Women With Down Syndrome Respond to God’s Call

Kathy Schiffer, over on her Patheos blog called Seasons of Faith, has a sweet article about women with Down Syndrome who have committed themselves to God in a French contemplative order called, “Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb.” She writes that these women have frequently been turned down from other places because of their Down Syndrome.  She writes:

The community depends on other sisters who do not have Down Syndrome, but who have committed to share their lives with these lovely, holy women.

The community was founded in 1985 with the support and encouragement of Jerome Lejeune, the French pediatrician and geneticist whose laboratory research uncovered the link to chromosomal abnormalities including Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome).

In 1990, the group was canonically recognized as a public association by the Archbishop of Tours. The Sisters now reside in a priory in Blanc, where they model their lives after St. Therese of Lisieux’s “Little Way.”

Isn’t that awesome?  A leaflet describing the community says:

We follow every day the “little way” taught by Saint Therese; knowing that “great actions are forbidden to us”, we learn from her to receive everything from God, to “love for the brothers who fight”, to “scatter flowers for Jesus”, and to pray for the intentions entrusted to us.

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