever their religion, the Pope said.
Pope Francis thanked members of the association for continuing to “carry on this witness, which does so much good, especially at a time when there is a risk of closing ourselves up in particularisms, of increasing distances, of losing sight of our brothers and sisters. We see this unfortunately in the daily news”.
St Charles de Foucauld was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1858. He strayed from the faith during his adolescence, but during a trip to Morocco, he saw how devoted Muslims were to their faith, which inspired him to return to the Church and, eventually, to join the Trappists. After living in monasteries in France and in Syria, he sought an even more austere life as a hermit. Ordained to the priesthood in 1901, he lived among the poor, and finally settled in Tamanrasset, Algeria. In 1916, he was killed by a band of marauders. His writings inspired the foundation, after his death, of the Little Brothers of Jesus and the Little Sisters of Jesus.
The miracle approved for his cause involved Charle, a carpenter’s apprentice working on restoring a chapel in Saumur, France, who fell over 50 feet, hitting a bench whose armrest pierced his left side and came out at the back at the base of his rib cage. According to the Little Brothers of Jesus, Charle did not pass out, got up immediately to seek help and, after surgery, was discharged from the hospital after a week. “He went back to work two months after the accident without suffering any physical or psychological ill-effects,” the order said. The accident occurred on November 30, 2016, the eve of the centenary of St Charles’ death.
Photo: St Charles de Foucauld. (CNS photo/courtesy of I.Media)
If he were to meet Joe Biden,
I wonder what he would say
about abortion?
Would he correct him?
As abortion is one of the biggest evils of our world, hopefully he would correct him.