«I always wanted to be a sister, but I couldn't become one because I didn't know how to read. Now I am consecrated to Jesus here at Bethany.» Susanna is one of the Consecrated Women of the Sacred Heart of Jesus living in a new religious community. We went to visit her.
In 1965, a small diocesan congregation in Normandy, the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, founded a welcome center at Saint Aubin les Elbeuf, twenty kilometers from Rouen, for adult women with intellectual disabilities. Several of these young women expressed, over the course of many years, a desire to become religious. The question arose: was this spiritually possible? A seven-year formation period was begun, adapted to their specific needs. Six of these women were then admitted to first vows and became «Consecrated Women of the Sacred Heart.»
In 1983, Providence offered them an abandoned school building, and the group moved in. «Bethany» is the name chosen by the consecrated women themselves. Today they form a religious community affiliated with the diocesan Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose superior general appoints the sister companions. Sisters from other congregations have joined the community to support it, and together they form a cohesive group. Little by little, twelve people with intellectual disabilities came to Bethany. Francesca had carried this desire in her heart since she was ten years old. She explains: «Now I have left everything to follow Christ at Bethany; I don't want to leave here anymore. I couldn't enter another community; I would have chosen the cloister.»
Real Demands
When you first arrive, what strikes you is the extraordinary atmosphere of joy, kindness, and faith. Yet the consecrated women follow a very austere rule. The demands are real. They rise at seven, then come Lauds and a quarter hour of communal adoration. After breakfast and personal care comes another moment of prayer. Then most of the sisters occupy themselves with housework: cooking, cleaning, the garden. Two of them work outside: one in the workshops of a nearby center for people with intellectual disabilities, the other at the same center, part-time.
"I have left everything to follow Christ at Bethany; I don't want to leave here anymore."
At 11:30 the consecrated women gather with the community of sisters from the mother house for the rosary, the Office of the middle hours, and Mass. The other services take place in the small, beautiful chapel of the Bethany house. Work, done individually in the morning in silence, becomes communal in the afternoon, shared in joy until Vespers. After that comes a snack and recreation time until dinner.After the radio news—when they learn what has happened around the world—comes Compline. At 10 p.m., everyone sleeps.
On every wall throughout the house are signs reminding the consecrated women of what is essential to their religious life.
«How is a postulant accepted, for example, someone who can barely speak?»
«Of course, we need the parents' permission. But what matters is the sense of prayer, the quality of heart, mutual love, the capacity to live together, and the detachment that moves one to leave everything to follow Jesus.»
Catherine, for example, had not been able to study, and when her family raised objections, she answered: «I thought it was enough to love the Good Lord to be a sister.»
The «Fourth Commitment»
When the postulant is considered ready for novitiate, she is given the habit of the consecrated women—a gray dress—and is called «Sister» while keeping her baptismal name. A formation period adapted to each person comes before her first religious consecration, the moment of the threefold vow to follow Jesus in chastity, poverty, and obedience. To these vows is added a fourth foundational vow: that of mutual love. «Living in reconciliation» means that problems arising, as they do everywhere, are resolved daily in fraternal communion around Jesus. This fourth commitment, it seems to us, explains the extraordinary atmosphere one feels in the community.
Hospitality is also part of Bethany's vocation. Right next to the main house stands a smaller one that welcomes families visiting the center to see their children with severe intellectual disabilities. Groups and individuals also come for a few days of prayer. One mother told me: «When I have three or four free days, I go there to breathe in that atmosphere and restore my inner strength.»
We ourselves, despite the brevity of our visit, received the same comfort in discovering this life so poor, consecrated to offering and service. While we ate lunch with the consecrated women, we were asked to speak about the work of Faith and Light in new countries. So many questions! The sisters are genuinely interested in everything.
They told us they would pray for O.C.H. (Office chrétien des handicapés), for Ombres et Lumière, for Fede e Luce, for us. They surely will.
They also pray that communities of the same kind will be formed. The requests are many, and Bethany is the only one of its type. May the Holy Spirit, through his unceasing work, make possible the new initiatives that can answer all authentic vocations.
- from Ombres et Lumière, no. 84, 1991