"Charles de Foucauld - a prophet for our time" was the theme that we selected for the meeting of the Spiritual Family Association of Charles de Foucauld. The meeting brings together; the Intemational responsibles of all branches of the Charles de Foucauld family. Each participant is asked to think about the following questions in his/her group:

- How does Charles de Foucauld appear a prophet for our time?

- Recall that our baptism consecrates us as "priests, kings and prophets"; in what way do we try to live out these characteristics?

(My thanks to International Team members and national Responsibles who helped me with their ideas. Marianne Bonzelet)

These days, little is heard about prophets, except maybe from those who live in certain sects and who give themselves the title of "prophet". Even in the Church (in Europe, at least) prophets seem to be banished to the Old Testament and practically nobody seems to give serious consideration to their possible presence now. Yet official baptismal rite tells about this consecration to be "priests, kings, and prophets".

Contrary to what is thought, a prophet is not someone who predicts the future in the name of God. The Hebrew word "nabi" looks at a prophet as someone called by God - it is HE who has woken him up and stirred his senses to make him listen to him. The senses are indeed the organs of the encounter with God. Someone who has been called by God becomes someone who calls before God and before the people.

The vocation of prophet is not something chosen by that person The meaning of the word is clear: somebody is calling and that call is heard by a person ready to listen (Sam 3 wl-21). The prophets of the Old Testament tell us that this is how God called them. The key moment was when God overwhelmed their personality entirely. Such a vocation is never just a personal thing. It is at the same time always linked to a message to be brought (to the people of Israel).

The call of God is an invitation to participate in his divine plan. There is often resistance but God is patient. The story of Samuel shows it: "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening!" How often is it just the contrary: "Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking to you."

In order to understand the call of God, I must make room to listen to God's voice, to understand the signs. Perhaps I need somebody else (a spiritual companion, my fraternity,) to help me work out the will of God. As soon as the prophet has understood it, s/he feels compelled to act according to that will. That is not always easy. Often it is linked to s lot of difficulties and dangers. There may be doubts coming up, but the availability stays the same, the availability to help accomplish God's project. That vocation is not understood once and for all, it requires many new starts and adaptations to the needs of the time.

So, the prophet is not somebody who predicts the future, not somebody who inspires or passes her/his ideas to others. S/he is a man/woman who has been taken by the spirit of God and who lets her/himself be lead by him. Thanks to the spirit s/he interprets the signs of the time and s/he puts them back in the context of God's salvation plan. The prophet is a man/woman who asks people to reconsider things. As it is God himself who calls the prophet and who makes her/him ready, meeting the prophet at the same time means meeting God. The prophet reveals to us our own way of being Christians. His/her actions question us and require us to take a decision. A meeting with a prophet marks us deeply.

Speaking at the same time about "Prophet" and about the work of God is a dangerous thing to do. On one hand the consequences can be assessed on the other hand they cannot.

-I can count on God whatever happens. He remains faithful to his promise.

- In that sense, one can count on God.

-If I open up to God's spirit, if I put myself at God's service, I take a risk. God sometimes makes me take unexpected roads, roads that I would not have taken myself. That makes it unpredictable. The Spirit of God can annihilate my own projects. That is the "dangerous" dimension of God, whose will doesn't necessarily correspond to mine.

For those who exercise power but also for the "little people" and most of all for the pious, prophets are dangerous people, they are not simple people. Just look at history to understand.

- In the New Testament Jesus tells the Pharisees that it is they, the pious, who have killed the prophets

- Saint Ignatius of Loyola was called before the inquisition seven times, by Christians

- St John of the Cross was put in jail by his own brothers Being in contact with prophets therefore implies danger. (Jesus* disciples stay behind closed doors after Easter because they are afraid of running the same risk as their master.)

It is not just the members of our spiritual family who see Charles as a prophet. It is easy to find similarities between him and the prophets of the Old Testament. Charles did not choose his vocation either. When he asked Huvelin to explain religion, he wasn't expecting a personal confrontation with Jesus in the Sacrament, confrontation that he experienced as the fulfillment of a long waiting. It was the beginning of a passionate love of God and a total availability. "As soon as I understood that God existed I could only live for Him." As soon as Charles de Foucauld felt this desire for a life full of meaning, a life with God, he stayed on that path and put himself totally at the service of his spiritual seeking.

"My God, if you really exist, make me know you" When saying that prayer, he could not know what his life was going to be. But one thing was clear: "From the day I began to believe in God, I understood that I would not be able to live except for him." He is aware of what is at work in him and takes it up with his spiritual advisers. He always bases his search on the Gospel, which becomes his benchmark. Often enough he causes trouble to his superiors such as Abbe Huvelin, for whom his permanent search for the better is difficult to digest. Brother Charles has remained a seeker his whole life; always ready to be guided by God. Living in a permanent dialogue with God, he was ready to participate in the salvation project that God has for us. Just like the prophets of the O.T. he has been a "spoke in someone's wheel". At a time in history when Europe was looking to break records - higher, faster, further away (the Olympic idea) he proposes the idea of looking for the extraordinary in ordinary every-day life (because in Nazareth God became extraordinarily ordinary). Opposed to the missionary idea of his time, he proposes an authentic Christian presence - more by being a living example and by collaboration with the lay people than with the word. Involving the laity was an extremely courageous step for the beginning of the 20th century. We had to wait fix the Second Vatican Council, sixty years later, to see this idea realized in the thinking of the Catholic Church. For Charles de Foucauld, the Gospel is a mirror. Jesus is the "unique model", serving him as a measure and concrete example. He is madly in love with a person, not with an idea. He wants to be formed and penetrated by HIM. He wants God to take him on a path of clarification and purification. All his writings tell that Jesus is his only ideal, the one to whom he always returns.

The prophets never asked to be imitated w copied. They show us the way to God, because HE is the one who calls and whose call is waiting for an individual answer by everybody.

This is an encouragement of ourselves, because God doesn't want copies. He has created us as beings, each one unique. That's why each and everyone of us has his/her own possibilities and his/her own way of telling about God's presence and of participating in constructing his Kingdom.

The book by the prophet Isaiah explains that prophecy is not static, but dynamic, it develops. Isaiah himself gave witness to this before the Babylonian exile. His principal goal was to show people that one must put confidence in God, who is always faithful and whose wisdom manages the destiny of history. Looking at God with the eyes of faith implies answering to his will in political and social matters. During the exile, Deutero-Isaiah took over the fundamental concepts of Isaiah and became the prophet of consolation. The book also contains words of a third prophet. Trito-Isaiah commits himself to the reconstruction of Jerusalem. This reconstruction has not been successful so far, which brings hope that God will intervene again, because HE is faithful.

Charles de Foucauld doesn't limit himself to one message only. The objective in his time was a quick Christianization of the world - perhaps in one generation. But he did not found one single congregation. Only after his death the idea was taken up again and people tried to put his ideas into practice. The beginning goes back to just before me Second World War. Other congregations followed in later years. There was then no longer that dominant goal for a rapid Christianization of the world.

All the groups in the Spiritual Family Association take Jesus as their example. The life of brother Charles shows them that this is the path to be taken, over and over again. But each group has its own way to realize and live the Foucauldian spirituality. It is in that way that each group and each member contributes in a unique way to reconstruct the image of Christ in the world today.

- Charles de Foucauld draws our attention to the Gospel, to Jesus, our "unique model**. He gives us an example of an individual answer (like ail saints do). The Gospel must be the way we measure ourselves against our goal to be "prophets".

- This is at the same time an encouragement to find our identity, because God doesn't want copies, he has created us as beings, every one unique. Thereby every one has his/her own possibilities and his/her own way of testifying about the presence of God and thereby participating in the construction of His Kingdom.

- Charles de Foucauld has realized what many people of our time experience in their life. He was always looking for an identity, like many young people today.

-He was always searching to find the will of God, to find the path that God had foreseen for him. He has showed us that we must make room to listen to God's voice, to understand the signs in every-day life.

- He was a prophet by his way of evangelizing, of announcing the Gospel; no forced conversions but simply living the Gospel in every-day life.

- He was a prophet by the profoundness of his relations with persons around him, by the spirituality of his presence, the incarnation of "living with": the life of Nazareth.

- In our world of individualism, in the world of today with all its violence, racism, exclusion, solitude, this spirituality of "living with", of friendship, brotherly love, has its place. It is a call to live fraternity like Jesus lived it in Nazareth, in his ordinary life with the people every day.

- Well before our actual globalization. Brother Charles has lived the call to the universality of the Bible message and in a very concrete way. He has lived the Gospel faithful to his convictions,, to what he calls the love of the Father and the love of brothers (and sisters). His spirituality of friendship, of being good, of sharing, is another way of globalizing, the way of love.

- He has given us an example of living a simple life, which is an alternative to the consumer society.

- He has chosen to love God, and therefore also to love people, to serve, to respect without exclusion, recognizing dignity in the other, 'to see in every man a brother (and sister)". A listening ear, dialogue and availability were essential to accomplish his mission.

He encourages us to not stay "sleeping dogs that cannot bark" and to commit ourselves for toe dignity of people, against injustice, for human rights, to be peace makers and to welcome others in their difference.

Being a 'prophet" is not just a personal calling. It is at the same time always linked to a message to be given by one's life, a commitment for and with others. The call of God is an invitation to collaborate in his Godly plan.