A Living Source of Hope
Nine years ago, on October 11, 2009, thousands of pilgrims from around the world, including a group from our Home, gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica and at St. Peter’s Square for the Canonization of our foundress, Jeanne Jugan. Although our everyday lives separated us by culture, language and miles, we were joyfully drawn together as brothers and sisters in Christ. A smile, a nod of the head, sparkle in an eye, or a wave of a hand, broke through any communication barriers. We stood together as one family to bear witness to the compassionate love of our beloved Jeanne Jugan.
We listened as Pope Benedict XVI spoke. “Jeanne lived the mystery of love by peacefully accepting darkness and divesting herself of all material possessions until her death. Her charism is always relevant, while so many aged persons suffer different types of poverty and solitude, sometimes even abandoned by their families. The spirit of hospitality and fraternal love, founded on limitless trust in Providence, which Jeanne Jugan drew from the Beatitudes, illuminated her whole existence. The evangelical impulse is followed today throughout the world in the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor, which she founded and which bears witness to her following the mercy of God and the compassionate love of the Heart of Jesus for the littlest ones.”
This week, an unusually warm fall day allowed a group of Residents to gather near the statue of St. Jeanne Jugan tucked away in a tranquil corner on our grounds. Although their lives are separated by culture, limitations and backgrounds, they joyfully came together as brothers and sisters in Christ to acknowledge and express thanks for the compassionate love of Jeanne Jugan that is the core of life in our Home.
As Pope Benedict prayed, “May St. Jeanne Jugan be for the elderly a living source of hope and for the persons so generously placing themselves at their service a powerful stimulus to pursue and develop her work!
A Living Source of Hope