THE RECTOR'S REFLECTIONS

March, 2006, on Charles de Foucauld

I am currently reading, Charles de Foucauld.: Writings Selected with an Introduction, by Robert Ellsberg (Orbis Books 1999). You may have hear of de Foucauld. The Roman Catholic Church this past November moved him along the road to canonization.

When I had heard his name in the news back in November my interest was piqued. I had remembered hearing of him during my college days and thought that he may be worth revisiting. It was a good decision. To connect with his life and writings is take a journey with a modem desert hermit. De Foucauld lived from 1881 to 1916. Not a long life and to a large extent an obscure life.

He was a graduate of a French military institute and lived a worldly life until 1901 when he felt a call to a deeper way of living. He says early on in his book that once he discovered there was a God he could do nothing other than devote his entire life to God. He became a priest and then a Trappist monk for a number of years. He left the monastery and traveled to the Holy Land where he worked as a custodian in a convent of Poor Clare sisters for another few years. Then finally he left for French occupied Algeria where he founded a hermitage in a remote village and spent his remaining years there. He allowed the French military to store arms in his hermitage and paid a price for this decision. He was killed by Algerian resistance fighters in 1916.

He had hopes of founding a religious order. His dream only became a reality several years after his death. However, at the core of his spirituality was his utter devotion to live in imitation of Jesus in simplicity and total identification with the poor. He spent his days in contemplation and in outreach to the local villagers. He understood very clearly that following Jesus was oftentimes just being present as Christ was present.

His writings are mainly from his journals and meditations from some retreats he led. They are simple and to the point. But they are the type of reflections that allows the reader to get a sense of the author and a closeness and companionship to the author.

I share a bit of Charles de Foucauld with you as we embark on the Lenten Season. His sense of presence with the other in prayer and action is a good guidepost for us in our walk with Jesus this Lent. Jesus became present among us in order for us to become present to each other. Incarnation is the gift of God becoming human. It is a gift of total and unquestioning love in order for us to carry on a ministry of love and presence in community both within our church walls and outside the walls and into the city.

Christ's presence is an active way of being with each other as friend, healer, teacher and prophet.

Walk this Lenten Season as Jesus walked. Be present in prayer and action as Jesus was present in prayer and action.

Perhaps even find a spiritual companion with whom to walk. May you find a Charles de Foucauld who calls you to new and deeper paths.

In Peace,
Fr. Richard