Reflections

That all be one

The number one is always independent and is the principle of natural numbers (N). It also symbolizes the unity and the Creator who is the principle of all things. So we can say that ONE is the beginning and the cause of all things. It is unity with the Creator. Nothing can be added to this unit or subtracted from it. It is necessary, simple and unique just as the number one is necessary for all numbers, because without the number one, there would be no other numbers. If we annul number one, all numbers would be annulled. Great is the power of number one.

So God is the beginning of all, God is unique and essential. We hear in Jewish prayer the words of the Shema:

“Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is One and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might and these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart“ (Dt. 6, 4-5)

Louise Humann, Fr. Louis Colmar and Therese Breck made the Pact of Turkenstein in 1797. The motto was

1797_06_23_turkensteinpakt“Ut unum sint” – “that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us” (Jn. 17, 21).

When Louise Humann wrote the Family Pact in 1832 with Fr. Louis Bautain, Fr. Adolph Carl and Fr. Theodore Ratisbonne the motto was “Sint Unum” (that all be one). The most important aspects in these pacts were unity in prayer and charity, sharing all goods in common and to give freely what they had freely received.

Fr. Theodore lived this motto in his heart through the Shema. When he lived the Shema, he was living the best of his being. Also when he lived his baptism, he felt a deep unity with Jesus. Theodore said that he lived a covenant with Him expressed through the Shema.

“There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4, 4-6)

Louise Humann led Fr. Theodoro to live Shema. This resounded deeply in Fr. Theodore’s heart, feelings and thoughts.

“To be in tune with God and to raise all our feelings to Him, you had to be given the key note with which all must harmonize. What is this note? It is: ‘You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength’. That is our Law, that is the immutable principle according to which we must live: ‘You will love God’ ”(Book 4, pg. 275)

Louise Humann and Theodore witnessed to the Shema. They had a deep and simple union with Jesus. Their union was related to an appreciation of the gifts of incarnation and Eucharist. Louise’s teaching about Jesus helped him love Mary. Mary as a faithful Jewish woman, prayed to God with the words of the Shema with all her heart. She is our model of life and “the daughter of Sion par excellence.”

In addition, both have Rhineland spirituality, as many times they wrote about God in maternal ways. The question is how are they mothers? They have a true love for their children like God has for us and God loves us through Jesus and He who was incarnate in Mary. Fr. Theodore said:

“Louise’s taught me to understand the blessed Virgin, and the more I loved her, the more I became attached to Jesus Christ, the center of the true love”(Book 3, pg. 256)

So, Fr. Theodore invited us to live the Shema with all our heart to be one with Jesus. If we have one heart with Jesus, we will live in His joy, truth and love. Jesus is our treasure, our gold. We can live this union with Jesus and live in fullness our projects of life. To be with Him, we need just to be, to listen, to feel and to breathe His love.

“We have heard the personal call of God, the same summons to total love which he addressed to the people of Israel. It comes to us today through Jesus Christ in his Church “If you will… come, follow me” Constitution #20

Andrea Chacón Carmona, Novice NDS
Community St. John in Montana

July 1st, 2016.