New Year's Day in the Community
Back Home Up Next

25 March 1982
Paris, France

Mother Rogé, my dear Sisters and Father Lloret,

It was on New Year's Day that I last spoke to you in this hall, and it was a feast day of Mary, the Mother of God. Although the official title of today's feast is the Annunciation of the Lord, it is very much Our Lady's day. Today we are honoring both the mystery of the Incarnation and the obedience of Mary that made it possible. Today, in a certain sense, is New Year's Day also. There was a time when in some Christian countries, the 25th March marked the beginning of a new year.

For you, Daughters of Charity, it is still very much New Year's Day. For today you have commenced a new era in your ascent to God. Through the renovation of your vows you have given yourself to God for the service of the poor, and I am certain that through this renewal, you are enabling the light of His love to shine more brightly in the darkness of this world. For that, all of us have reason to rejoice: the world, the Church, the Company and the poor.

St. John in the first chapter of his Gospel wrote: "The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." (Jn 1:5). I believe St. John's word 'comprehend' could be taken in two senses: the darkness did not `understand' it, or the darkness did not 'overcome' it. We must not be surprised if in a secularised society many people do not understand the meaning of the consecrated life or do not appreciate its value. We ourselves, however, must not become discouraged by that fact. Always remember that it is Jesus Christ Who gives value to your consecrated lives. It is true that we are invited to cooperate with His grace, and that cooperation is often costly. It is He, however, Who can take that little drop of water which is my life, and place it in the chalice bearing the rich wine of His life, sufferings, death and resurrection, and transform all into an offering "for the glory of God and the salvation of the world." The darkness of this world will not be able to 'overcome' the power that radiates from Christ and those who have hidden themselves and their lives in Him.

So, my dear Sisters, may this New Year's Day in the Community lift you up to new heights of devotion to God and His poor. May the grace of renovation make your hearts more pure in all that you do and say and think. May this New Year's Day lift your hearts up to new heights of confidence in the love which God has for you personally. In saying this to you, I feel I am echoing a thought which St. Vincent expressed on many occasions to your first predecessors: "Mark this, my Daughters, your work is great. As it is great, so, too, are God's designs on it, and in order to cooperate with them it is essential for Daughters of Charity to perform actions that are in conformity with the name they bear. Has not God great designs in your regard since He wishes you to spend your life in following the maxims of His Son? Oh! Sisters, how happy you are."(Conf. Eng. ed., 2 Nov. 1655, p. 756).

Today is New Year's Day in the Company. It is also Our Lady's day, the day of the first Joyful Mystery of her rosary. These last few weeks I have looked often at the statue of Our Lady of the Globe in the chapel, that statue which was, to use St. Catherine's own words, "the cross" of her life. Looking at that statue of Our Lady which now surmounts the body of St. Catherine, I realized for the first time that there was not one globe, but two globes presented to us. Our Lady stands on one globe with the serpent crushed by her foot, and she holds another one in her hand, a golden one surmounted by a cross. The globes can be said to speak to us of the victory of the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but also of the presence of sin in the world.

That statue speaks to you, not only of her whom it represents, but also of your own vocation as Daughters of Charity. You are called to work amongst the poor in the world that still feels the sting of a dying serpent. As Daughters of Charity, you are called to work, not for the coming of a utopia, but for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Do not let your vision be shortened by any purely temporal vision of society or of the world. You must not let your eyes rest solely on the globe on which Mary stands. Rather must you lift up your eyes and the eyes of the poor to that globe surmounted by a cross which Mary holds in her hands. There are many people today who are passionately working for a more just society, for the alleviation of the sufferings of the poor. That is not enough for a Daughter of Charity. Hers must be a longer vision, the vision of Jesus Christ Whose "Kingdom was not of this world." (Jn 18:36). A Daughter of Charity must fix her eyes on those tender loving hands which hold the globe surmounted by a cross, and must reflect the tenderness and love of Our Lady in all that she does for the poor.

Our Lady of the two globes has much to say to us on this New Year's Day in our Community. Our Lady's feet are fixed firmly on the globe on the ground. The Gospels show her to have been a practical woman, who recognized the needs of people as soon as she saw them. Of Our Lady you can say that she lived the prayer of her Son for His disciples: "I am not asking that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from evil." (Jn 17:15). She was, as St. Vincent remarked, like the ray of the sun which penetrates into dark and murky places while itself remains unaffected in its purity. That could be said to be the vocation of a Daughter of Charity, to be in the world, but not of it, to be a beam of God's sunshine while remaining unaffected by the evil you encounter in your work of service.

The globe in Our Lady's hands, have you noticed the gesture of her hands which is at once one of love and detachment? Of love, for has she not been proclaimed Mother of the Church, and so must care for it as it continues to grow. Of detachment, because the throne of David was not given to her, but to her Son Whose Kingdom will have no end. (cf. Lk 1:32-33).

In all that you do, my dear Sisters, until the day of Renovation comes again, may you experience the power of Our Lady's caring intercession. May you work with her in the preparation of the world for the final coming of her Son Whose Kingdom will have no end. In St. Vincent's words: "I implore the goodness of God to grant you His Spirit that you may carry out this good work according to His good pleasure." (Conf. Eng. ed., 23 July 1654, p. 638).

Web Design by Beth Nicol