Little Sisters of Jesus - Expansion

Expansion

On the 26 July 1946, whilst on pilgrimage to La Sainte Baume, Little Sister Magdeleine became convinced that the Community of the Little sisters should extend to every country. 1946 was also when some Little Sisters took jobs in factories, becoming workers among other workers.

"Four Little Sisters are starting work at the factory.. My job will be to work on the machines which are used for cutting out the cases for pharmaceutical powders - 40,000 a day, always repeating the same action... I have been appreciating the beauty of this manual work in the tradition of Jesus of Nazareth.I know that the forty workers in this room, in front of their forty machines, have a unique value and dignity so that sharing their lot in life can in no way detract from my own dignity as a member of a religious order."

In the Sahara, Little Sisters of Jesus were already nomads living alongside other nomads. Other communities lived and worked among factory and craft workers, those who worked on the land, with the sick, with shepherds, Travellers, Pygmies, fairground and circus people. Communities began in Switzerland, Brazil, Morocco, the Middle East, Central Africa, India, Vietnam... In 1951 Little Sister Magdeleine received permission to found a community in a very poor neighbourhood of Rome, Borgata Prenestina, in a temporary dwelling like that of the neighbours.

To live alongside in friendship and solidarity following Jesus of Nazareth was the key to this new vocation in the Church. Little Sister Magdeleine boldly and tenaciously defended this new form of religious life when questioned by the authorities of the Church and made three appeals to Pope Pius XII, the first in December 1944 through an intermediary, Archbishop Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), and directly in June 1947 and again in July 1948. The following is taken from her second appeal:

"The Little Sisters ask to be allowed to live as the leaven in the dough of humanity. They desire to integrate totally with other human beings, while leading a deeply contemplative life, like that of Jesus in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth and on the highways and byways of his public life.

"The Little Sisters identify wholly with the working class, but represent at the same time a bridge between all classes, races and religions. They must be a catalyst for worker and employer, Muslim and Christian, so that each learns to live with the other, loving with a greater love and doing away with all hatred and enmity.

"Their community life should be a living witness to Christian love, 'Jesus Caritas'. They will not be cloistered. Their doors will always be open, so that their communities will be a meeting ground for lay and religious who will find there deeper understanding and greater love. The Little Sisters would like to live as one with the working class, in the factories and workshops. They ask for nothing more than to be thought of as `workers among workers', as they are `Arabs among Arabs' and `nomads among nomads', so that the light of Christ shines out of them, in humility and silence. In the lives of the Little Sisters we must see, from near at hand, the real face of the religious life and of the Church, the real face of Christ."

From the time of the foundation her love for the Church never slackened. It was important for her to submit to the Church authorities all that she lived and above all her most daring projects.

"There are so many opportunities to break down barriers, that go against the rules. If we do go against them, it should be done in front of the Church, from which nothing should be disguised.” (Letter to Father Voillaume, 27th April 1951).

At difficult times she never grew weary of seeking dialogue but held on to what she believed, against all odds. She wanted the sisters to be

"A witness to the Church’s love for working people and for the poor, to whom Christ and the holy family belonged." (Letter to Mgr. Montini, 10th July 1948).