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Our Spirit and Charism

Our Spirit and Charism

"Just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love” (Eph1:4).

Consecrated Life in the Church

Religious life is a deeper consecration of Christian life begun in baptism and a special expression of it.  This life based on the following of the evangelical counsels is a divine gift received by the Church from her Lord.  The religious follow the very life style of Christ. God calls those whom he desires to this state of life (Mk 3:13-16). This call is a special gift given to an individual in view of the people of God.  Becoming committed to Christ alone by accepting freely the gift of the Holy Spirit, and consecrated to facilitate the saving mission of Christ; be a noble witness and model of Christ’s holiness and endeavor for the spreading of God’s Kingdom.  

Charism of the Founder

The Venerable  Rev. Fr. Augustine John Ukken founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity on 21st November 1944. Our Founder’s heart was ablazed to reciprocate the compassionate love of God that he experienced in an ongoing identification with Christ  the crucified  through the heroic and life-giving acts of charity. God bestowed upon him a unique grace to share the love and compassion to everyone, especially the poor and the downtrodden and to uplift them, so that Christ the redeemer might be reborn in the lives of all. CSC sisters have the responsibility to continue and perpetuate this charism.

CSC Charism

The charism of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity is to identify with Christ the crucified and share his compassionate love with the poor and the needy for their integral liberation.        

The Spirit of Our Congregation

We have received from our Founder the humble spirit of compassionate love that we experience in our daily communion with Jesus Christ, the crucified, in our personal as well as community life, which we share with the poor and the needy through various life-giving acts of charity. After her experiential witness, “I will be love in the heart of the Church,”  St. Therese of Lisieux dedicated herself fully as an oblation of love. It was the amazing and childlike trust in God, the Father, and her intense and passionate love for Jesus that made the Little Flower a saint and a model for our community. Our Founder, after having personally lived in the path of self-emptying sacrificial love, bequeathed the same to his daughters in the CSC.

Charism in the Fields of Apostolate 

Religious life by its nature is to love God.   It is by being urged by the love of Christ that we have to move out to the Children of God (2 Cor 5:14).  We have to accept personally and collectively programmes that would make available our service to the poor. Daily we make our own, the ardent and intense prayer of our Founder: “Teach me, O Lord, to integrate prayer and action in my life.”  The most suitable fields of apostolate to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God among the poor and the downtrodden have to be diserned after having understood the signs of  times and by taking into account the unique needs of the people of each locality. We shall reach out to the needy by offering services in such fields as healthcare, value education, evangelization, uplifting differently abled, family welfare projects, vocational training centres, caring the old and destitute, marginalized and prisoners and their families.
In accordance with the advice of the Founder: “Go with discernment where God calls,”  we may undertake any field of service of the poor that the Church asks for and in keeping with the charism of our congregation.

Our Founder’s insight in one of his diary entries is truly inspiring: “Let us strive to minimize and eliminate the pain and humiliation of all those who are socially ostracized and meted out with injustice so that a better social order could be established.”  Let this missionary zeal of our Founder motivate us in all works of service to the people.

Our Motto

Our motto is Love, Service, and Sacrifice.

Our Ideal

Our ideal is a lifestyle of simplicity and humble service inspired by the merciful love of Jesus.

Our Aim

The aim of CSC is to identify with the crucified Christ and to be the witness of His merciful love through humble service. 

Our Patron

St. Therese of Lisieux is our Patron. She is the person who consumed by the passionate love for God, intensely desired the salvation of all souls spanning from the beginning of creation till the end of the world.  

Our Models

  • Immaculate Mary – May the Holy Mother who humbly served others with motherly care in giving Jesus to the world help us!
  • St. Joseph – May St. Joseph the just who even in times of crisis took care of Holy Family offer us support in leading a life of justice and faithfulness to the will of God! 
  • St. Thomas – May St. Thomas, the apostle of India and our father in faith who proclaimed ‘My Lord and my God’ (Jn 20:28) be our guide!

Saints to Whom CSC Has Special Devotion

  • St. Francis de Sales – Let the spiritual exhortations of St. Francis de Sales which inspired our Founder in leading a life of communion with God and in burning with the love of God enlighten us in our call for deeper communion with God. 
  • St. Rita – Let St. Rita who became the model of family apostolate by burning with the love for the crucified Lord fill us with divine insights in our attempts to renew family life.
  • St. Vincent De Paul – Let the charism of uplifting the poor in the life of St. Vincent de Paul who accepted the examples and teachings of Jesus Christ as the rule of all his works of charity, be the model and inspiration of all our apostolic activities.

         Each sister has a personal responsibility to put intense effort to grow in the charism of the CSC from her entrance into religious life till her last breath. Our lifestyle and activities from the very beginning of religious formation should be infused by the merciful love of Jesus and reflect its uniqueness.

Our Founder’s filial devotion towards the Holy Eucharist, Christ the crucified, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Holy Mother Mary, St. Joseph, and the Guardian Angels are accepted as special devotions of the CSC community. 

Our Religious Patrimony

May St. John Chrysostom of Antioch, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and Oriental Fathers of the Church in whom we encounter the ancient oriental religious patrimony and rich spiritual wisdom, inspire us in our spiritual life.  Being inspired by the biblical studies of St. John Chrysostom, our Founder was carefully attentive to study deeply and to meditate ardently upon the Word of God.  Like St. Cyril who fought against the Nestorian heresy, our Founder was alert enough to arrest the spread of  the 'Melus Schism' in Thrissur diocese by establishing the people of God in the devotion to the Holy Mother of God.  The age - old Indian culture should enrich our lifestyle. Our life designed around the disciplines of Ishwara Pranidhana (Total surrender to God), empathy for the deprived and downtrodden, service to the poor, etc., should be capable of orienting the people of India towards Jesus Christ.