Ms. Lucie Frachebourg has had a beautiful comeback from her tumultuous youth, going from one weight room to another.
Lucie Frachebourg, beautiful, fresh, 23 years old, she has made an important decision in her life: to become a Cistercian, to dedicate her whole life to God when there is no prediction that she will choose this path. She entered the convent for a few weeks on Divine Mercy Sunday. She chose the Cistercian Order, a Cistercian monastery built by Robert de Molesme in 1098. Asceticism, inner peace, devotion to the search for God are the structures here. Return vouchers are always strong and painful, especially when the returnee comes back from a place… very far away. A vocation to go out of the way.
In a recently released image of a Swiss Catholic portrait, Lucie Frachebourg shows her rebellious youth at the gym, going from transitions to finding a framework. She declared to journalist Pierre Pistoletti: “The girl shuffles around in the gyms, she comes back a bit clumsy…” The young girl never felt comfortable with Catholicism, she found it too narrow. . Pilgrimage, World Youth Day: she rarely attends. So that…
Blessed by God
On a trip to Ireland with her sister, she came back to life. Attachment to nature and ruined churches were the source of redemption for this young girl. Four months later she attended Holy Week at the famous Cistercian monastery in Narbonne. She was there to meditate, to listen. In the midst of this mystery, she was blessed with God's grace. Lucie went through a very powerful experience that she couldn't describe, something happened inside her. She understood that the Kingdom of God was a “treasure,” for which it was worth giving up everything (Mt 13:44). “In the monastery, I feel that it is here that I should be, and nowhere else.”
“But another path has been mapped out.”
Lucie gave up the pleasures of eating delicious food, drinking shiny golden beer, giving up her lover (who also wanted to become a monk) to dedicate her life to Christ, to contemplation and to prayer. But the hardest thing for her, was giving up manual work. After finishing school in pottery and glass making, she had to leave the handmade pottery workshop Ecce Terra. A difficult choice for her, before she realized she had to give herself completely, to submit to God's will.
On the path of truth
From these few weeks she lived in the Cistercian convent, completely let go, she walked on the path of truth. Invisible passageways, the Cistercians are a contemplative, monastic community devoted to seeking God. No one sees them but they are essential to the world. Lucie chose the Cistercian Order "to choose the light". St. Bernard de Clairvaux, who was instrumental in the development of the Order in the 12th century, also made this choice because of the architecture of the monasteries. We hope she finds this light, the light of Christ the Redeemer.
Here are some selected pictures of Ms. Lucie Frachebourg in 2011 at Fontfroide convent. It was during that time that she first came into contact with the Christian spirituality, photographer Jean Lemoine captured these images.
Translated by Joseph Nguyen Tung Lam
