What is/are your spiritual family/spirituality ? Poll and questions

[beatitude]

Blessed Charles de Foucauld.

How I 'met' him: I encountered his spirituality for the first time with the Little Sisters of Jesus, and then with the secular institute Jesus Caritas.
His spirituality in one sentence: Always remain aware of the connection between Jesus' living presence with us in the Eucharist and his presence in the people he called "the least of these" - whatever you did to the least of these, my brothers...
Significant saints and members: Little Brother Charles himself, Little Sister Magdeleine, Rene Voillaume, Marguerite Poncet (Jesus Caritas founder).
A book to let you learn more: Little Sr Magdeleine's 'green book' (written for her novices - you can read the whole thing online here, it's short and beautiful. If you read nothing else, read this bit.).
The role of this spirituality in my life: I hope to make vows with the secular institute Jesus Caritas. Interestingly, at first I actually had an aversion to Br Charles's emphasis on the hidden and the 'ordinary' - if I was going to give my life to God, I wanted the trumpets to sound before me in the marketplace, the front row seats in the synagogues, and the tasseliest tassels and broadest phylacteries of anyone! This spirituality is a very good antidote to my pride and I need a daily dose. My relationship to it has changed as the years have passed, but it never ceases to be relevant - right now I am drawn to its emphasis on solitude and the desert, even while immersing yourself in ordinary life.

I am also influenced by the Carmelites. Br. Charles greatly admired Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, and there is a Carmelite undercurrent in his own thinking. I had tried my vocation with the Carmelites before I'd even heard of him, and learning about the Carmelite elements of his spirituality was another 'Aha' moment for me. He was a Trappist monk before leaving to be a hermit in the Algerian desert, so lately I have been reading more about the Trappists/Cistercians in order to learn more about this aspect of his life and how it shaped his thought.

The Catholic Worker movement has had another big influence on me, but I suppose it's not a spirituality in the strict sense that these others are.

[littlesister]

St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor, with his emphasis on charity.  We too, read his Rule start to finish in the novitiate - along with lunch almost every Saturday, to be exact!

St. John Eudes, "Jesus living in Mary,"  since St. Jeanne Jugan was a Eudist tertiary for over 20 years before she founded our Congregation.  We inherit many of his prayers and practices from her own way of life.

St. John of God, with his emphasis on Hospitality.  In the 1840's, the Provincial of his Brothers worked with St. Jeanne to meld all three strands into a coherent whole.  This was the contact that gave us our beloved vow of Hospitality, which we share with their Brothers and Sisters.