Living in an Intercultural Community
in the Light of Choix d’un État de Vie

Anniversary of Claude-François Poullart des Places
(2nd October 2026)

Spiritan Novena

From 23^rd September to 1^st October 2026

This novena invites us to revisit selected passages from Claude‑François Poullart des Places’ Choix d’un État de Vie as a spiritual pathway for life in an intercultural community. At first glance, the text appears to be a personal narrative—deeply introspective, centred on vocational discernment, and without explicit reference to the encounter between cultures. The very term interculturality did not yet exist in Poullart des Places’ time. And yet, the spiritual experience he describes touches the very core of what makes authentic intercultural community life possible: knowing oneself in order to open oneself more fully to others.

Living in an intercultural community is far more than sharing a house with people of different origins. It is, above all, an inner journey: learning to recognize one’s own limits and attachments, moving beyond self‑centredness, purifying one’s motivations, and welcoming others without reducing them to our expectations. This is precisely the inner work that Poullart des Places undertakes with remarkable lucidity in Choix d’un État de Vie. Day after day, he allows the Spirit to reveal his ambitions, fears, desire for recognition, and resistance to God’s call—an indispensable purification for anyone who seeks genuine openness to others and to mission.

For Spiritans, called to live and serve in communities marked by a rich diversity of cultures, languages, and sensitivities, this novena reminds us of a fundamental truth: interculturality is first received as grace before it becomes a competence. It springs from a vocation rooted in Christ and oriented toward mission. Without this rootedness, differences easily become sources of tension; with it, they can become places of growth, conversion, and communion.

Each day of this novena offers a passage from Choice of a State of Life, preceded by a text from Scripture, as material for meditation. These readings invite us to examine our way of being in community: our relationship to power and recognition, our capacity for listening, our resistance to otherness, and our openness to fraternal mediation. By allowing these themes to resonate in prayer, we ask for the grace to become communities where diversity is not merely tolerated, but offered to God as a path toward deeper fidelity to the Gospel.

May this novena help each of us renew our “yes” to the Spiritan vocation, and may intercultural community life be lived not as a burden to endure, but as a call to be transformed—together—by the Spirit.

We express our gratitude to Frs. Jean‑Marie Ombe Essomba, Hervé Buru, and Raymond Jung for preparing this novena.