Caroline Maddjhidi, a second-year novice with the Daughters of Jesus, tells us about her experience at the Arche de Trosly-Breuil (Oise, France), during her placement from October through November 2024.
Discovering the world of handicap
I was very surprised to discover so much dynamism in the different l’Arche communities… a place where I felt welcomed and loved, whatever the different situations of disability.
This internship enabled me to :
– get to the very depths of my being.
– experience more deeply the importance of being close to people and of listening to them.
– meet the face of the poor Christ through these people,
– live and taste, the life of these sick people with love and joy.
This experience showed me the value of the Congregation’s charism, which asks us to ‘honour the Sacred Humanity of the Son of God’ (Rule of Life no 3). I discovered all the value and dignity that these people carry within them, the value of dignity beyond their physical and mental state. Each encounter allowed me to welcome the gift of the other, who is different from me. Contact with disabled people has transformed my outlook.
Mutual enrichment
While reading a book about the history of l’Arche, a sentence caught my attention:
“We always talk about what needs to be done for the poor, but we never talk about the good that the poor do.”
The change in the way I looked at these disabled people was for me a grace received from God. These people have taught me a new way of reading the Gospel and of praying. They transform our hearts to become a source of unity, healing and peace, for each and every one of us, for our present-day societies and our religions.
One of those welcomed at l’Arche said :
“Our body, our soul and our spirit are places of prayer and encounter with people.”
This phrase has enlightened me and enabled me to understand, more and more, the role that our heart plays in relationships with others.
Why only the feet?
I’d like to conclude with an expression from a guest who touched me deeply. While I was washing her, she called out to me and said :
“Caroline, my nun, why did Jesus only wash the feet of his disciples, and you take all your time to wash my whole body?”
(In the Gospel of Saint John 13, 4-5, Jesus got up from the table, took off his robe, and took a towel which he tied around his waist; then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had tied around his waist. )
I thank the Lord for all the graces he has revealed to me through these disabled people whom I have been able to serve with simplicity, humility, confidence and dynamism, values that the people I have welcomed have seen in me.
Caroline Madjihidi,
Novice de deuxième année,
Filles de Jésus
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