Testimonials in times of coronavirus

The Community of Conflans tells us:

We’ve been housebound for four weeks now. At the beginning we accepted it by saying to ourselves, we have time to rest, to tidy up, to read, to pray, to find ourselves together…..but the days pass by, the pandemic takes its toll: much suffering, many questions for many. Five sisters from Grenelle (in the retirement home for elderly sisters) leave us in a short time, joining thousands of others around the world. Suffering is hard to live for many. They left and we were not able to accompany them. “What a mystery!

Bernadette

This confinement corresponds to the end of my apostolic experience. I can no longer go as a volunteer to the “the mission boat “Je Sers”, which is an opportunity to express myself in community life.
It’s new to meet all together at meals…We have chosen to pray more together.
A special time I’ll never forget in my life.
I think a lot about people who are alone: prisoners, people who are in “EHPADs”, or in apartments, migrants who are undocumente
I think about all the people who help others. It is a very difficult time, a lot of suffering, worry, and fear.
It is a time to look, to reflect on creation, on the Lord, on our Faith in HIM. It is a time to review the values that pass through our lives, and the testimonies of solidarity. The solidarity of the children with their grandparents, the parents who are closest to their children, and also the tensions in apartments that are too small.
We must take advantage when we can find ourselves together, and thank the Lord for this.

Phuoc (novice)

After a stay with my parents with whom I started to live the generalized confinement, here I am on the road on March 22nd to return to the “Ile de France”.
Closed motorway areas, highways, towns crossed, where only carriers and a few cars are circulating made me feel a particular atmosphere, the emptiness ! amplified by a windy weather….
Arriving in Conflans, I find my sisters, but also my colleagues at work, and the director of the association * La Pierre Blanche – the boat Je sers*. In these places, following the confinement the daily life was organized differently. For me it was a call to find another balance in these two spaces which are one in my life as a LSA, to enter into a community life more prayerful and less physically present outside while continuing for my part, in another way, the accompaniment of refugees welcomed in private homes (living themselves the confinement together), made me enter into a process of stripping, thanksgiving, gratitude, welcoming the present moment.
To welcome, to be in contact with the refugees, the hosts, the partners through teleworking, telephone interviews, video-conferences.

Laughing with the colleagues, we meet once a week at the office, we realize that we have difficulty to respect the gestures barriers, nd that we must be constantly attentive to it.
An experience that in this time of Lent and Easter 2020, invites me to keep my Faith alive, sure that the dead and Risen Christ is indeed there with each one of us forever!

Nathalie

I feel the need to say how much I am touched by the too many deaths that follow one another in our Little Sisters, in our families, or among well-known priests; it is well together that we bear these trials with the whole world!
A volunteer whose husband is suddenly hospitalized for a stroke, sends us an email asking us to pray hard for her husband. Often after some monthly meetings where she shared the follow-up with the Migrants in search of work or towards training, she would tell us: “I am not a believer, but when we share and reflect together, we come together on the same values of respect and love for people”.
It is a call to live in trust and prayer with Christ who, in this Holy Week, reminds us that in his own struggle leading him to death on the cross, he accepts it so that all humanity may receive God’s life in abundance. And where there is hope and love : God is present.

Agnes

Community of Issy les Moulineaux :

From our little garden that allows us to breathe!

We observe the confinement as best we can; neighbours offer to do our shopping; they phone to ask about us and we do the same with each other in order to stay connected and take part in all the bereavements and events; ours and those from all over the world, very much informed by newspapers, TV and radio and… the telephone.
The evening before we rush to the news, we applaud the caregivers at our windows with the neighbours…we think very hard about the “EHPAD” ( the retirement home for elderly sisters ), and all the suffering in the world!
This morning April 3rd we recharge our batteries with our dear Father Pernet and we learn that in 1890 during the “Influenza” epidemic there was 1 month between life and death!
We are re-reading our beautiful History by joining you all, in our 20 countries around the world.

Marie-Louise, Aline, Jeanine, Hermine (LSA)