Before embarking on a new round-table season, let’s kick off the year with the surprising and joyful testimony of Sister Marie-Luc … Direction: the Basilica of the Visitation of Annecy!
Eighteen nuns live today at the monastery of the Visitation of Annecy. It is “the Source” for this order founded in 1610 in Annecy by Saint-François de Sales and Saint Jeanne de Chantal. Daily of these contemplative nuns: prayer, spiritual study, work, silence, community life. And also: the reception of retreatants within the community.
“My parents baptized me Marianne, from the name of the Republic!” Sister Marie-Luc laughs, with her singing Southern accent. In Marseilles, Marianne grew up without hearing about God. “With my parents I discovered the love of nature, of beauty, there was a certain sense of the divine, but I was looking for the meaning of my life, it is painful, this emptiness”.
“I was looking for the meaning of my life, it’s painful, this emptiness.”
Without conviction, the young woman begins to study medicine. “I did not have the vocation, I looked everywhere for what could make me happy, until the day I came across a poster at the school, a poster that spoke of God”. The poster was that of a student group who shared the Bible. Weekend of evangelization, trip to Lourdes: Marianne discovers the Word of God.
“One day, in prayer, I received a joy that overwhelmed me” says the nun with wet eyes and voice filled with emotion.
“Everyone knew that I was going to become a religious, except me!”
A quest for meaning and multiple twists will lead Marianne to knock on the door of the Visitation of Tarascon. “I asked for baptism, the preparation was very fast, everyone knew that I was going to become a religious, except me!”
The meeting with other young people, then a nun, a community, a Salesian priest are decisive for Marianne … who will become Sister Marie-Luc. “Saint Luke was the evangelist of the poorest, and I carry especially in my prayer the young people who are in inner distress, as I have been.”
“When I look at my life, I’ll cry with Joy!”
Sister Marie-Luc discovers community life. “It’s better to put a pan in your face and then ask for forgiveness, but never go to bed angry!”
The life of prayer in cloister, it is also a renunciation of the excursions, to the journeys, to the family life. “When I look at my life, I’ll cry with Joy, I hardly ever think about everything I gave up, what I found here is even stronger, God can fill a life, really.”
Source: https://rcf.fr/spiritualite/vie-de-l-eglise/dieu-peut-combler-une-vie