Born a La Salette

Sister Antoinette Marie-Claire Raharisoa was born in Tsarahonenana in the district of Ambohibary, diocese of Antsirabe, Madagascar. She grew up in a large family of ten brothers and sisters of which she is the seventh.

As good practicing Catholics, we went every Sunday to Sunday Mass, without asking any questions. We were not allowed to work on Sundays. Every evening at home we prayed. We prayed together to Our Lady of La Salette. I did not even know where these prayers came from or to whom to address it but I said it with all my heart.

Every Sunday before the celebration of the Word of God, while waiting for all to arrive, our catechists had us pray the rosary followed by the Litany of Our Lady of La Salette. In fact, since my childhood, the Message of La Salette has been an integral part of my faith journey. Thanks to this faith I received from my parents and the Church, I have always sought how to please Jesus, by giving myself entirely to him. This led me to answer a very special call.

Answering a Special Call

This is how I joined the Sisters of Our Lady La Salette! Arriving in France in 2004 as a novice on internship, I made my first vows in October, 2004 and made my solemn profession in March 2011. I have a religious sister with the Sisters of Christ.

After my first profession, I was sent by Sister Marie Victoire, Superior General in 2004, with two other sisters of my promotion, to open a new community in the diocese of Gap. After 6 years, I am appointed in the diocese of Saint-Flour. Then return to the diocese of Gap. It was here that the Congregation appointed me provincial superior of the NSDS of France. It is in the community that I find fraternal help and the necessary moral support. It is this fraternal life that carries me.

Prayer, Community Life and our Congregation

I experience that praying is not always easy. It is not easy to confide in God in the face of difficult situations and trials, and even in the face of my successes. I need humility. I know that I must be guided by the Spirit. It is he who invites me to look further, towards the beauty of his call which I have benefited from.

The trust I have received from others, such as that received from God, helps me trust in myself, a trust supported by the Sisters, is essential to my personal and internal life. This confidence I have experienced since my return to the Congregation. It is the Spirit who allows me to advance. In this confidence given to me, the Congregation gives me strength and inner peace. I see it as a sign of the active presence of the Holy Spirit. This confirms me in my commitment.

A Special Charism of Reconciliation

Our Constitutions, as Bishop Guy de Kerimel said, refer to, are the means to incarnate the particular gift of the Holy Spirit to the Congregation. The more I immerse myself in the spirit of the Constitutions, the more faith, hope and love grow in me. This always drives me to seek more life, opening to God and to others.

Fraternal life carries me, sustains me, encourages me. It is in the fraternity that is realized which Saint Paul wrote in his first Letter to the Christians of Thessalonica: " We urge you, admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all” (1 Thess 5:14). It is in the community that I find fraternity and the necessary moral support in my questions, research, and tensions as we advance together.

Being a Servant-Leader

The Congregation appointed me to serve as Provincial Superior of the Province of France. This choice is a human choice but received and experienced as coming from God. I accepted this service from my Congregation as an act of obedience. For me, this mission is the place of the offering of my life to God and to others, the place of service of God and my Sisters.

My mission is to help each one enter into a vision of solidarity with the religious life and the Congregation. It is love, humility and prayer that allow me to accept being what I am, simply, without seeking to please or to resemble that which I follow: to be myself and not to play a character that seeks only to please others.

We can advance if we support each other: Sisters, Councilors, Superiors, Fathers, Brothers, Laity. So let's walk together in confidence!

(Reprinted with permission from the La Salette Publication, “Les Annales”, March-April, 2017, vol. #257, pgs. 16-17)