Foreword

Sister Eugénie Caps invoked the Holy Spirit to be enlightened in her path in following Christ. She had a desire to make Christ and His Gospel known to those who did not know Him, or knew very little about Him and above all, to show the most abandoned how much they are loved by God. Even today, we respond to this call to draw near the poorest as the Church invites us to do through the first Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi te ‘‘I have loved you’’. The central theme is Christ’ love for the poor and the invitation extended to the Church to renew its commitment to the most vulnerable. To help us, let us ask for the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, supported by the prayer of Sister Eugénie : ‘‘Holy Spirit, fill us with your spirit of love, charity, humility, surrender and patience. Give us strength, light, wisdom and fear of God’’.

      1st day

The poor of today

Let us present to the Lord all the poor we encounter or hear about and whom are dear to our hearts. Pope Leo XIV invites us to consider the different forms of poverty today: ‘‘On the bruised faces of the poor, we see imprinted the suffering of the innocent and, consequently, the very suffering of Christ. At the same time, it might be more accurate to speak of the many faces of the poor and poverty. Indeed, there are many   forms of poverty: that of those who lack the means to meet  their material needs,  the poverty of those who

are socially marginalized and lack the means to express their dignity and potential, moral and spiritual poverty, cultural poverty, the poverty of those who find themselves in a situation of personal or social weakness or fragility, the poverty of those who have no rights, no place, no freedom’’[1].

Eugénie, our foundress, acknowledges also her own poverty and weakness in all truth. She evokes this spiritual and moral poverty in her letter requesting Perpetual Vows: ‘‘Jesus came to seek the poor, the weak, the incapable, and as I am all of these, it is with a heart full of trust in my Savior that I come to put all  my good will, all my sincere desire, all my capacity to love in the service of Jesus in the blessed work that is our dear Institute’’. Sister Eugénie Caps’ letter to Mother Michaël, 1930.

Prayer to be said together

Lord, grant us your spirit of humility to recognize and accept our profound poverty before you and before our brothers and sisters, so that, from this poverty, you may bring forth your life.

[1] ‘‘I have loved you’’, Dilexi te, Apostolic Exhortation on love to the poorest, Pope Leo XIV, 2025, n°9.