For the first time in the 1809 Circular, addressing her daughters, Mother Thouret introduces the postscript: “In our letters between me and the sisters, the motto will henceforth be God Alone!”
Throughout her life, she reiterated this motto with different accents and nuances: “God Alone and All Alone,” she affirmed in 1821, proclaiming herself “Happy to belong to God Alone.” In 1823, her profession of faith was “God Alone is my All!” And the fulfillment of her life would be “To God Alone.”
But it is in the content of her letters that we recognize how her life as a woman, as a foundress, as a servant of the poor, draws substance precisely from this profound relationship with God, the inexhaustible source of powerful vitality that unifies everything: intelligence, will, affectivity, action, personality.
Jeanne-Antide testifies to how our poor human heart is filled with difficulties, inconsistencies, and fragilities, but the secret of its strength is the life-giving presence of God, his powerful grace: “God alone, the beginning and the end, deigned to make use of a nothingness like me. I did not launch myself into this initiative, recognizing that I had been chosen by Him: I was assisted by his powerful grace” (Letter of 1815).
God alone is the heartbeat of Jeanne-Antide, the motivator of her courage, the reason for her boldness, the source of her resourcefulness, her support in times of difficulty, her companionship during the experience of failure: “Being all alone, aided by God alone, I placed my firm trust in his omnipotence and made every effort, working day and night” (1812).
Toward the end of her life, Mother Thouret could declare from experience that God works with her and for her: “I pull my heavy cart with the arms of God Alone.”
From God, the Foundress always receives new energy and fervor. And with all her being, she longed for this profession of faith in God Alone to resonate loudly and vibrantly in the hearts of her daughters and in the hearts of the poor: “The poor you serve will benefit from what you have shown them and will finally see that their only happiness and their only resource lies in sincerely converting to God.”
History, with its human events, Mother Thouret seems to tell us, unfolds amid toil and doubt, joy and tribulation, but it is a love story, already vivified, saved, and sanctified by God, who has always chosen and called us, and continues to lovingly protect and strengthen us. And God, until the last day, accompanies us and awaits us: “To God Alone!”
