Dear Friends,
Our mission, ACAY has the particularity of being similar to the human heart: having two parts and two beats. For us, one of these beats is in Manila the other in Marseille. They beat and vibrate together.
After twenty years in the Philippines, I have received the gift of a sabbatical year here in the second beat in France. I am deeply moved to see that, even if both the human and the pedagogical approaches of ACAY are experienced here in Marseille, it is above all the same charism which has been given. Such a charism is beyond any human approach. This charism is a gift of God the scope of which is immeasurable. It is a Word given for many. It touches the hearts of our youth here in France. One of the youth in detention having committed a very heavy crime last month took part in our GOAL training a few days ago. At the end of the training he said to me; “If there is someone hoping for others, many will be transformed”. And a girl, also in detention, mature beyond her age due to the hardness she experienced in life, so moved me by her sharp analysis during our discussions: “but I am alone, how can you expect me to change? I am alone…”.
It is upon this gift of God to our mission that we are learning to throw our nets in order to experience the miraculous and endless catch, as it belongs to God.
The miracles are here. For the past twenty years we have been contemplating the abundance of them… Let us open our hearts more and more to this outpouring of miracles that God wants to do in our lives. Let us let God be God in our lives. He is the one “who gives life back to the dead and brings chaos back to existence”. Let us be filled with this missionary courage; that our hearts may beat and breathe to the dimension of this world and to the dimension of the Heart of God.
– Sister Sophie of Jesus
