A Cluny Vocation Story

 

 

Anne Marie Javouhey,

 

Foundress

of the

Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny

1779 - 1851

 

 

 

The Vocation Story of Anne Marie Javouhey is rooted in an experience of God.

In one of her letters she shares the following:

“Nine years ago, God, in an extraordinary but sure way, showed me that He was calling me to the state of life that I have adopted, to instruct the poor and to care for orphans.  I was then only between 17 and 18 years old, and without financial resources of which I could dispose.  The religious communities had been destroyed by the Revolution and everything seemed to make the realization of this project impossible.  However, the Lord mad His Will known to me so clearly, that having consulted the most enlightened persons in our neighborhood, they advised me to put my hand to the plough, whatever difficulties I might encounter.   Letter 20, 3 (19, 5)

Faced with the apparent impossibility of responding to this call in the unsetted times in which she lived, Anne Marie set out on her spiritual journey to discover the Will of God.  She was to experience a long period of trial and error, through which she learned discernment, an ability which she exercised all her life as she sought to respond to the needs of her time.  Her vision of St. Teresa of Avila and children from all races, confirmed her vocation and expanded her horizons to embrace a universal mission.

  
Like Anne Marie, we live in a confused world marked by a thirst for but also a denial of God; by violence, but also a desire for peace; by individualism, but also by solidarity; by a culture of death, but also a culture of life.

Will you listen to the cries of so many oppressed men, women and children with the same passion which Anne Marie had in her search for the Will of God?