The Spirit provides the “right people at the right time” for this Little Design. When I read our original documents I have to be careful to not lull myself into thinking that Medaille and the six women knew what they were doing.  Sure they had The Little Design …Read More

This sentence is an adaption of Chief Seattle’s prayer, “Every part of this Earth is sacred to my God.” The six women were in their personal free falls going out into the city of Le Puy each day with their baskets of food, medical supplies and clothing.  In …Read More

(February 7, 2020) THE 3, 5, 10 YEAR PLAN OF THE DIVINE LOVE In the Eucharistic Letter, Medaille invites the first six women to see “The Little Design” as “wholly divine and [with an] invisible foundation… without a visible father, mother, founder, foundress, without a house of its …Read More

In the Eucharistic Letter, Medaille writes as if he is certain that God wanted him to work for the establishment of an Institute totally empty of self. This institute became CSJ for all of us.  In Greek, the word for “self-emptying” is KENOSIS.  In Scripture, St. Paul suggests …Read More

The six women of Le Puy were women dedicated to The Divine Love and immersed in their world.  Francoise Eyraud was 39 years old.  Medaille asked her to be the first superior of the house in Le Puy.  Claudia Chastel was a widow.  She was one of the …Read More

Jean-Pierre Medaille, SJ, wrote in The Eucharistic Letter that the women of LePuy were to model their lives on Jesus in the Eucharist, hidden, secret and emptied of self.  Jesus is the human face of The Divine Love.  Reading this litany of characteristics you could be turned off …Read More

Fr. Medaille uses the name, “Little Design” repeatedly in his writings.  In the Eucharistic Letter alone, it appears ten times.  Tradition has it that Medaille used this name out of deference to his mentor Francis de Sales. de Sales founded the Visitandines and referred to them as the “great design” upon which …Read More

Members of the “Little Design” were transformed to this new way of life in a climate of secrecy.  They lived in groups of three and did not wear a distinctive clothing attire.  They took the dress of the widows of Le Puy so that they could move through the city …Read More

Fr. Jean-Pierre Medaille, SJ discovered the six women of Le Puy in the seventeenth century France ripped apart by violence, war, sickness and abuse of women and orphaned children.   He referred to this intentional community as “a new way of life” because it grew in a “climate of …Read More

December 23, 2019. When we reflect about anything regarding our everyday life, we have to begin with a starting point that invites us to add to and grow in our understanding of our “self.”  I offer you a starting point for reflection about “self” from the CSJ understanding …Read More