Paris (France), 06/23/2016, Redaction.- The Spiritual Book Award was given by Panorama - La Procure to Sr. Anne Lécu of the Province of France for her book Tu as couvert ma honte (You Have Covered My Shame) from Cerf Editions. Sr. Anne exerce la médecine en prison. She regularly publishes meditations on the Internet site Signe dans la Bible et and is the author of Des larmes and Marcher vers l’innocence published by Cerf.
Tu as couvert ma honte
Tu as couvert ma honte
Shame destroys a man and leaves him flat on the ground. God does not tolerate the shame that man experiences before him. Far from condemning or accusing, God on the contrary restores a man who is not afraid to turn toward him. He welcomes him knowing all that he is – obvious or hidden.
In clothing Adam with a tunic of flesh after the fall, he covers his shame. God reclothes in us that which does not bear his image and thus restores our resemblance to him. The tunic with which God reclothes us is perhaps that which Christ left to us at the hour of his death- without seams sewn from a single piece from top to bottom- a metaphor for his mercy. If God himself covers the faults of those who turn toward him, The Accuser cannot win, he is completely defeated.
It is a book in which Anne Lécu teaches us to live without judging and without prejudice. It is a book for living freely in the paths of the prominent biblical figures who are delivered by the unlimited mercy of God. We rejoice with her in this recognition of her work- Congratulations!
On the reception of the Panorama Award of 2016, Sr. Anne Lécu had this to say:
This book is a gift....
Sr. Anne LécuThis book is a gift that I have been glad to write and which had been at the beginning a retreat for the brothers and was not at all a book oriented on the mercy of God, since the Year of Mercy had not yet been announced. This is a gift from Father Lataste which is a result of the progressive deepening in the understanding of the discretion of God himself who closes his eyes to those things in our lives which are not lofty, on our shame, on our omissions.
It is a gift from my Dominican brothers who have encouraged my work (I think of Bertrand and our co-authoring of a book ten years ago) who encouraged me to preach. (I think of Thierry and of a retreat in the town, but also of St. Jacques and thos of Caire who invited me to preach on this theme of the tunic, who encouraged me to publish. (I think of brother Renaud and of Cerf).
It is a gift that my sisters gave to me by permitting me to write, by giving me the time to study and by encouraging me to work in the prisons for such a long time (close to 20 years) and allowing me to remain there, since my presence in such a special location for that amount of time would have a durable effect on my life, an effect in my way of reading, on my manner of living, and perhaps on my way of loving. This book is your gift to me this evening since the readers have given me the assurance that this text was an enlightenment for them, which surpassed me.
This book is a gift for me, received form the discoveries made while working on the text. I was awed to discover that the word KPPR for expressing great forgiveness was to “recover”. I marveled at the discretion of our God who preferred from Genesis to cover the shame of Adam so that he could live, and at the hour of his passion exchange a luxurious tunic for a shroud. I marveled to understand at last that the “I do not condemn you” addressed to the woman caught in adultry was addressed to each one of us if we do not judge ourselves and we do not do as the scribes who left at the risk of not understanding that this phrase was meant for them.
And above all, I believe it is urgent to say that God is not interested in our sin, but it is we who are interested in it
→ Video of the speech (Search 24/06/2016)