Charles de Foucauld - part 5

Charles de Foucauld - part 5

 In a Trice

For three full years after leaving Morocco, Charles was wholly taken up with the work of his sizeable book – A journey through Morocco.

On May 23, 1884, He left Morocco. “Islam has had profound effect on me… Acquaintance with this faith… has allowed me to sense something much bigger and more true than this worldly preoccupation… I began to study Islam”.

Two years later, in February 1886, he settled in Paris. In the same month, he had his first meeting in Paris with the well-known priest Huvelin. His church was only a few steps away from Charles flat.

Towards the end of the same year: “I began to go to Church but without believing, for it was only there that I felt right and spent hours saying the same prayer: ‘may Go, if you exist, let me recognize you’.

On 28 or 29 October 1886, he said to his cousin: “you are happy to believe; I am looking for the light and I cannot find it”.

On the very next day, he went to see Fr. Huvelin in the Church of St. Augustine. “I as ked for religious instruction. He made me kneel and make my confession and sent me to take communion at once”.

Imagine a pair of dancers moving gracefully over the dance floor. One of the partners is dancing quite different steps and is supported by an invisible partner.  Until in a trice his dancing partner had taken the initiative.

‘As soon as I believed that there was a God, I understood that I could not do anything other than live for him.  My religious vocation dates from the same moment as my faith. God is so great’

‘At first, faith had many obstacles to overcome .I had doubted so very much that I did not believe everything all at once…

The countenance of the mysterious Partner in the dance remains invisible to us.  All that we can sense of Him is that strong hand which had started to guide Charles on the right way.  For him, the dance had only just begun.

(Jun Mercado, OMI – Badaliyya Philippines)