St. Charles de Foucauld – Universal Brother

While I was studying at Mt. Angel Seminary I was captivated by St. Teresa of Avila. Her love of the world and its pleasures, the inability or refusal to pray and the call to conversion. Her tireless work later in life (she was forty-seven when she opened her first convent) and above all, her humor. When I told one of my Carmelite brothers about it, he laughed and told me that we don’t choose our saints, they choose us. I have walked with St. Teresa since that time, reading her spiritual works and asking her to intervene for me in difficult times of my life. I believe that we connect with saints when some aspect of our lives is reflected in theirs (or theirs in ours). A simple moment of identification with a saint has often carried me through difficult times by reflecting on their lives, their actions, and, in many instances, their difficulty with their belief, faith, or trust in God.

I have recently been captivated again. This time by Br. Charles de Foucauld. I know that I have heard of him in the past but for reasons known to God and Br. Charles alone, only recently has he reached out to me. Br. Charles has a particular spirituality. However, as with many other saints, it is not a completely unknown spirituality. It is one of preaching the Gospel through living and not necessarily through words. His spirituality reminds me at times of St. Francis of Assis. One of my favorite sayings of St. Francis is to “preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” I take this to mean to live the life of Christ in the world. Be an example of what my faith is through love and good works. To try to serve and love. This is also the spirituality of Br. Charles.

Charles was born in 1858 in France. When a young boy he was orphaned and went to live with his grandfather, who was a devout Catholic. When he was twenty years old his grandfather died and left him a great deal of money. Charles played, partied, joined the army, had a relationship with a woman whom he did not marry, and traveled to Morocco disguised as a Jew because, at that time, it was forbidden for Europeans to enter the country.

Eventually, he returned to France and to the Church. For a time, he was a Trappist but became more interested in the hidden life of Jesus in Nazareth. He left the Trappists and went to live in Nazareth where he eventually heard his call to the priesthood. He was ordained a priest and then went to live in Algeria. He wanted to be a universal brother. A brother to all. To live the anonymous life of Jesus in Nazareth, among those who seemed the poorest of the poor and the furthest from Christ. He wrote:

You ask me what my life is about. It is the life of a missionary monk founded on three principles; the imitation of the hidden life of Jesus of Nazareth, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, a life lived among the most forgotten people.

He was loved by those among whom he lived. He made a point to visit them and always to be of service in any way he could. To live a life of evangelization through actions.

My retreats before being ordained to the diaconate and to the priesthood showed me that I ought to lead the life of Nazareth, which is my vocation, not in the Holy Land I love so well but among the people whose souls were most sick, the sheep who were most forsaken. I am the minister of a divine banquet which should be offered not to our brothers, relatives and rich neighbours, but to the crippled and the blind, to the most forsaken souls, where priests are most in shortage. When I was young, I had travelled through Algeria and Morocco. Morocco, as big as France and with a population of ten million people, did not have a single priest. In the Algerian Sahara, 7 or 8 times as big as France, and more densely populated than used to be thought there were a dozen missionaries. No people seemed to me more forsaken than these.

He settled in Algeria at Beni Abbes in Western Sahara because living in Morocco was impossible. He opened his doors to everyone, to be at their beck and call. He often received sixty to one hundred people a day. I often now think of Br. Charles in whose experience I find comfort when I am called away from my work so often by those who are in need. He wrote:

It’s the same thing every day, poor people, sick people, one after the other. I reproach myself interiorly for not spending enough time in prayer and purely spiritual things. By day people never stop knocking at my door, and at night when it would be a good time for it I fall asleep like a wretch. It shames me and saddens me that sleep takes up more room than I want it to. I haven’t time for it and it take its own.

Br. Charles also shows me the need for spiritual direction. Not to walk the path alone because so often my own self-evaluation is errant. His spiritual director was Fr. Huvelin who wrote to him:

My dear friend, my dear child,

Put up with yourself! Be patient with yourself. Don’t be so concerned about how much sleep you need, but over the fact that you restlessly always seek to give more, more, more and it doesn’t leave you in peace. Hold yourself peacefully before God in order to receive his grace. And if you feel self hatred, then let it be a tranquil hatred, like deep water.

I rejoice that you can exert yourself a bit for the good of others. But that activity brings to the surface our shortcomings. Don’t let it trouble you. One isn’t worse because one has realized one’s shortcomings.

Be peaceful in order to give yourself in peace.

In 1904 Br. Charles was asked to go with the French army to the Tuaregs of the Southern Sahara. These people were known to be hostile. Br. Charles did not hesitate because of the hostility of these people but rather that he was almost fifty years old, and the trek would be thousands of miles in the heat with soldiers and also it meant he would have to leave his small hermitage. But he went. He had been convinced by a friend who told him the story of a Muslim woman who had protected French soldiers who had been wounded. He was so moved by the love of this woman that he even suggested the Pope write to her asking her to pray for him.

He left with the soldiers and for ten months traveled with the caravan visiting people before settling down to live among them. He had a translator but wanted to learn the language. It is interesting that the first five phrases he learned were:

Know that the Kingdom of God is close;

All men are brothers;

God has created us so that we all be brothers on earth as the angels are brothers in heaven; God wants us to love him above all things. He wants us to love people as we love ourselves;

This heart written on my robe is to remind me of God and people in order to love them.

In 1916, in the midst of World War I, he was shot and killed by insurgents.

Brother Charles wanted others to join him in the desert, but none came. It wasn’t until after his death that the fruit of his spiritual work began to fill the world and today there are 20 organized groups which follow Brother Charles and his spiritual call.

While I am not certain why I have only recently been impacted by Br. Charles, I am quite certain as to why I have been impacted. His spirituality is a lived spirituality. I spend a great deal of time with people who are suffering. Many of these people are either atheists, agnostics, or of other faiths. Many where once Catholic but are now angry with the Church. I never hide my Catholicism but neither do I talk much about it to those with whom I spend time. Instead, I try to be a reflection of the love of God.

Br. Charles wrote:

Our entire existence, our whole being must shout the Gospel from the rooftops. Our entire person must breathe Jesus, all our actions. Our whole life must cry out that we belong to Jesus, reflect a Gospel way of living. Our whole being must be a living proclamation, a reflection of Jesus.

When my daughter was younger, I often felt that I could not do as much as I wanted to help in my community. It was at this time I was introduced to the silence of Nazareth. The quiet years where Jesus lived the life of a simple worker among his neighbors. I was often reminded that there will be a time for preaching but now my job is to be a mother and attend to my life as it is.

Br. Charles reminds me that there is no need to look forward to a time of preaching. Of course, if called we should answer with an eager willingness, but we can live in the hidden world of Nazareth, being a Christian in action without trying to convince or convert anyone with words. He wrote:

Every Christian must be an apostle, this is not a counsel, it is a commandment. My apostolate must be an apostolate of goodness. On seeing me people should say to themselves, since this man is so good, his religion must be good. And if I am asked why I am so gentle and good I must reply, because I am the servant of the One whose goodness is still greater. If only you knew how good my Master is!

These days I am very busy. I must travel often to give talks or workshops that hopefully will bring those who hear me speak to the freedom found only through God. I do not use Christian or Catholic vocabulary when I speak. These journeys are often long and call me from my work. I find that I don’t have enough time to be in prayer, silent before the Eucharist. But in the writings of Br. Charles, I find an answer – the answer to this problem from the Lord:

As far as recollection goes, it is love that should recollect you interiorly in me and not distance from my children. See me in them and like me at Nazareth, live close to them, lost in God.

And so, I continue to travel, seeking a relationship with God through a life lived in service to my brothers and sisters. I try to live in Universal Brotherhood. I fail in this often. I am not the kind and loving servant at all times and I seek God’s grace to overcome my shortcomings so that I may be of greater service to him. Of course, this is the spirituality that is calling to me at this stage of my life. We are all called in some way. Through reading about the saints or coming to know them through their writings, we can uncover our call to live a life in Christ in the way he calls us to live. We all have a part. We make up the body of Christ. Let us grow together in holiness in whichever way we are called. St. Charles de Foucauld, pray for us!

All quotations are taken from the website: https://charlesdefoucauld.info

Canonization of Charles de Foucauld: May 15, 2022.