There is a man, a small man, with a giant’s responsibilities; he’s poor, tall, short, like any other man, sometimes bald, other times young, but still a man.
Wherever he goes, he’s a sign of contradiction and an occasion of comment, either good, bad,  indifferent, or self-interested . . . and being a man, he has a little of all that.   
His last name is always the same:  presence.
His mission:  to watch over, to animate, to suffer, to rejoice, to assume responsibility, to pray . . .
The problems of many are his problems, just as the joy of others is his joy, and always,like a bridge, he feels the weight of those who pass by with their human burdens.
After peacefully bearing his load of misery, the faithful one goes apart, and the small man remains there with his burden, alone with his God.
They make him grow, this small man who is like any other, with names like shepherd, priest, prophet, pastor.
And so, everyone asks a lot of him, and often, he comes to be misunderstood, because though he has such an important position, he has been made a poor vessel of clay, a small man still.
Rodolfo Sánchez, fc, Cuba, 1980

At the end of this year 2008, during which we recalled so much, we give thanks to God and also to you Father Anizan for your profound intuitions.

You have shown who is the real victim today

Eighty years after your death and ninety years after founding our religious family, today’s victims are still the poor, as you had observed in your days. The real victim is not the Church, nor those who have the power, but indeed the poor. They are the crowds that live in our neighborhoods, the unemployed, the immigrants, the homeless.

But the people are not only a victim.  What is most profound in your intuition is precisely to recognize that the people are not only the victim, but the bearer of God’s charity. Precious pearls exist in the people. And we can recognize them if we come closer and walk along hand in hand with the people. These pearls subsist in the soul of the people, in spite of its rough and ambiguous look.

Give back to the people the understanding of Christianism

Thank you Father Anizan for having talked about giving back to the people the understanding of Christianism. You had the intuition that evangelization is about the heart and also about understanding, especially for the poor and the workers.

In doing so you invite us to form our peoples in Christianism. That is to say, to give form to Christ who is present among them; Jesus Christ compassionate and merciful.

The people and the masses are lost for God

You saw that the poor and laboring masses were lost for God and for the Church. Ad so you recall to us the best we can offer to the people is God and his incarnate Word.

Today also the great masses are not reached by the Gospel.

An incarnate evangelization

In sending us to the poor and the workers, to the aristocracy in reverse as you liked to say, you put us on the sure road of detachment, humility, unsettling that not only helps us not to become “professionals” of the mission, but rather good shepherds.

Like the Good Shepherd

You invite us not only to become shepherds, but good shepherds, like the only Good Shepherd. The good shepherd knows, seeks, moves ahead among his sheep, he provides them with all they need, even at he cost of his own life. Thank you for having reminded us that the testimony of charity is essential for a fruit-bearing evangelization.

Take a good look at this cross.
It doesn’t sit in a void;
it covers the whole surface of the globe,
where so many people are waiting . . .
A globe that is open to the infinity and the mystery
where Love reaches.      
Yes, look at it closely. 
It doesn’t sit straight, nor is it frozen as in death.
It moves; it’s alive. 
It shakes off the dust of that gloomy routine
that threatens unceasingly to turn everything flat and insipid,  
or that misses the encounter and kills the presence.
Look at it again.
It invites you to dance,
to take the first step; it’s waiting for you.
And life will never be sad again. 
“Whoever wishes to follow me let him take up his cross.” (Mc 8:34)
Keep it in sight and you will see
it’s tied to the letter C,
where it will stay stuck,
the letter C of Charity . . .
Nothing and no one can separate them!
“For I know that neither death nor life,
neither the present nor the future, nor any power,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God
manifested in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Rom 8:38)
Bernard Claireau, fc

Nothing could be more important than encountering God; that is, to fall in love with Him in a definitive and absolute way.  The one with whom you have fallen in love seizes your imagination and ends up leaving his mark on everything.
He will be the one who decides what gets you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you use your weekends, what you read, what you know, what breaks your heart and what overwhelms you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love!  Stay in love!  Everything will be different.
Fr. Arrupe, sj

If the note were to say:  a single note doesn’t make a melody . . . there would be no symphony.
If the word were to say:  one word can’t fill a page . . . there would be no book.
If the stone were to say:  a stone can’t make a wall . . . there would be no house.
If the drop of water were to say:  one drop can’t make a river, there would be no ocean.
If the grain of wheat were to say:  a single grain of wheat can’t sow a field, there would be no harvest.
If a person were to say:  one gesture of love can’t save humanity . . . there would never be justice, or peace, or dignity, or happiness on our earth.
If Mary had said:  a poor virgin cannot be the mother of God . . . there would be no salvation.
As the symphony needs every note, as the book needs every word, as the house needs every stone, as the ocean needs every drop of water, as the harvest needs every grain . . . all of humanity needs you, there where you are, unique and, therefore, irreplaceable.
Michel Quoist

“And crowds of people came to him, bringing with them cripples, the deformed, the blind, the mute, and many others besides.  They laid them at his feet, and he cured them.”  (Mt 15:30)

The first memory I have of having been brought to Jesus is when I had just entered elementary school at age 7.  I wanted to be like the other little girls, who looked so happy being Christians, praying, and following the example of Sister Mary Joseph, our teacher.

Sister Mary Joseph also brought me to Jesus, because she taught me Sacred History, which was our Bible at that time.  And also the parish priest of our village.  One day when he came at 11 o’clock to give a catechism class to the other children, and I slipped away to go back home, he said to me, “And you, why don’t you stay?”  I answered him:  “Because I’m Muslim.” Later I kept thinking:  “And what does it mean to be Muslim?”

There was also Marika, who changed her name to Mary Lou on the day of her baptism.  She came from Eastern Europe.

It was Jesus himself who drew me to himself through all these people who transmitted to me the hope of being baptized one day.  In my imagination, I was part of the crowd of people who admired him.

Years later, when I returned the Church after a long absence, it was the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes that brought me to Jesus.  That is the parish I chose with my heart to live my faith in Jesus and where I met Fr. Emile Anizan.

All that I received from Christian education, all that others brought to me, I also try to offer others, carrying and accompanying other persons to the feet of Jesus.  But I feel most at home on Jesus’ way in Caritas (Catholic Charities), in tutoring neighborhood children, in my work caring for children in their parents’ homes, and in ACE (Catholic Action for Children).