In fact, there's just one in the entire world - in southern France.

There, the religious community welcomes sisters with Down syndrome to live out their vocation of contemplative prayer.

The Prioress, Mother Line, is now seeking able sisters to join them.

A ‘joining of two vocations'

Les Petites Sœurs Disciples de l'Agneau, (The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb) was founded by joining two vocations, Line says.

It began in 1985, when a young woman with Down syndrome — Sister Veronica — met Line. Despite her vocation, she had been turned away by several religious communities.

They began living together, hoping other young women with Down syndrome would join the community.

Line says at the time, the Church and religious communities did not understand "how a person with Down syndrome could have a call from God" to join religious life.

She had noticed, however, that the people she worked with who had Down syndrome were "very spiritually inclined."

More women with Down syndrome joined the community.

In 1999, the Little Sisters was established as an official religious institute of contemplative life.

Today, seven sisters with Down syndrome live alongside Line and Sister Florence, where they fulfil their vocations together.

A life of contemplative prayer and work

Mother Line says those with Down syndrome are "particularly inclined to the contemplative life".

The sisters have taken up the saying of St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa): "Do small things with great love," she says.

"We follow the path of Teresa: ‘major actions are beyond our realm,'" the community's website notes.

"We will never be great theologists. Our life is very simple and without a doubt similar to the secret life of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph of Nazareth."

While the Little Sisters organise each day around prayer and worship, they also are inspired by the Benedictine way of life, which balances prayer and work.

"It is very important for the Little Sisters to be kept busy," Line says.

They spend much of their time cultivating their gardens, harvesting vegetables, weaving scarves and bags and making tea from medicinal herbs, which they sell.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

In a meeting March 17 with members of the Augustinian Recollects, an order founded in 1588, the pope acknowledged that 25 years ago, they had more than 1,200 members belonging to eight provinces.

Today the order has 955 members in only four provinces.

A similar phenomenon is occurring in most Catholic religious orders, the pope said, adding, "This is a reality that we cannot ignore."

"There are thousands of explanations," he said, including declining birthrates in some traditionally Catholic countries, confusion on the part of young people or a reluctance to make a lifelong commitment. Hence the need to look further afield to other cultures and countries for vocations.

The Holy Father admitted that this worries him, but he does not want to play the prophet.

What is needed is to prepare for the future where they could be reduced to just 2 provinces. Or even face a situation where "there will be no more Augustinian Recollects".

"I trust in the Lord," he said. "But, I also have to say these things: Let us prepare ourselves for what is going to happen. Let us give our charism, our gift, to those who can carry it forward."

We have to pray for vocations and for ourselves that "the Lord also prepare us to give our gift, when we are fewer, to those who can collaborate with us".

"The Lord is good; he will give us the necessary consolation to make these decisions."

He urged the Augustinian Recollects to ask the Lord for the grace of how to make these decisions. But not as sociologists or psychologists, rather as what the Lord would want.

Sources

Crux Now

Vatican News