Paraguay, Egypt, Syria, Italy: the Friends of Saint Jeanne Antide celebrate International Friendship Day, a United Nations initiative that promotes peace and solidarity among peoples through friendship.
Friendship is a relationship of deep love and, for those who live the charism of Saint Jeanne Antide, friendship means helping those most in need.
We should support them and show our love for our neighbour.
Ingrid Lorena Guerrero
Friend of Saint Jeanne Antide
Paraguay
Three members of the Friends of Saint Jeanne Antide in Alexandria (Egypt) were pleased to answer the question posed on the occasion of International Friendship Day. We are happy to share their testimonies and reflections with you. Thank you very much for this beautiful initiative.Marguerite
For me, as a friend of Saint Jeanne Antide, friendship is an invitation to live love in a concrete and simple way in our daily lives. It is a relationship based on respect, listening and being present alongside the other, in joy as in sorrow.
Through the spirit of Jeanne Antide, I learn that a friend is not only someone who shares beautiful moments, but also someone who carries our burdens and gives us hope in trials.
Through the spirit of Jeanne-Antide, I learn to be a true friend, to listen with my heart and to always be present. A true friend is someone who knows how to support, comfort and encourage us to become better. Our friendship is not only between us; God is also present. And that is what makes it different, sincere and truly profound.Friend: Michael Samuel
Group of Friends of Saint Jeanne Antide – Alessandria
Friendship, according to the perspective of the friends of Saint Jeanne Antide, has a profound and spiritual meaning. Friendship is not just a human relationship based on trust, but a true expression of Christian love, compassion and service to others. Friendship becomes a means of reflecting God’s love by being attentive, present and devoted to one’s friends.For a friend of Saint Jeanne Antide, this can mean:
– Being a sincere and faithful support in times of joy as well as in times of difficulty.
– Practising attentive listening and patience, respecting the dignity of each person.
– Acting with compassion, helping others to grow spiritually and humanly.
– Seeing in others a reflection of God’s creation and treating them with love and respect.
In short, for Saint Jeanne Antide, friendship is a vocation to live God’s love concretely in our human relationships, being a living witness to divine goodness.Germaine Nadi
AJA Friend, Alexandria
Just as Jeanne Antide lived, so the AJA seek to live and collaborate with the Sisters: spiritual life, prayer, meditation, living the sacraments… We relieve the poor (in the broadest sense of the word), we serve God in every human being. We serve every person, the whole person. The Friends of Saint Jeanne Antide mean sincere love, self-giving, dedication to work and even sacrifice for others.Marguerite AJA livsno-Syria-Egypt
For me, it means living according to the spirituality of Saint Jeanne Antide and learning from her life journey.It is the Spirit of God, present in us, that guides us… God alone is our Creator and the Lord of our lives. He has sent us
I believe that there is no shortage of examples for us who follow Christ and have as our beacon the example of Saint Jeanne Antide, faithful worker in the vineyard of the Lord.
We know what brotherly love should be, because that is what friendship is: the awareness that we are all children of the same Father, Abba, my Father, our Father. One Father and one Son and one Holy Spirit who should unite us, and yet how difficult it is sometimes to feel deeply this union, this unity in diversity!
Every time I feel disappointed in my journey of faith and in our small group, I also think of Jesus. In his small group, there was one who betrayed him (Judas), one who denied him (Peter), one who was incredulous (Thomas)… Yet they had the Master as their guide, and they had been chosen by him…
By this I mean that it is not easy to build deep bonds of sincere friendship. Each of us is weighed down by our own burdens and cannot see or bear the burdens of others… And instead of opening our hearts, we close ourselves off more and more. Until we have formal relationships, often steeped in hypocrisy.
Jesus came for the sick, for us who are sick with pessimism, who are easily discouraged and unable to understand the inner wounds of those around us. Yet it would be easy to look at what Jesus endured for love, what Saint Jeanne Antide and so many other saints endured…
What is friendship for me? It is striving every day to put our own problems aside and let the problems of those around us into our hearts. It is an exercise in altruism. It is a will that we must put into practice if we consider ourselves children of God and Christians.Daniela Bellizzi, AJA Naples
Friendship means respecting one another, rushing to help when needed and never judging.Carmela, AJA
AJA Messignadi Group:I got to know the spirituality of the Congregation founded by Sainte Jeanne Anthide Thouret “from the inside”, having worked for almost five years in one of its schools in Reggio Calabria. Friendship is a special value in this spirituality, which transcends human feelings and builds a bridge between earth and heaven. For the Sisters of Charity, friendship is not only a way of life that pervades their daily relationships, but above all a mission: to embody Charity in all its interpersonal dimensions as a model of adherence to Christ.Bruno De Masi
Friendship:– requires knowledge…
– finds similar people or makes people similar.
This also applies to an AJA.Sister Carmela
For me, the Friends of Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret are much more than an emotional bond: it is a vocation to live Christian love every day, in prayer and charity. As a prayer group, they support each other spiritually, sharing joys, struggles and hopes before the Lord. In the charitable works they carry out together, they see the face of Christ in each other, and on this journey, friendship becomes a gift, listening, and faithfulness. It is a bond that arises from faith and translates into concrete gestures of service and solidarity. For them, friendship is the very heart of their mission.Giusy Scarcella
For me, friendship within the group is: ‘Weaving true and peaceful relationships with every member of the group; sharing joys and sorrows. Only in this way is friendship strengthened and true.Of course, everything must be seasoned with listening to the Word: Jesus is the only true friend, and in Him we find meaning in fidelity and our mission to enlarge our hearts.Sister Maria Grazia
AJA Terracina Group:🌿 For me, as a friend of Saint Antida, friendship is…
A gift from God, cultivated in the silence of listening, in faithful presence, in the simple sharing of daily life.
It is walking alongside another person with an open heart, as Saint Antida walked alongside the poor, the sick and the forgotten, recognising the face of Christ in each one.
It is humble service, not only in grand gestures but also in small acts of kindness.
For me, friendship is the purest feeling that exists, even more important than love between a man and a woman, which comes to an end. Friendship never ends if it is true
Friendship is a basic form of love. It makes you feel understood, supported, listened to and surrounded by affection. I wish everyone in the world could be friends so that we would no longer witness the horrors of evil. Jesus is always our friend.
