Published January 13, 2006
Blessed Brother Charles has followers with Alaska connections
Editor’s Note: On Nov. 13 the church beatified Brother Charles de Foucauld, the French monk known for his humble ministry in the Sahara Desert. Blessed Foucauld inspired a number of men and women with Alaska connections to devote their lives to Christ. Here are some of those followers’ reflections.
Three ‘holy fools’ in the Russian Far East try to imitate Little Brother of Jesus
More than 10,000 people, including 1,000 priests, gathered at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Nov. 13 at 9:30 in the morning with the Holy Father for the last part of the process of beatification for Brother Charles of Jesus, who said in letter to a childhood friend in 1902: "The secret of my life is I have lost my heart to this Jesus of Nazareth, crucified some 1,900 years ago, and I spend my life trying to imitate him as much as my weakness allows."
It is this Little Brother of Jesus who for more than 30 years has been my dear and holy friend. His radical life in the Sahara Desert among a group of Muslims called the Taureg called to my heart all those years ago. The call came through my diocesan priesthood and the lives of my brother priests in our Jesus Caritas group, priests who traveled together in prayer and deep support.
Then came a call within a call some 15 years ago. Brother Charles seemed to be inviting me to imitate him in the Siberian Far East. The message was this: "Go and pray in the former prison camps. Offer your life for those who came as prisoners. Become my prisoner of love, to make reparation for the evil done there."
These words were spoken to my heart during a 40-day retreat in 1991 and branded my heart with the truth that I was called to be a brother there in Russia, called to prayer.
Now, 12 years later, I have two brothers more talented and dedicated to the life of service than myself. Father David Means, my faithful brother of over nine years, and Father Milosh Krakovski from Slovakia, a more recent addition, live with me this simple and joyful life. We are writing the "rule" for our brotherhood, the Brothers of the Heart of Jesus, blessed and supported by our local Russian Bishop Cyryl Klimowicz as well as the continued support of Anchorage Archbishops Roger Schwietz and Francis Hurley (retired).
There are now some young Russian men and women who are feeling called to join us in this kind of prayer and lifestyle.
Brother Charles of Jesus had three major points to his life: an incredible love of Jesus in sacrament, word and the poor; a desire to be a universal brother to every Muslim, Jew and Christian; and a commitment to opening his life to serve all who came to him, sometimes as many as 100 people a day.
"I want all the people here, be they Christians, Muslims, Jews or whatever, to see me as their brother and a universal brother," he said in another letter from 1902, when he was living in northern Africa.
During my time in Rome before and after the beatification ceremony, I witnessed the many small families that have come from that small seed who died a martyr in the Sahara. But especially the Little Sisters of Jesus is the order that has loved and followed the example of this holy man.
These Little Sisters have been in Alaska for so many years serving, as usual, in the hidden life of Nazareth. They are the true disciples of Brother Charles for me.
What is next for us here in Siberia? We are called to die just like Brother Charles, to offer our lives here to become seeds planted in the Russian soil so others may come to know and fall in love with this Jesus of Nazareth to whom we have given our hearts.
My prayer remains the one I prayed after receiving the call to go and pray in the camps some 15 years ago: "O Lord, you fill me with such joy. How can I repay for all you have done for me? Forgive my many sins but give me but one home, there at the foot of the cross with Mary my mother and queen. Teach me one thing: that is to love."
— Father Michael Shields, pastor, Nativity of Jesus Parish, Magadan, Russia