“Wounded, I will never cease to love,” is the motto of these women who go out to the streetsWhen four members of the Little Sisters of the Lamb — Judith (France), Angela (Austria), Marie-Alexandra (France), and Agape (USA) — arrived in Lyon, France on All Saints’ Day in 2013, the Archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Barbarin, asked them to do one thing: “… go out in the streets in your habits so that people can know that God exists.”
As mendicant (begging) religious sisters, the mission of the Little Sisters of the Lamb is to bear witness to God’s love, to radiate His joy, and to be with and befriend people.
After the terrorist attack in Paris on November 13, the community became an oasis of peace and calm for those who came through the doors. Now, the Little Sisters want to put down more substantial roots in the city and establish a long term presence.
The Diocese of Lyon has offered the sisters a piece of land in the center of the city for a new monastery. There will be three parts: a chapel at the center of the monastery, open to everyone; a community house, with an “open table” refectory, and a place to welcome people in need; and the cloister, with twelve cells, an oratory, and a library for prayer and study in solitude for the sisters.
CredoFunding is helping the Little Sisters raise money for their monastery and the community is halfway to its goal. There are nine other monasteries of the Little Sisters of the Lamb in other parts of the world. The mission of each monastery is “to be a light of the Gospel in the heart of the city,” and that’s what Lyon will hopefully soon have to offer inhabitants and visitors alike.
