Father Julian Carron, the Spanish priest who leads the ecclesial Communion and Liberation movement, has one piece of advice for Catholics in this 21st-century world. Accepting the mystery that is Christ, he explained, will to help shape and guide one's life and bring about new relationships and a new understanding of what it means to live life fully. It's a simple premise, he said, but one he knows that people have difficulty accepting or understanding. "(If) we have met Christ, this introduces something new in our life," he told Catholic News Service prior to his presentation at The Catholic University of America. "In the way we're dealing with everything, we can convey that there is another way in dealing with everything." Father Carron, who has led Communion and Liberation since 2005 after the death of the movement's founder, Father Luigi Giussani, said people often seek complex answers to help face the difficulties posed by everyday life. Christ can, he said, "make everything different. Christianity for us is the most interesting that happens in our life," he said. "We don't want to lose this treasure that we have met." Father Carron, 61, first became aware of Communion and Liberation after serving as a priest for years after his 1975 ordination. He taught, researched and wrote in various academic settings in Jerusalem, Washington and Madrid and along the way discovered the movement. In 2004, he was invited to move to Milan, Italy, by Father Giussani to share the responsibility of leading the movement. Prior to his discovery, he explained, emptiness still existed in his heart despite serving the church. That changed when he began to understand what Communion and Liberation espoused to people from all walks of life.
Born during the turbulent era of the French Revolution, Saint Jeanne Jugan rose above hardship and a lack of formal schooling to become a profound vessel of Christ’s mercy. After losing her father at a young age and working through her youth as a kitchen maid and nurse, her life radically changed one freezing night when she encountered a blind, paralyzed elderly woman with nowhere to go. Jeanne carried the woman back to her own home, placed her in her own bed, and began a lifelong mission of radical hospitality. This act of profound love blossomed into the Little Sisters of the Poor , a thriving community dedicated to sheltering and honoring the destitute elderly. Despite later facing heavy trials—including being unjustly sidelined and stripped of her leadership by a controlling chaplain—Jeanne accepted her obscurity and exile with a joyful spirit, resting her complete trust in God's hidden providence until her death in 1879. In our daily lives, Saint Jeanne Jugan invites us to lo...
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