On June 15, 2022, the Misericordia Sisters bequeathed their founding Charism to the International Misericordia Family. To say “yes” to a spiritual legacy of a religious community is to say “yes” to their spiritual and missionary history in Church and society.
By Rosalie Cadron-Jetté, the Community of the Misericordia Sisters received from Bishop Ignace Bourget a very particular Charism, that of wearing the depths of God’s Mercy for a very specific mission with the most neglected of the time, the pregnant unwed mothers.
For 177 years, more than 830 women followed Rosalie and consecrated their lives to a religious vocation to serve this mission of spiritual and corporal Mercy. It is thanks to these predecessors that the members of the International Misericordia Family have the privilege of living this Charism and bringing it to the heart of the world.
How did the three components of the Charism take shape?
The spirituality of Rosalie was so fruitful it surpassed human imagination. This spirituality was welcomed by a community of women who consecrated their life to a religious vocation. This was to give birth, to live, and transmit a special mission to save mothers who were suffering deeply, belittled, and rejected in their pregnancy and motherhood.
Let us remember that Rosalie was a spiritual guide recognized by the Catholic Church (declared venerable in 2013 by Pope Francis) to carry out this mission that required unwavering faith, hope, and unconditional love to accompany the mothers in their misery.
Spirituality
Throughout the history of the Misericordia Sisters, the Spirituality of the Founding Charism has manifested itself in a maternal welcome that cares, understands, consoles, guides, grows in maturity, celebrates, prays for mothers suffering in their motherhood, their child, their loved ones. To clothe oneself with the depths of Mercy became an experience of love and truth in which trust and hope in God and in the value of the mother held a central place.
The Spirituality of the Charism is therefore maternal and is imbued with a family spirit and an unconditional welcome of love in the image of the Merciful God, both in its feminine and masculine dimensions. Its feminine dimension is understood as visceral maternal love that is moved by the fragility of its child and embraces it, making up for all that it lacks so that it can live and grow. His masculine dimension is that firm fidelity of the Father who always supports, forgives, and puts His children on the right path.
In all the groups that belong to the International Misericordia Family, we find a Family spirit that distinguishes and differentiates itself from other organizations.
The Mission
The Mission of the Charism of the Misericordia Sisters Community, as lived by the Sisters from generation to generation, since Rosalie, is as follows: to wear the depths of God’s Mercy by accompanying spiritually and humanely in unconditional love the mother in a difficult situation in her pregnancy and/or maternity, her child and her loved ones, so that her life, as woman and mother, may be strengthened and flourish.
These distressed women would be elevated in their motherhood by bringing them spiritual, human, and maternal support knowing that only the Mercy of God restores the person.
What the mother receives, she will give back to her child, creating a loving and secure home environment for the child to grow with confidence and become a successful adult.
The Mission is therefore imbued with a family spirit where the mother is accompanied in her maternal and family role. This Mission is driven by a spirituality that takes care of the maternal wound of these lonely, abandoned, and desperate women. In this relationship of accompaniment, the Sisters challenge us by telling us that they were never alone in this relationship of help, God was there, acting in them and in others to open a breach which will be a source of Life.
Fraternal Life
For Rosalie’s personal Charism to become collective, it had to be carried out by a group. What kind of life and project would allow us to assume such a spirituality through such an important mission? It was these women who, desiring to follow Christ, responded to this call. They gave their lives to a religious vocation. This religious community has a name that expresses and identifies their faith, spirituality, and mission: The Misericordia Sisters Community. This is the third component of the Charism.
The members of the community of lay people committed to the International Misericordia Family are imbued with the same family spirit as the Sisters, and adhere to it through a commitment to the Church within the Spiritual Life and/or through a commitment to the mission within the Humanitarian Life. Many committed lay people are walking and becoming involved in both aspects at the same time.
All these members are united by the Charism of Mercy and live edifying fraternal relationships within this Family. They unit to build a better world.
Within the structure of the IMF there is also a place for a group of lay people who wish to commit by private vows, to live Mercy by responding to a personal call in the Church. This community of consecrated lay people will be called to exist and be at the heart of this Family. The Holy Spirit will guide us to offer the possibility to lay people who wish to do so, to commit in a more particular way to live Mercy in a vocation of consecrated life.
To keep alive and serve with fidelity the founding Charism bequeathed by the Misericordia Sisters Community, the members of the IMF form the Fraternal Life. This Fraternal Life promotes interdependence, benevolence, and solicitude among its members.
It is through the International Misericordia Family that the founding Charism will continue. These members will then accept to prepare and form the next generation by respecting the three fundamental and inseparable bases of the Charism (Spirituality, Mission, Fraternal Life). They will commit to perpetuate this sacred work so that other generations may benefit from this spiritual and human experience of Mercy that has brought enormous good to many families.
By saying “yes” to this legacy, these members become heirs to the Charism and some are its guardians. They are appointed to protect this Charism in their milieu, watching over it, making sure that it does not change identity or vocation in its mission, spiritual dimension, and fraternal life.
