I have just celebrated my jubilee of 50 years of religious life in Vilnius! What else can I do but say THANK YOU again and again? When I made my first vows on Christmas Day 1975, together with Sr Nicole, I was full of illusions, but I had known since childhood that God loved me and that Jesus was the Lord of my life. The illusions fell away, but Jesus the Lord remained 😊. Now I can only give thanks for all that He has done in my life.
The Surprise Call
Among the surprises God had in store for me, the greatest and most beautiful was awaiting me one day in March 1993. Sr Thérèse Agnès, my Provincial, asked me a question that astounded me: the Congregation is thinking about a foundation in Lithuania. Are you ready to go? Do you feel the Spirit is calling you there? You will be alone at the beginning, because there is no other sister available. You will have to learn the language and look for a place to make the foundation… She gave me 15 days to reflect and pray, but in fact my decision was made in an instant: YES, I feel that this is the magis to which God is inviting me: more faith, more love, the call to lose myself for Him and for the Gospel. Travelling back by metro to my Lubeck community, I felt like a woman who has just learnt she is pregnant and cannot yet tell anyone! And yet I am not someone who makes decisions easily, and I am not bold. But the Spirit, who loves to act in weakness, gave me wings to overcome my fear of the unknown.
And so I left on 3 September, in time to take part in a great event: the visit of Pope John Paul II to Lithuania. I was expected, because the foundation had been well prepared by Sr Anna Kristina, who had made several visits beforehand, accompanied by sisters from Scandinavia. There were already young women who were attracted to the Assumption: the future Sisters Alma, Kotryna Danguolé, Jurgita and Jolanta. There were also living roots: our first Lithuanian sisters, who entered the Assumption between 1934 and 1937, when the Congregation was not present in their country. Their courage had been far greater than mine! They had truly lost everything: after the war of 1939–1945, Lithuania had been forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, and the sisters lost all contact with their country and their families for 50 years. Two of them, still alive, Sisters Agnieska and Marie Ona, came later to help with the foundation.
Cultural Learning
There would be too much to tell about these 33 years in Lithuania, but since there is so much talk of interculturality nowadays, I can mention the culture shocks that forced me to broaden my heart and my mind. The first was arriving — I, a Frenchwoman who takes independence and democracy as natural facts — in a country that had just endured 60 years of occupation, oppression and religious persecution. By learning the language, listening to people and exploring places of memory, I was gradually able to move from a theoretical knowledge of historical facts to an empathetic, if partial, knowledge of the wounds, the suffering and the fears that remained buried in people’s hearts and that still affect the new generations. At the same time, my admiration grew for the courage and resilience of a people who never renounced their identity or their faith.
Another, more amusing aspect was, for a Parisian, a city-dweller through and through, coming into contact with a rural culture. Even though Vilnius was already an important city, most people had spent at least part of their childhood in the countryside, in touch with the reality of nature: drawing water from the well, planting potatoes, gathering mushrooms, and so on. To have something to eat, it was not enough to go to the shop! It takes work, patience, tenacity and know-how passed down from generation to generation. I understood that all this was a richness and a source of maturity, and that I had a great deal to learn!
Sr Benedicte
Vilnius Community – Lithuania