Community life holds a central place in the Christian and religious tradition. It is not merely an organized framework for living together, but a true place of human and spiritual formation. For Saint Marie-Eugénie of Jesus, foundress of the Religious of the Assumption, the community is a school of growth, where each person is called to become fully herself while giving herself to others. Inspired by the Gospel and animated by deep trust in the action of the Holy Spirit, she sees fraternal life as a privileged means of forming hearts that are free, humble, and committed to truth and love. This growth rests on a daily journey of faith, lived with perseverance and fidelity. She reminds her sisters: “What we must do is remain steadfast in patience, in the practice of faith, hope, and charity” (Chap. MME, April 4, 1872). The community thus becomes a concrete place where these virtues are learned and practiced day after day. In the following lines, we will present the community as a place for building personal identity, a school of listening, patience, and humility, and finally as a place of the Spirit’s action and commitment to mission.
Contrary to the widespread idea that community might erase individuality, Saint Marie-Eugénie affirms that common life helps each person become more fully herself. For her, personal identity is not built in isolation but in encounter with others. Living together requires each person to know herself, to recognize her strengths and weaknesses, and to accept being seen as she truly is. In this shared life, differences become a place of learning. Saint Marie-Eugénie observes that human growth involves slow maturation, often demanding but fruitful: “You notice her patience in suffering, her humility in work, her obedience, her charity” (Chap. MME, January 12, 1883). The community thus reveals each person’s truth and invites an inner unity grounded in faith.
Community also helps overcome individualism. By sharing the same life, the same rule, and the same mission, each person learns to renounce personal preferences in order to open herself to a common project. This renunciation is not a loss but growth. As Saint Marie-Eugénie emphasizes, it sometimes means choosing not to see or point out everything in order to preserve fraternal communion: “It is sometimes impossible not to see certain things; this is how charity is preserved and humility, patience, and zeal are practiced” (Chap. MME, September 15, 1872).
One essential aspect of human and spiritual growth in community is learning to listen. Living together requires constant attention to others: listening to their words, their silences, their needs, and sometimes their sufferings. In the spirituality of the Assumption, this listening is profoundly spiritual, recognizing that the Holy Spirit acts and speaks through each person. Saint Marie-Eugénie strongly recalls the delicacy of the Holy Spirit in fraternal life: “The Holy Spirit, who wishes to dwell in our souls, is extremely delicate in all that concerns charity, kindness, and benevolence” (Chap. MME, October 28, 1877). The community thus becomes a place where one learns to respect this discreet action of God, both in oneself and in others. Patience and humility are especially cultivated in daily life. Tensions, human limitations, and weaknesses become opportunities for inner conversion. For Saint Marie-Eugénie, humility is not self-abasement but living in truth before God. It leads to greater inner freedom and opens the heart to grace. In this spirit of simplicity and trust, the relationship with God sustains fraternal life: “My God, I love you with all my heart, I ask your forgiveness; immediately He embraces you as His child and pours out new graces upon you so that you may become better” (Chap. MME, September 30, 1883).
For Saint Marie-Eugénie, community is never self-enclosed. It is a place where the Holy Spirit shapes hearts ready for the mission of the Church and the transformation of the world. The spirituality of the Assumption unites contemplation and action, interior fidelity and apostolic commitment. This missionary dynamism rests on a fidelity of love lived together: “An extreme fidelity of love that excludes all else; she enters a path where the truth she contemplates is given to her a hundredfold” (Chap. MME, December 9, 1877). The community thus becomes a sign of the Kingdom of God, a living witness that relationships founded on the Gospel are possible and bear hope.
In the spirituality of Saint Marie-Eugénie of Jesus, community clearly appears as a school of human and spiritual growth. It is the place where personal identity is built in relationship, where listening, patience, and humility shape the heart, and where the Holy Spirit acts to form persons who are free, unified, and committed. Far from being a simple framework for living, community is a space of transformation, calling each person to become an artisan of truth and love.
Even today, our foundress reminds us that community life, lived in faith and charity, remains a privileged path for human and spiritual growth, in the light of the Gospel, at the service of the Church and the world.
Sister Yvonne M Faustine NYIRABAZIRORERA
Province Rwanda Chad.