CHARISM OF JULES CHEVALIER: HIS PERSONAL CALL, AND PERSONAL RESPONSE

J. Savage, MSC
Formation Meeting,
Rome, 1976

This morning, Sisters, I would like to put before you a few reflections on what we call the charism of Father Chevalier. I am very well aware that there is much more to be said than what I am going to say. I am also aware of the fact that what I am going to say is of very little importance compared with what you will be saying to one another once you come to share the life that is in you.

Nowadays, as we know, it has become customary to speak of Fr. Chevalier’s charism as a SPIRITUALITY OF THE HEART OF JESUS. I will use this expression rather than ‘Devotion to the Sacred Heart’, not because I object to the word ‘Devotion’, but because I think the word ‘spirituality’ expresses more accurately for people of our day what Fr. Founder meant in his day when he spoke of Devotion to the Heart of Jesus. In our day the word ‘devotion’ has become con fused with the word ‘devotions’. This is quite a different word – meaning ‘practices of piety’. As we know, Devotion to the Sacred Heart for Father Chevalier – while finding expression in various practices of piety – was something far more than these practices. It is, for him, a whole way of life: a special way of responding to the Christian vocation.

I might recall, without delaying unduly on the point, that in itself the word DEVOTION expresses very well what Fr. Chevalier had in mind. We have only to reflect for a moment to see that the word ‘devotion’ is related to the word DEVOTED – and we know what it means when we say one person is devoted to another. It means that this person LOVES the other with all his heart and proves by deeds that he wishes to make a TOTAL RESPONSE TO THE DEMANDS OF LOVE. This is very much what Fr. Chevalier had in mind.

Perhaps it would be good to begin by defining this word ‘CHARISM’. It comes, as we know, from the Greek word for a ‘gift’. Theologians usually define a charism as a gift given by God to one individual for the sake of others. We are interested in the gift given to Fr. Chevalier for our sake.As we begin our reflections on his charism I think we should recall, first of all, the great debt of gratitude we owe him for having done so much – all he possibly could – to make sure that his charism would not be lost but would be faithfully transmitted to us. When we. Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart or Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, reflect today on our Founder’s charism, we are not engaging in guess work.

To start with, he did not die so very long ago, and the older ones amongst us have met and talked with Religious who knew him personally. Father Chevalier also found time in his busy and active life to express his ideal for us in writing: in two large theological works and in other smaller works besides.

But quite apart from all this, we have the even more important LIVING TRADITION within the two Congregations he founded. Looking into our own lives we should be able to find his charism living on in us today. Indeed, insofar as a charism is a living thing, this is the only place we will really find it: in LIVING PEOPLE. I might add – in people whose HEARTS ARE ALIVE as the heart of Jules Chevalier was: alive with love for God and his fellow man.

Turning our minds to Fr. Chevalier himself, we know (and we would expect it to be so) that he was providentially prepared for his mission as our Founder.

On the level of natural gifts (and let us never forget that these are just as much gifts of God as the supernatural gifts of grace) the young Jules Chevalier was endowed with a generous measure of determination – knowing the difficulties he had to overcome in founding our Congregations we can be grateful that he was! He was, by nature, a strong character. As Fr. Cuskelly says, “He was by temperament a fighter.”

But he was much more than this. His generous nature responded generously to the supernatural gifts of his baptism and he showed while still young that he was destined to be a MAN OF FAITH and a MAN OF FIDELITY.

This fidelity was tested and developed during the years he waited for an opportunity to follow his vocation to the priesthood. Fidelity is a readiness to respond to the demands God makes on us. There can be no real fidelity in us without trust in God’s fidelity, and we see already in the youthful Chevalier an unshakeable TRUST that God would make it possible for him to do what God was asking him to do.

So it seems that we could characterize the young man who eventually entered the Seminary of Bourges as a MAN OF FAITH, a MAN OF FIDELITY, a MAN OF TRUST.

During his seminary days he was fortunate in the spiritual direction and spiritual formation he received. The Sulpician Fathers who staffed the Seminary encouraged him to develop a fervent interior life of personal union with Our Lord. The spirituality in which he was formed was eminently Christ-centred and sacerdotal. The aspirant to the priesthood was reminded that he had to be ‘another Christ’ – that he must allow Christ the Priest to live on and work on in him.

All this was the foundation prepared by God to receive the special gift he was given for our sake: a gift we call his charism – his SPIRITUALITY OF THE HEART OF JESUS.

Although he would never have claimed to be a great theologian, he did have – even as a student – a solid and sure grasp of theological truth. (Later on he was to show in his writings that he was in many ways outstanding and ahead of his time.) So it is fitting that the grace which was to give him his characteristic ‘spirituality of the heart’ should come to him through his study of Theology.

He has told us the story himself. When his lecturer in Theology began to present to his class the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jules Chevalier found himself deeply moved. “This doctrine,” he said, “went straight to my heart. The more I went into it, the more attractive I found it.” Putting this in the language of Spiritual Theology we could say that Jules Chevalier had discovered his personal ‘spirituality’.

It might be useful to say a few words about what is meant by a ‘spirituality’. We all know the old saying: ‘Unity is strength’. It applies very truly in the spiritual life. If a man’s life towards God is to have real strength, real vigour, it is necessary that his spiritual energies should be unified and not dissipated. He needs to see all the richness and variety of revealed truth, and all the many virtues of Christian living, in ONE UNIFIED VISION. There is nothing left out; but now he is able to see everything from one point of view – a viewpoint that makes a strong appeal to him. In this way there is achieved a unified attitude of the whole man to God.

Jules Chevalier found the UNIFYING PRINCIPLE which made a strong appeal to him in what he saw revealed by God in the open Heart of Jesus. Every thing that had been developed in him by his earlier training now fell into place, given new power because unified in a single vision.

It was apparently during his retreat for sub-diaconate that the grace he had been given took full possession of him and transformed his whole personality. Father Piperon tells us that up to this time his determination to live a spirituality of fidelity had resulted in his becoming “rather serious, and stiff in his relations with others”. On the day of his ordination something extraordinary happened. Again Fr.

Piperon is our witness: “He appeared as a man ENTIRELY RENEWED, kind, affable and smiling”. Writing fifty years after the event Fr. Piperon still marvelled at this extraordinary change, and he marvelled even more that the transformation was permanent.

I think we have here the key to an understanding of the spirituality Jules Chevalier began to live. He realised that to LIVE IN ACTION a spirituality of the Heart of Jesus meant striving to be the kind of man Jesus was: a completely loving person – a Man who was’all heart’ – a Man who was, in the powerful phrases of St. Paul, ‘the love of God made visible’; the’kindness of God’ made manifest to many (Titus 3,4).

Could we say that he had changed from a ‘spirituality of fidelity’ to a “spirituality of love’? I think it would be more accurate to say that he Had come to realise, in the depth of his being, that the perfection of fidelity is the perfection of love.

Fidelity, we know, is always a relationship between persons. But not any kind of relationship. It is the relationship between persons who are in some way bound to one another and wish to live up to that commitment. In its perfect form, fidelity is the relationship between persons who LOVE one another and wish to live up to the DEMANDS OF LOVE.

The new Sub-deacon, soon to be Fr. Chevalier the priest, now realised that this is the secret of the perfect fidelity of Jesus. He realised that this is what St. John is trying to tell us in his Gospel (a Gospel he called: The Gospel of the Sacred Heart’): that we will only see the real meaning of Jesus1 life from the vantage point of Calvary; that we will best grasp the MYSTERY OF JESUS – and be grasped by it – if we stand with John and Mary gazing at His open Heart. The unwavering fidelity of Jesus, his tremendous achievement of personal holiness, (the achieve ment of a human will like ours), has its source in the utterly unselfish and self-sacrificing love proclaimed and revealed by St. John in the powerful symbolism of His open Heart. Chevalier expresses it most succinctly: “The Heart of Jesus is the last word. Everything leads to Jesus, and in Jesus everything leads to His Heart.”

Having discovered the secret of Jesus’ spirituality, Jules Chevalier had also discovered his own personal vocation and his mission in the Church. He was, as Fr. Cuskelly says, “a young man with a sense of mission.” He felt strongly – even before his ordination to priesthood – that he was called to share his vision with others.

No doubt this young man was aiming high. He stated his ideal with character istic boldness. He said he wanted to be “animated by the spirit of the Heart of Jesus, so as to make his own the sentiments, the virtues, the love and the life of Jesus.” Putting this in modern terms I think we could say that he wanted to live the same way Jesus lived: the same kind of spirituality – a spirituality of the heart.

We can’t accuse him of illusion or spiritual pride because this is the very ideal St. John says every Christian must strive to attain. “We can be sure we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in Him is living THE SAME KIND OF LIFE as Christ lived.” (1 John 2,6)

Chevalier was under no illustion. He was well aware of the challenge – and he wants us to be. He was well aware that to strive to live this way means waging an unrelenting war on the pride and egoism which are the chief obstacles in us pre venting us from living the utterly unselfish, loving life we see Jesus living in the Gospels. All his life Jules Chevalier strove for greatest SIMPLICITY. He was very far from “taking himself too seriously”. Modesty and simplicity were character istics of the spirituality he lived, and he tried to form others in the same way.

Just in passing, it is interesting to note a superficial likeness between his ideal and the ideal proposed by some of the best of modern psychologists as the surest way to true maturity and genuine personal fulfillment. These psychologists, who are only now catching up with Our Lord, tell us that we should strive in every situ ation to be completely loving persons.

The similarity is striking and significant (especially for those who are called upon to form the generous young people of today), but it remains a superficial like ness. Jules Chevalier was not striving for a psychological ideal to be attained by human means. He knew that of himself he could not attain the ideal he had in mind.

Only the Holy Spirit. Divine Love in Person, could enable him to live the way Jesus lived. His part was to allow the Holy Spirit to have His way in him as He did in Jesus. Fr. Lescrauwaet has expressed this very well in his wonderful little work: ‘Triptych for a Spirituality of the Heart’:

“The Holy Spirit was first poured out by the Father into the Heart of the Word made flesh . . . making Jesus say ‘ABBA’ to the Father from the depths of his being; making Him reach out to men as Brother of them all” p. 26.

Jules Chevalier (again I am quoting Fr. Lescrauwaet) “wanted to be carried along by the same Holy Spirit in this twofold movement: from Jesus to the Father and from Jesus to men” p. 19.

He wanted his life, like the life of Jesus, to be a life of love – and love is essentially a matter of personal relationships. In union with Jesus he wanted to relate to the Father and to his fellow men as Jesus related to His Father and His fellow men.

As we would expect in a man whose spirituality was dominated by the Mystery of the Incarnation, everything is coloured by his personal relationship with Our Lord. It was a relationship of the heart – of warm and affectionate personal friend ship. He really shared his life with Our Lord. He believed quite simply that Jesus loved him personally and he really loved Him in return.

Even though he uses daring words to express our relationship with Our Lord, his Theology is faultless and he-shows a deeper penetration into the mystery of the Mystical Body than was common in his day. He could write like this: (Le Coeur de Jesus 80-81) “Our personal union with Jesus surpasses imagination. It is not just a matter of union through imitation and love. It is a mysterious becoming-one-in-life with Jesus. He is the Head, we are the members. As the Head and members go to make up one body … so also does the complete Christ consist of Jesus and us.”

United with Jesus, sharing the Divine Life with Him as a ‘son of the Son’, Fr. Chevalier wished to be borne along by the Spirit towards the Father. He wished to relate to the Father as Jesus did – in total obedience and submission, in adoring and trusting love.

He had been taught in his seminary days that Jesus is the Perfect Adorer of the Father. The Father had been worthy of perfect adoration from all eternity. He had only begun to receive it when His Incarnate Son offered from His Human Heart an adoration worthy of Him. Fr. Chevalier’s own experience and practice of ADOR ATION was to adore the Father with Jesus: to come into the presence of the Father WITH JESUS THE PERFECT ADORER. Moved by the same Spirit which fills the Heart of Jesus he knew that he too could say ABBA, ‘dear Father’, from the depth of his heart.

We have already seen that from the day of his Ordination to Sub-diaconate Jules Chevalier strove to be ‘like Our Lord’ in his relationships with others. He knew that without this the rest would be mere illusion. To accept Jesus as my Brother and His Father as my Father, without accepting the fact that this must pro foundly affect my attitude to others, would be the very worst kind of selfishness.

Jules Chevalier accepted the challenge. A strong and determined character by nature, he strove to learn the meekness of Christ in his relationships with others. He tirelessly exhorted his spiritual sons and daughters to do the same – and wrote his exhortations into our Constitutions. He wrote in one of his Meditations: “Above all we must practice meekness which is prescribed by Jesus as the outstanding virtue of His Heart: ‘Learn from Me.’ he says, ‘to be meek and humble of heart.’ This virtue is indispensable: with it we have all the others, for we cannot be truly meek without being humble, kind and patient, master of ourselves and our passions.” He had learnt from the Heart of Jesus that true meekness is the very opposite of weak ness, it is, on the contrary, the strength which enables me to overcome egoism, impatience and fatigue, so that I can – to use Father Cheval ier’s words – treat every man ”as my brother in the full sense of the word.”

Throughout his long life, during which he was often tried by conflicts and mis understanding, our Founder continued to live what Fr. Cuskelly describes so well as his CHARISM OF KINDNESS

The living tradition expressed in your Constitutions reminds you that to be true Daughters of such a father you must do the same. First and foremost among yourselves:

“It is above all her own sisters that the dedicated religious loves with a genuinely human and unselfish affection. ” C. 21

Beginning here, your KINDNESS must overflow, so that you show in your lives that you “share the Saviour’s love for all mankind.’1 C. 20

Perhaps I could not conclude in any better way than by quoting again from Fr. Lescrauwaet, p. 28:

“Because his spirituality was one that was lived, and because his own heart never rejected the gift of the Spirit, Father Chevalier found his way to Christ’s Heart and to the hearts of men. His spirituality may well be called a ‘spirituality of the Heart’ because it was both affectionate and outgoing, because it inspired devotion as well as never-ending hope. His spirituality was a ‘spirituality of the heart’ because he believed with all his being in love. If he had been asked about his ultimate hopes for the world, and for the Church, he would have repeated a conviction of his earlier days: ‘Nothing is stronger than love.’ It was in this spirit that he wrote: (Le Coeur de Jesus p. 76)

‘The Heart of Christ – that is the last word.

Everything leads to Jesus Christ.

‘I am the First and the Last’, He says.

And in Jesus everything leads to His Heart.’ “

DISCIPLESHIP

We saw this morning that Mary is presented by St. John as the perfect disciple of Jesus. He also presents Her to us as the Mother who teaches Her children how to be disciples of Jesus in their turn.

Mary does not call us to be Her disciples. She is, if you like, the Tutor who shows us how to learn from Jesus.

So She is a perfect model for those who are called upon to undertake the spiritual and religious formation of others. She is, of course, much more than a model. You have placed your Conference under Her patronage and protection because you know that, as Mother of the Lord, She will be powerful on your behalf. She certainly desires – more ardently than you do yourselves – that your conference will be the source of many blessings for your whole Congregation.

This morning I would like to put before you a few reflections, (or rather, a few thoughts for your own reflection) on this topic of DISCIPLESHIP.

It seems to me that this is what your conference is all about. You have come as disciples. You want to learn, with Mary’s assistance, how to understand more fully and appreciate more deeply your special charism as Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. You have come not just for your own sake, but in the hop£ that what you learn will help you form others in discipleship according to the mind and heart of your Founder.

If we reflect today, in a general kind of way, on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, we can follow this up tomorrow by considering Father Chevalier’s special way of learning from the Heart of Jesus.

If we begin by taking a look at the word ‘DISCIPLE’, we find that it says quite simply: someone who learns.

This is good as far as it goes. We are those who learn from Jesus. But there are different ways of learning and different kinds of disciples. Some disciples are simply learning a doctrine. Their task is to understand and remember their master’s teaching. Their training is theoretical. Their progress is measured by their knowledge.

There are, on the other hand, disciples who are learning an art or a trade. For them it is not sufficient to understand what the master SAYS. They must do more than listen. They have to watch the actions of the master and learn to DO what he DOES. Their training is practical. Their progress is not measured by their knowl edge but by the way they put their knowledge into practice.

We have a special name for this kind of disciple. We call them APPREN TICES. This is what we are. We have been apprenticed to Jesus to learn from Him. I think Fr. Chevalier would approve of this word ‘apprentice1. He knows what being an apprentice means. During the years of waiting for an opportunity to follow his vocation he was himself apprenticed to a shoemaker. He learned from experience that it is not enough to have the theory in your head. You have to know how to put the theory into practice.

I think Our Lord Himself would also approve of the word ‘apprentice’. He also knows all about it. He is the Master Craftsman who accepts us as His disciples, but He also served his time as an apprentice in the school of life. It was foretold of Him in the third of the Servant Songs in Isaiah that He would become the teacher of the nations because he was first of all the perfect Disciple of Yahweh. (Is. 50:4-9)

“The Lord God has given me a disciple’s tongue.

So that I may know how to reply to the wearied

He provides me with speech.

Each morning He wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple.”

The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus “learned obedience from what He experienced.” He is able to be our compassionate High Priest because “he has been tempted in every way that we are, though He is without sin.” (Heb. 1 111) “Tt was essential that He should in this way become completely like His brothers, so that He could be a compassionate and trustworthy High Priest. Because He has Himself been through temptation, He is able to help others who are tempted.” (Heb. 4,15) We will come back on this point because it is important, but I would just draw your attention in those texts to the idea that Our Lord Himself learned compassion through the experience of our humanness.

It is clear enough that we come as apprentices to Jesus to learn something very practical. The disciple of Jesus is one who learns from Him how to ACT like Him in all the various situations of life.

This is basic and yet we can sometimes forget it. No doubt it is important to be always seeking new inspiration through an ever deeper understanding of Our Lord’s teaching, but it is always with a view to action. Our main task is to put His teaching into practice. Until we begin to ACT like Jesus we have not begun to be His apprentices.

We might be inclined to say: “How can I sincerely ACT like Jesus when I am not like Jesus?” This would be to forget the power of grace: to forget that the Spirit of Jesus has been poured into our hearts to make us like Jesus. So, even though we are painfully aware of the fact that we are, in so many ways, so unlike Jesus, we must accept the graces we are given and begin to act the way He did. We must, if you prefer it this way, begin to act AS THOUGH we were like Him. We will discover that this is the more effective way to become like Him.

To advance along this road of discipleship great learning is not necessary. We are concerned with something practical – the ART OF LIVING. In this art, as in every art, there are not a great number of basic principles to be learned. There are just a few. The beauty of the finished product depends on the perfection with which these principles are applied in practice.

Jesus has not left us guessing about the basic principles we must learn to apply-in living His way. He sets them out quite plainly. There are three of them. He says: “If anyone wants to be ray disciple, he must

1. forget himself
2. take up his cross every day

and 3. follow Me.” (Matt. 16, 24)

Let us have a look at these principles one by one.

As soon as He takes me on as his apprentice Jesus asks me to ‘forget myself. This is basic if I am to become an unselfish person like Him. We know from experi ence that what He is asking is just about the hardest thing in the world. We can be grateful that we have the example of His life and the power of His grace to assist us.

Long ago the great Pope Gregory the Great wrote of the egoism which con stantly harried us: which is always in danger of spoiling our activity. But he reminds us that this experience of egoism, of self-centredness. of the deep-seated selfishness that is in us, is not meant to discourage us. It is meant to make us humble and to increase our desire for God.

Secondly, Jesus asks his apprentice to ‘take up his cross every day’. He is asking us to adopt His attitude to suffering. He is not asking us to seek suffering or to ask for it – but to accept it, and not always try to avoid it. We must make fond use of what we find hard, since it is in this way that we will grow in the likeness of our Master – in personal ancl Christlike maturity.

The mature person is one who has learned to accept reality as it is – he has learned to accept himself as he is. He has learned to accept others as they are. He has learned to accept God as He is – so often a “hidden God”. He has learned to accept the often difficult circumstances of life.

The apprentice of Jesus must be learning to transform all that is hard – not to his personal liking – into a mature sharing in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. He must be learning to say with St. Paul: “All I want is to know Christ: the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.”

Finally, Jesus asks His apprentice to ‘follow’ Him. Not all apprentices have to live with their master: no doubt it is better if they do. But with Jesus it is essential. The apprentice must live with Him. must share his life with Him.

This final requirement brings us to the heart of Christian discipleship (and, incidentally, to the heart of your own charism too). It reveals how demanding and how wonderful is the relationship Jesus wishes to establish with us. It is certainly demanding. We cannot learn from Jesus his way of living simply by imitating Him. The personal transformation of the disciple cannot be brought about that way. If it were simply a matter of ‘imitating’ Him, He would remain ‘out there’ as a model. The imitating would be something I did. I would be in control of the situation.

But that is not how it is. The transformation of the disciple into the likeness of Jesus can only be achieved through friendship – through the transforming power of love. So Jesus demands that I ‘follow’ Him – that I live with Him as a friend. Now I find that I am not in control of the situation. He is. At every moment I find myself challenged to respond to the demands of His friendship. At any moment I can hear Him say: “Would you do this for me?” Friendship is a demanding thing. Friendship with Jesus can be very demanding indeed.

So the disciple of Jesus knows what to expect. At least, he should know what to expect. To be a disciple of Jesus is to experience difficulty. Not just at the beginning, but always.

We should not be surprised at this. It would be surprising if it were otherwise. Neither should we be surprised if we find the difficulty increasing. The demand Jesus makes on us is an on-going one. Notice that ominous ‘every day’ in the Gospel text. We must take up the cross every day. As life goes on Jesus will ask of us an ever more radical self-forgetful ness, an ever deeper renunciation of self. He will ask an ever more mature acceptance of the cross in our life. He will invite us to an ever closer personal union with Him.

Being who He is, and loving us as He does, Jesus MUST keep on asking more and more: keep on calling us to an ever more radical choice of His way. We would be making a fatal mistake if we were to misinterpret this experience of continual difficulty as a sign of no progress: if we were to say to ourselves, “I have got nowhere myself. What right have I to be instructing others?”

Rather, you should see your own personal experience of difficulty as a precious grace – an absolutely necessary grace for those entrusted with the for mation of others. You can only help others to discipleship if you are living disciple-ship in your own life. It is necessary that you should be constantly seeing as though for the first time what Jesus means and what He expects of you. In this sense, to be a disciple is to be always a beginner.

This deep sense of being very’ much a beginner yourself will enable you to meet the young people entrusted to you where they are – not where you might like them to be. Their deepest need is to be understood. They hope to find in you someone who understands. You are destined to be a ‘most significant other’ in their lives. The fact that you experienced when you were young the difficulties they are experi encing now will make you understanding and compassionate. The fact that you are experiencing right now on a deeper level the difficulties they are experiencing at the level of beginners will keep you humble and enable you to help thetn in a truly personal and authentic way.

Perhaps we could end here. But I think the Gospel has something more to say. It seems to say quite clearly that there can come times in our life when to experience discipleship is to experience ‘impossibility’. One scene that comes to mind is the call of the rich young man (Matt. 19.25). Jesus asked a great deal. It seemed to the young man himself that Jesus was asking the impossible. He couldn’t do it. So “he went away sad”. As they watched him go. Jesus remarked: “How hard it is for a rich man to enter heaven.” The disciples were amazed. “‘Who can be saved then?” they asked. Matthew tells us that Jesus “looked straight at them” and said: “It is impossible for men. For God everything is possible.”

There may well come times in our own lives of discipleship when we find our selves in the position of the rich young man. Jesus may seem to be asking the impossible. Whatever it is – some particular renunciation of self: some special cross to bear: a call to deeper union involving the surrender of something we have been relying on for our security – when we look into our own hearts and measure our resources against His request, we can only say in our turn: “Lord, I cannot.” The Lord will reply: “I know you can’t – but I can.”

This experience of utter powerlessness is not meant to make us despair. On the contrary, it is a purifying grace meant to make us grow in TRUST – and real trust is the greatest proof of love.

So – we will never be finished with discipleship. We can never outgrow the need to keep growing. It is not only those who are. as we say, ‘in formation’ who must be constantly growing. It is even more important that those entrusted with their formation should be constantly growing too – constantly open to the Spirit of Jesus who, in every age, wants to renew the face of the earth.

And if we will never be finished with discipleship. we will always be in need of our Tutor. She will always be there: showing us how to reach out to Jesus and how to reach out to one another.

We arc realizing more and more that this ‘reaching out to one another’ is essential for any genuine renewal of our lives. We are not saved or sanctified in ‘splendid isolation’ but through incorporation into one Body. We are meant to be instruments of grace to one another through open-hearted encounter and inter action. This is true at all times. It will be true in a very special way during your conference.