Animated by the Spirit of God, Nicolas Barré lived the life of an apostle, mystic and educator. Possessed and molded by the Spirit he entered into the apostolic spirituality of his time,( 17th century). It was this spirituality, deeply rooted in the mystery of the Incarnation, which was the unifying element in everything he did, everything he loved.
The principal on which Nicolas Barré founded his spirituality is: Jesus is at the centre of all things. ‘We must go by the path of Jesus, we must follow Him in all His ways’. ‘No one ever comes to the father except through Me’ Jesus says of Himself. He claims, ‘I am the Way’.
To travel by the ways of Jesus, we need first of all to listen to Him. ‘Since the Incarnation, God has spoken to His people through His Son. It is He, therefore, that we need to listen to and follow: ‘This is my Son, listen to Him’.
Nicolas Barré listened to Jesus by reading and meditating on the Word of God and by contemplating Him in the Gospels. But he listened to Him also in the cries of the poor, the little ones, the unlearned, people in difficulty and overcome with problems. He listened to Him through the events of his own time and in a spirit of faith, sought to discover there the Will of God and respond, relying only on His providence’.
The same cry is being heard today,
he cry of the earth, the cry of the poor. W
hat am I doing?
Lord, help us to look with the eyes of faith,
a heart of compassion and
love to the realities around us.
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