"We seek the human desert where there is lacking the substance of Life...In such places God's grace awaits us. It is in such places that we are asked to live the adventure of God's fellowship, and sent by the church, to give witness." - From "On the Road to Where?" a pamphlet by Brother Peter Raphael
In the desert of Algeria Charles de Foucauld met the Lord. While at a Trappist monastery in the dry, barren land of Syria he became aware of the vast human desert of the poor and he knew his life must be lived with them and for them. "I love our Lord," he said, "and I cannot bear to lead a life different from the one he led....Like Jesus of Nazareth: charity toward the people who live here...and humility in my way of life, a humble, poor, hidden home." Finally, in 1916, while he was in the desert of Tamanrasset, living with nomads, he was assassinated.
He left behind a vision for life among the poor that Rene Voillaume brought to fruition in the founding of the Little Brothers of Jesus, and the related Little Brothers of the Gospel, in 1933, and the Little Sisters of Jesus in 1939. The purpose of the order is to live among the poor as Jesus did, and to be the friend of everyone, the universal brother and sister, the "littlest one." Their life is simple. They own no property, but choose to live in tenements in New York City, shanty towns in Venezuela, villages in India. They hold menial jobs: cleaning rooms in a hotel, waiting on tables in a restaurant, welding in a factory, driving a delivery truck.
The silence of the desert profoundly impressed Foucauld and molded his life of prayer. He found prayer to be an opening of his own interior desert to the one who is the Living Water and his soul found life and refreshment to sustain him in his arduous calling.
Read the Full Article
