Like Clay in the Hand of the Potter
Sr. Marlyse Cantin, Province Western Switzerland
I would like to share my personal experiences to show how all the events of my life turned into something good for me as I learned to comprehend their inner significance. They deepened my relationship with God and caused me to move out to others. Thus I could share with others what I had discovered for myself, help them to understand their exper-iences and to live in harmony and trust.
My mother’s sickness and early death created a sense of insecurity in us children; it also awakened responsibility and care for each other. During that difficult time I discovered deep within me a source of strength and love from which I could draw. I discovered God’s presence within me, and I lived in that presence. These experiences were fundamental for me, and in time they became the foundation of my religious calling. Following Christ in religious life was simply the result of this, my relationship with God.
Totally given to the Crucified, therefore totally given to the neighbor
In my work as a home nurse I cared for many people and met with many situations of poverty and loneliness. Often I had first to clean the room before I could start with nursing care. It was important to listen attentively in order to discover the hidden needs. This is how I discovered the fear of dying alone and also the helplessness of relatives when someone died. Seeing this, I felt urged to do something about it.
Accompanying life until death
In 1987 I founded the Association called “Accompanying Life Until Death” (JALMALV) and trained the first group of volunteers who would accompany the dying and their families. Soon the superior of a Carmel convent and other convents, too, asked me to help their sisters to utilize the time between retirement and death more positively.
In our meetings we dealt intensely with the theme of “letting go.” This helped the sisters to recognize their personal mission and to find meaning in it.
In Greyerz the director of the movement “Faith and Light”, founded by Jean Vanier, invited me to become an honorary member of that group. In dealing with these people – most of them mentally handicapped - and with their parents and friends, I acquired a new vision and understanding of life and its values.
I saw the words of the Gospel, “What you have hidden from the wise and intelligent, you have revealed to infants” actualized in them.
Learning to die means learning to live
During the twenty years of my activity as trainer for JALMALV I have observed that the nursing personnel, as well as the future voluntary helpers who come to be trained, experience a personal transformation themselves. Being trained is much more than merely acquiring knowledge and skill. It makes it possible for a person to walk a stretch of the way personally and thus be ready to walk the same way with others.
At the closing of one training course a participant presented me with the most beautiful gift. While taking leave, she told me: “I had come to learn how to die, but you taught me how to live.”
After my retirement I was asked to join the parish unit of Notre Dame de Compassion. Now it is my responsibility to train grief support groups who visit other grieving families and accompany them to the burial of a loved one.
Ceramic
I will share this new phase of my life with a community that consists of priests, religious and lay persons living in a former : Dominican Convent Cazis Capuchin monastery. In this much visited place we share our life and prayer and receive other people who come seeking help.
In this phase of my life I see better than ever before how God has accompanied and guided me. I feel I am like clay in the potter’s hand. Caring for others has truly become a sacred vessel which God continues to shape.
