Let's first look at certain seemingly providential signs in Charles' early life. He was born on the 15th September, 1858, on the feast of Our Lady's sorrows, in the year in which she appeared to Bernadette. As a child Charles, as he himself recalls, linked love of Mary with love of Jesus, in a natural and spontaneous way, and his first communion card bore the words, 'To Jesus through Mary I consecrate myself. Later, discovering an adult faith, he was to receive communion at Our Lady's altar, a communion which he saw as a 'second fist communion'. This happened, as we know, largely as a result of the loving and welcoming 'presence' of his cousin Marie, whom he frequently called his 'mother' or 'little Mother'. For it was 'her silence, gentleness and goodness' that, he tells us, drew him back to God, to Jesus his 'Beloved'; and it was the same Marie who continued to watch over this presence of Jesus, this growth of Jesus in Charles. Is it fanciful to see in his cousin a Mary figure: a person reproducing for Charles the role of the Virgin Mother, conceiving and supporting his faith in Jesus, and so conceiving and supporting the grace-life of Jesus in him? This is a suggestion of Father Francis Frost, and it seems to me most probable, the more so when we see its similarity with the mystery of the Visitation, which was so dear to Charles.

Let's now look at the place which Charles explicitly gives to Mary in his post-conversion faith journey. It is Charles' fourth winter as a Trappist, the fourth too in Akbes (Syria), and he is having serious doubts about his vocation: is his desire for the life of Nazareth a sign of instability and a delusion, or God's call? In his disarray, on the advice of an old monk, he entrusts himself totally to Mary. 'I had a lot of interior difficulties, worries, fears, doubts: I wanted to serve the good Lord, but feared going against Him, and couldn't see clearly. So I entrusted myself wholeheartedly to the protection of Our Lady of perpetual succour, begging her to guide my steps as she used to guide those of the child Jesus, and to lead me in everything...' (letter to Fr. Jerome, see J-F Six 153-4). Meditating on this same act, while in Nazareth, Charles recalls the totality of his self-entrustment to Mary and to her wishes, and indicates again that he was acting as Jesus (I begged her to carry me as she had carried You) and for Jesus (I asked her to do with me what she wished for the greater glory of her Son, according to His will).

This was not an isolated act, but, from now on, Charles regularly confides himself, his actions and 'his people' to Mary and her motherly concern. For example, concluding a retreat at Beni Abbes, he writes: 'I propose to give all my actions, prayers and sufferings to Mary, so that she may give all to Jesus'. In Tamanrasset, he notes: 'It's two years since You've inhabited this poor chapel, in this part of Your Kingdom.. Heart of Jesus, your kingdom come.. Mother of ever ready help, visit, convert, sanctify, save this people of yours' (the Touaregs). We can see how Charles' intense desire to imitate Jesus, and be conformed to Him, is the underlying motivation of his attitude to Mary. We can also notice that this motivation is activated through Charles' personal experiences and the hidden work of the Spirit, whom he constantly invoked.

When in Nazareth, as a domestic to the Poor Clares, it's normal, given Charles' attraction for Jesus' Nazareth life, that he should consider the concrete life of the Holy Family: I¹m in the house of Nazareth, between Mary and Joseph, like a little brother close to his elder brother Jesus: Such language could be a form of sentimental dreaming, but for Charles it was a matter of the realism of faith. The living person of Jesus to whom he had committed his life, was inseparable from his close and long relationship with his Mother and Foster-Father. This leads Charles to enter into the everyday life of the family of Jesus. He wishes to share their life-style (food, lodging, work, prayer, routine...), their personal relationships with each other and with their neighbors (interest, concern, help given and received..), and their God-centred orientation (as seen in the gospel incidents recorded, with their external obstacles and inner conflicts, among themselves...). Charles sees their life as an 'example' for himself and for the communities he hopes to inaugurate (Constitutions 24 and 28), and, later, for all Christians, whatever their state of life, and, by extension, for all persons and family groups. In fact, the relational life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph becomes, for Charles, a model of that fraternal structure which should be at the heart of all human living and relating. It is to be noted that Charles envisages the equality of persons, relating as equals, as having precedence over the authority-dependent relations that are a necessary, but subsidiary, element of human family and social life. This is clearly implied by all the examples given: Jesus is pictured as an adult, an 'ordinary working person', engaged like Mary and Joseph in manual work, and considering their needs and wishes, as they consider his, always with the proviso of putting God first (see Directory). Vatican II has confirmed and developed this theme (Gaudium et Spes 32 and 92).

The chapel of Beni Abbes contains a simple icon-like picture, done by Charles himself, of the Visitation. Charles sees the Visitation as expressing the mission of Mary, the mission of 'carrying Jesus. among those who do not know Him: carrying Jesus by sharing Mary's faith and contemplation of the hidden Guest, and, while continuing to do this without interruption, sharing the joys and pains of one's neighbor. This, of course, is an expression of neighborly charity and affection, but it is more than this: through these simple and ordinary acts, Jesus is present, and, true to His name, is exercising his saving activity. Mary is silent, but her presence and action make Jesus present and active. This is the 'mission' to which Charles feels called, and with which he identifies. It is a mission to make Jesus present, in silence, and to share in His redemptive work. It applies to the whole cooperation of Mary in Jesus' unique 'work', as this dynamically develops throughout the various events of their lives. Charles' intense urge to share in Jesus' great work of salvation, for each and all, is rooted in his sense of being asked to identify with Mary's 'mission' of 'carrying Jesus'. We can see here, I think, clear recalling of the providential date of his birth, the 'memory' of Mary's sorrows associated with the life-giving death of Jesus, and of the human presence of his cousin Marie, who in silence carried Jesus to him and nurtured his faith in the in dwelling Jesus whom he, in turn, was called to carry... We can see, too, the dynamic of Nazareth, in which the everyday work and relationships of our life become the beginning of the supreme 'work' and new 'relationships' of that one Sacrifice in which everything is summed up, and to which we join ourselves in the Eucharist, for 'those dear to us' and 'for all'.