Do you know "l'Alouette", (the skylark)
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L'Alouette
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You will find there:
- Teachings, which prolong the retreat.
- Witnesses of evangelization.
- News of the Foyers throughout the world
"L'Alouette" maintains the links between the Foyers of the world, the retreatants, the pupils and friends of the Foyers.
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Number 191 - February 1999
Faced with the anguish of the world :
the Message of Jesus
Fr. FINET
"Is there something, is there someone,
who can tell me why I live and why I will die?
Where am I going? Far away from children.
Where am I going? Far from their smile;
Is there an answer on their gentle faces,
which can tell me why I live and why I will die?
Coming down the stream,
Coming down to the bottom of the slope,
Down to the town where truth dies.
Where am I going? Far away from children,
far away from their smile,
far from my warm corner,
far from my house.
Where are they leading me?
Where will I manage to find out
why I am living and why I will die?"
This is how, in the hit musical "Hair", the anguish of the world was painfully expressed... For someone who doesn't know why he was born, nor why he is living, nor why he will die, is in darkness.
But here it is that in the midst of the darkness a Light has shone out. St John tells us in the prologue of his Gospel: "The Light shone in the darkness". What is this Light? This Light is called Jesus who said: "I am the Light, come to enlighten every man in this world".
What is the Light brought by Jesus?
Have we ever asked ourselves the question? Did Jesus come to Earth, did He become incarnate, did He live His public life among us in order to tell us that God existed? No! The great light brought by Jesus doesn't relate to the existence of God, for the Jews in the midst of whom He lived all believed in God... When you travel a bit in countries which have not yet received Jesus' message, in China, in the valley of the Orinoco or in the Great African Forest, one is struck by something: the human soul is naturally religious. Man has always sought for God in his own way. Since the coming of Jesus we are supernaturally religious. The truth has been revealed to us and this truth is marvellous. Jesus came to tell us - not the existence of God (we knew that) - but the thought and attitude of God with regards to us.
What then is the thought of God with regards to us?
Let us try to answer this question in the depths of our heart: it's the thought of a Father! Jesus told us that God is a Father, and that He is our Father. What then is the attitude of God with regards to us? It is that of a Father, with a heart full of tenderness and mercy. Since the original sin until Jesus came to Earth, humanity had lost its father, for it had cut itself from the origin of Life and Love. Through sin it had set its will up against that of God. In the Old Testament it's a question not of the Father but of God, Yahve, Elohim... We had become creatures faced with the Creator, we had ceased being children in relation with the Father. And here it is that Jesus not only became incarnate, one amongst us, but became our Redeemer on the Cross. He took all our sins, all these sins which were cutting us back divine life. It's through Baptism that we now receive the divine life which we would have received at birth by generation if man had not sinned. Not only did Jesus give us back divine life, but He gave us back the Father. He told us that God was a Father, His Father and ours. That is the great light which shone out in the world and to which we bear witness. When Vatican Council II asks Christians to be "witnesses by word and deed", what is our word? It's the word of a child who talks about his Father. What is our deed? It's the deed of a child who has confidence in his Father.
If God is a God, our Father, what will be our answer?
- A filial spirit
And what is the characteristic of a filial spirit? It's the confidence of a child with his father. A son who doesn't have confidence in his father destroys his family. A Christian who doesn't have confidence in his Heavenly Father destroys the family of God on Earth, and that is where sin lies.
To have confidence in someone is to take risks for him: a child who has confidence in his father takes risks for him. A Christian who isn't prepared to take risks for God falls into a kind of practical atheism... Yes, to have confidence makes demands of us.
Confidence must be the fundamental characteristic and attitude of a Christian.
But if I don't know that God is a Father, I can't behave like a son. Let's take a look at the Moslems... How many names do they give to God in the Koran? 99. But there is one name which they must never give Him: the name of Father. For a Moslem it is a blasphemy to say that God is Father... His rosary has 99 beads, to praise the 99 attributes of the divinity, but there is one which is never spoken, that is the 100th, which remains hidden but which will one day be revealed they say. If God isn't a Father, Jesus isn't the Son of God: Jesus is a great prophet. Indeed, the Moslems believe in the Holy Virgin. In the Koran there is the account of the Annunciation with the angel Gabriel who appears to this woman (fatma = fatima) who is a virgin... so they believe in the virginity of the Virgin in the birth of Jesus, the great prophet.
What do we have in common with the Moslems? We must ask ourselves, since Paul VI tells us in his message on evangelization that the time has come to give Jesus to the Moslems. At present there are a lot of meetings between Catholics and Moslems... We have in common, faith in God and prayer. But what separates us? The faith in God our Father, since for them it is a blasphemy to say that God is a Father; Allah alone is great!
When the traveller hears the Muezzin's call to prayer, in front of the royal mosque, dominated by one of the three most beautiful minarets in the world on the Red Square of Marrakech, he sees the Moslems prostrate themselves, their faces to the ground, in adoration of the greatness of Allah. And that five times a day, it is beautiful! What characterizes them is the respect of God; what characterizes us is the confidence in our Father. It is not only the filial spirit which characterizes the Christian, it is also:
- a fraternal spirit
For if we are the children of God, all those who are children of God are our brothers. We make up a family: the family of God on Earth.
Saint John
said it: "He who says: I love God, and who hates his brother,
is a liar, for the filial spirit which is in our hearts cannot
be seen... it's a secret of the Holy Spirit. But what can be seen
very well is our attitude towards others. Am I helpful? Patient?
Forgiving? A Christian is not judged on filial love which cannot
be seen, but on his actions and his fraternal spirit. And then,
on looking at how the baptized live, people will say readily:
"Look how they love one another". This is what
was said of the first Christians, and it's by this sign, says
St John, that you will be recognized as disciples of Christ,
"by the love you have for each other". Jesus said
it often in the Gospel:
"I give you a new commandment: love one another; as I
have loved you, love one another. It's by this that all will recognize
that you are my disciples: if you love one another".
John 13,34-35.
This great light which shone out is that God is a Father, and our Father. We are the children of God and, by this very fact, our brothers' brothers. And this light is the Message of Jesus: the Gospel.
His Father is also our Father
It's through
Baptism that we enter into the family of God, and the family of
God on Earth is the Church.
"See what Love the Father has shown us, that we should
be called the children of God, and that we should really be so",
says St John.
It is the Father who loved us first. It is always He who takes
the initiative in love. Look at Him with Zacheus, with the woman
of Samaria, with the paralytic at the pool of Bethseda, with the
child of the Centurion and with Peter after the denial.
The Father's love is patient, and it is faithful. The Father of the prodigal son continues to love his child even when he is unfaithful. Yes, God loves me as I am, because He is good... Because God is a Father He is always ready to forgive, and a child has the right to his Father's mercy, forgiveness which is the perfect gift of His love.
What then is the essential vocation of a Christian? It's to be a child. "If you don't become like little children, you won't be able to enter into the kingdom of Heaven".
Divine life is a real gift
Jesus didn't come to bring us an ideal, He came to bring us life, and life in abundance. Our Christianity is a gift, the gift of divine life.
"Oh! Jesus said to the woman of Samaria: "if you knew the gift of God!" And ideal is not something real; an ideology is not something real, but divine life is a reality.
"I came to give you life, and life in abundance". John 10,10.
Even when we are in a state of sin, we remain marked by this gift of the Father... How painful it is for a father to see that his children no longer live this life he gave them. All the sacraments are on the lines of the superabundance of live; and that of Penance - Reconciliation, the child's right to the Father's mercy, gives back to us the divine life we had lost through sin.
Yes, we have
two lifes:
- a physical life received from our parents;
- a divine life, superior to the first, received from God at Baptism
and which also has its powers or faculties: Faith, Hope and Charity
and the gifts of the Holy Spirit which crown the moral virtues.
A complete being is one who responds to God's conception of him, for each one of us has been seen in the Father. God created us "in order to recapitulate us all in His Word" (Eph.1) to be in Him, for Him and with Him, sons and daughters of God.
Here, briefly
exposed then is all the breadth of the Father's Plan of Love which
Jesus-Light has revealed to us. Knowing that "His hour
has come", Jesus can say on the evening of Maundy Thursday:
"Father, glorify Me, with the glory I had close beside
You before the world was created. I have manifested Your name
of Father to those You gave Me. They have received my message...
Father, keep them in the Unity I have with You, that the world
may believe it was You who sent Me".
Number 190 - December 1998
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God made us for happiness |
Man instinctively searches for happiness.
He isn't made for suffering or sadness. Man is made for joy, man is made for happiness.
It's not for us to forbid people to seek happiness on Earth. No! Suffering isn't our lot! One never gets used to suffering and religion doesn't glorify suffering! No! And the Church fights it each time she meets it Yes! She creates hospitals to relieve the sick, Yes ! She fights it in all its forms. If suffering was something good it would exist in Heaven. Now, it doesn't exist in Heaven so it's not something good. We are made for the happiness of Heaven.
But, you may say to me: " And what about the cross, what about penance? "
The cross is a means, not an aim, and we mustn't preach it as a goal, as an aim. It is the means Jesus took to save us. It is a necessary means but it is not our goal. Our goal as Christians is love, and the fruit of love is joy, and joy is a sign of happiness. It is none the less true that, in order to make reparation for sin which is a cause of suffering and death, Jesus entered into suffering and death on the cross, through love.
We ourselves must unite our reparation for sin with that of Jesus, and we must equally enter into suffering and death. It's for that, that we too must carry our cross, not as the aim of our life, but as the way of being united through love with Jesus the Redeemer on the cross, in such a way as to emerge into life, love and happiness. Like this we will be in the Project of God.
What happiness are we made for?
We are not made for just any kind of happiness. We are made for a very precise happiness. People often look for their happiness there where it can't be found, and they meet up only with bitterness and suffering.
If we search for our happiness in consumer and production goods, we won't find much joy and we will suffer! That is today's drama.
God has been removed from the hearts of a part of our young people. A materialistic happiness of production, consumption and the goods of the Earth is proposed to them!
Now, happiness is in love, happiness is a fruit of love; that is something which must never be forgotten.
Pleasure isn't happiness, it is a fruit of instinct, and it is selfish; but happiness, on the contrary, is a fruit of love, for to love is to cease belonging to oneself in order to give oneself.
Pleasure can become a value of love when it is at the service of duty, for example the pleasure of eating and drinking. The pleasure which helps us to accomplish our duty is not forbidden. If we accept it, that is good, it is in the Project of God. For that reason it is not forbidden to eat things which give us pleasure. Where is the sin of greediness? It is not in the pleasure of eating and drinking, but in pleasure just for itself, without any other aim but enjoyment.
In the same way, sexual pleasure is at the service of love, but if I look just for the pleasure in itself, it is a sin of impurity.
You know it well! Happiness is in love. But people often mistake love, then they meet disappointment, and not the fullness of satisfaction they are searching for.
We are made for the happiness of God Himself! Created in the image and resemblance of the Infinite God, we carry within our hearts unlimited needs. And only the infinite can fulfill the unlimited. So we are made for the happiness of God Himself.
(Extracts
1978)
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Number 188-189 October 1998
Summary
Witnesses throughout the world
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Father Finet
Extract from a teaching of the retreat preached by Father Finet in the 80's.
We must penetrate the world we live in with the Gospel.
John-Paul II reminds us of the urgency of this : " Vatican Council II has shown how great are the fields of the apostolate open to lay people... The Christian vocation, by nature, is a vocation to the apostolate ". (27th November 1978).
Think what is going to happen soon, when a great country like China opens up again to Christ. Will it be enough to have a few missionaries, men and women who are nuns or religious to evangelize these billions of people ? Won't it be necessary to have an immense flood of lay people who also come to give witness to Christ? I think we must prepare all these witnesses of Christ. And at a time, when the Church is addressing these four billion people, She clearly shows lay people that they must take a place in the apostolate and give witness throughout the world: a river of witnesses.
Your responsibility
Cardinal Etchegaray recalled it at Lourdes:
" The third millennium of the Church has already begun... We are responsible for tomorrow by the very way in which we live the Church of today ".
And when I look at you, when I see the number of young people here, I see all those who will be in charge of the Church of the year 2000. I am looking at you closely: what are you going to make of the Church of the year 2000? That is your responsibility. The very fact that you have come on retreat clearly proves that you have understood the sense of your responsibility. Oh! Let us be faithful to this great event the Council was, and let us make of its teaching the light of our life and the flame of our hope for the next life.
Pope John-Paul 1st had had a clear presentiment of it: " If all the sons of the Church know how to be indefatigable missionaries of the Gospel, a new flowering of holiness and renewal will rise up in this world which is thirsty for love and truth ".
Yes, it can be felt, this extraordinary action of the Holy Spirit on today's world.
Here is what Bishop Matagrin wrote, in his famous book " Preparing today the Church of tomorrow ": " One of the most characteristic phenomena of the present world, is the re-discovery of prayer ".
It is very striking to see the prayer groups which are springing up on all sides in towns, in the country and of all ages.
" Personally I see there one of the signs of the times in the way John XXIII meant. I said it recently to a group of very politically minded young people: " You are one revolution behind the times... "
" I am led to think that we are at the dawn of a truly spiritual revolution. There is a revolution in history every time an essential dimension of man goes unrecognized. Now, the deepest thing in man, is the desire of God ".
... " The first condition for preparing the Church of tomorrow, is to remake a Christian community texture; this evidently implies contributing at the same time to remaking the social texture ".
It's for that reason that John Paul II talks to us as much of a Christian texture as of a social texture. He has brought back into the forefront the social doctrine of the Church in Puebla, and that can be felt in all his messages: the Christian texture and the social texture go together.
" Catholicity is the ability of the Gospel to express itself in all cultures ".
It is very striking to see how it is expressed in different cultures, but it is the same message.
Witnesses throughout the world
I would like to quote to you here the testimony of Father Werenfried, who looks after the Church in Distress in an extraordinary way. He is a man whose apostolate spreads across the whole world, notably in the countries which are in the midst of persecution. He finds a way of penetrating everywhere by his charity. He says to us:
" Modern man is not convinced by a Gospel written on paper, but only when we announce the good news in living acts of love ".
It's not enough to have a Gospel in writing, it's necessary to see witnesses who live acts of love. That should greatly challenge us.
And how will it come about but through us? We are the witnesses throughout the world.
That is the very great vocation of the present day; it's something extraordinary which is rising up and pouring forth.
You are witnesses both by word and action.
The Church of Philadephia
Read that in the Apocalypse of St John when he addresses the seven Churches. It's the Church of Philadelphia, the last but one. We today are living the Church of Philadelphia.
" I have opened before you a door which no-one can close ". I have opened the doors of the Church before you. All the doors of the Church are open on the world. And with ordinary means, you will have an extraordinary efficiency, you will be the pillars of the Church. And who are these marvellous witnesses coming through all the doors of the Church into the whole world, with ordinary means? They are the lay people! They are not great specialists of theology or exegesis, they are baptized and confirmed people who, with ordinary means, must be witnesses in word and in action.
We must understand these words. All of Vatican Council II is there. If I may, I insist very much on this.
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6th Sept. 1898 - 6th Sept. 1998 |
It's now 8 years since father George Finet finished his mission on Earth. Today we are marking the centenary of his birth. For this occasion we have gathered together a few personal witnesses. They evoke a priest who was open to his times and who knew how to make people up to the calls of the world of tomorrow.
For those who would like to know the teachings of Father Finet and the stages of his life, there are two numbers of " Alouette ", which came out in 1990:
- N° 139, July 1990: 20 Francs - on the occasion of this funeral
- N° 140, October 1990: 30 Francs - special number on Father Finet.
Open to his times
Father took care to share with Martha everything concerning the education of our older girls... and the others. Here is one example amongst many.
At the time I was in charge of a class of First, (Years 16-17). Now there was in the air, the hit of the moment the English musical comedy " Hair ". The youngsters liked to listen to it: the rather spell-binding music and words asked metaphysical questions, left un-answered, in the style: " Where do I come from? Where am I going? What's the sense of living? And what am I here for? "
One of my pupils had lent me the disc and I had spoken abut it to Father. Interested in everything young people were mad about, he had us go up to the Plaine and listen to the disc together with Martha, in order to be able to talk about it, and understand better through it the mentality of the youngsters and of the time.
Father had asked for a French translation and, after this, he never missed quoting a few extracts of " Hair " in his retreats; a witness to the air of the times, liable to help the retreatants, to enlighten them and lead them towards the Light of the Gospel.
Jeanne Guy,
retired teacher of the Girls' School
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Summary
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Didier-Léon MARCHAND, Bishop of Valence
President of the Permanent Committee
of Information and Communication
of the Conference of the Bishops of France
The means of communication have invaded our world and our present society seems to have an overdose of the media. Is this so new? Each different culture has had its means of communication. Each communication created a public opinion, and favourized a certain culture. Is it communication alone which gave rise to a new culture? Or is it the culture which found itself means of communication? The answer is not simple. What can be said is that there is an "interactivity " between a culture and communication.
Two documents are to be considered: " Redemptoris Missio ", the encyclical of John-Paul II, and " Aetatis Nova ", a text of the Pontifical Council for Communication. These two documents of the Magisterium speak of the media as being a " new age ", or a new culture. And it is precisely a question of that at the dawn of the third millennium. At the same time this new age, this new culture calls for a new evangelization. That is the point of this article. Let us look at how a new culture is formed. And then, let us ask ourselves, starting from there, what it means to evangelize.
We will hear again the send-off of the Lord: " Go, make disciples of all nations ". Go and communicate.
The new culture formed by the media
The media, and everyone agrees with that, hold a considerable place in society. They inform, they make the whole world become present to everyone. They form a certain way of thinking. A culture is a way of living The world of communication has its own logic. It passes its ideas - its values. It conveys chances, but also " slaveries ". It influences the way of living. It creates a new culture. That is not only linked to those who, it could be thought, pull the strings to put over their ideas.
This new culture is also generated by this communication which covers the world like a great web. This " spider's web " makes us live in a different way from the times when communication took place around the village fountain. The entire world is linked up. It's a wide open culture which is being formed. " Coca Cola " and " Mc Donald's " are known to everyone today. The World Youth Days overflow the borders of France creating a universal figure. At the same time the frivolities of a President of the United States are known to everyone. The violence in Rwanda or Algeria is shown everywhere. The funeral of Mother Teresa of Calcutta is re-transmitted throughout the world. It seems that this aspect of " globalization " is creating a different culture; and that produces an extreme relativism. Everything can be given the same weight, have the same importance. A complete culture is transformed by it. Certainly, nothing is either all black, or all white. As the document " Aetatis Novae " underlines, it's a question of " the complete alteration of the reference from which humanity perceives the world by which it is established, and of which it verifies and expresses its perception ". That, quite precisely, is our " mediatized " society. And far be it from me to consider this as something bad. On the contrary, this " mediatization " can be an extraordinary chance as long as we know how to use it, (it's a means) and that we find in this new possibility a blossoming out of our way of living, and of living together. " It's the age of social communications ". (Communio and progressio n° 187).
Evangelizing in this new context
Jesus spoke in parables. He went to the places where people gathered. St Paul goes to the Agora in Athens. He inserts himself in a way into the places where public opinion, a certain mentality are fabricated. He's not afraid of announcing the God revealed by Jesus-Christ. He uses the statue of " the unknown God ", and says that the God he is announcing is the God unknown to the Athenians.
In this era of the media we must announce the Good News, and the happiness God gives us. John-Paul II puts us on the path: " It is not enough to use audio-visual means to spread the Gospel. The Gospel must also be integrated into the new culture. " (Red. Missio).
The integration of the Gospel into the new culture, that is the first stake of the Evangelization of today's world. The Gospel doesn't change; Integrating it into the culture born of the medias is thus to bring the " values " of the Gospel to this culture. That supposes an active or interactive presence, and also a confidence. Father Babin says that we must: " give a body to Christ by a whole work of sounds, words, images, etc... ". In reality that is very demanding for someone wanting to propose the Gospel. The first demand is the transparency of what I am and what I am living. What image do we give of Jesus Christ? What image of the Church? I use the word image here in its full sense. It's not a question of appearances. That is not possible in a very mediatized society. It's a question of a kind of commitment, of a reality which becomes visible, of a faith which pierces through the screen; of a hope which is readable in the conviction, the look, the sound of words. In this mediatized universe it is not possible to falsify what one is for long. That seems to be a very great advantage. It's a question of integrating the Gospel. Indeed, " let your yes be yes " is honoured here. For if, in the depths of yourself, your " yes " is really " no ", that will come through, and you will be seen through. To evangelize is to give to each one the possibility of being touched by the love of Jesus Christ. It's " to propose faith ". It's to give witness by committing oneself.
Another aspect which is conveyed by the media comes in here. The proposition of faith needs supports. It's the word and the witness. It is also the support drawn from the media. One listens to a radio whose wave length respects everyone, creating an atmosphere of silence, and it becomes possible to receive a proposition. " The Day of the Lord " broadcasts the Mass every Sunday. People put their T.V.'s on at that time. They're not all practising... besides, those who are practising are often at Mass at that time. The " telly " penetrates into the intimacy of the family. Even if one isn't the same in front of one's " telly " as one is at Mass, an atmosphere is created which is favourable to faith. Isn't this a way of opening up to all the immeasurable richness which emanates from the Mass? There is in this broadcast an encounter with the Church joined together. A film, whether religious or not, can transmit an aspect of the Good News. Sometimes, it can also do the opposite.
The present " mediatization " can create slaves or free men. In any case the electronic revolution should make grow the possibility of choosing, and also the power of choosing. Isn't faith linked up with the liberty of each one? To believe is an act of freedom. To be a disciple of Jesus demands a choice, a decision, in order to answer His call. To let oneself be evangelized always requires this freedom which Paul calls the freedom of the children of God. In the mediatized context of today, education must consist more than ever in being able to choose. That is the role of families and educators. The television and the computer must become " servants ", which supposes that the child must learn at a very early age to be the master of his choice. Education also consists in learning not to " swallow " everything.
Go and teach
The Church is essentially communication, and Christians " communicators ". The Love of God and the love of others necessitate a real communication. The Church is the image of the Trinity. Now, we know that the Holy Trinity is made up of three Persons, whose love creates unity. Communication is already engraved in letters of fire in the mystery of the Trinity and the mystery of the Church. A Church in which there is no communication becomes a society which denies the very identity of what it should be.
The Church ceaselessly invites to communication and dialogue. Prayer is dialogue with God. The Incarnation of Jesus, Son of God, is an essential dialogue with the life of humanity. The Word was made flesh. The Word becomes Someone, in order to be better understood. There has always been a dialogue, an exchange, a word of God for mankind.
" In the past, God spoke to us in different ways through the Prophets; in these recent days, He has spoken to us through His Son... " (Hebrews 1,1).
It could be said that this communication between God and Man is the sign of God's love for mankind. He speaks to them in all sorts of ways even to sending His own Son. And man, coming out of his pride and finding his true freedom again, replies, and the Alliance is made.
Within the Church it must be the same, as well as between Churches. When one no longer speaks to one another, it's a catastrophe. This is how conflicts, wars, divorces and many misfortunes begin.
The Church-Family of Christ needs disciples of Christ who speak to one another, who dialogue. The secret of communication is found in true dialogue. In 1964, Paul VI, in his still actual, and beautiful encyclical on the Church " Ecclesiam Suam " sets forth the importance of dialogue, and he writes: "dialogue is a way of exerting the apostolic mission: it is an art of communication ". (N° 83).
Then, Paul VI says the characteristics of this art: clarity, in order to be understood - gentleness, so that it may be impregnated by charity - confidence, as much in the virtue of one's own words as in the capacity of reception of one's interlocutor - pedagogical patience which takes into account the other person in what he is.
This dialogue must also take place with those who are far off, with the present society. It is our way of communicating which is at stake. The presence of the Church to the world necessitates a communication which knows how to use all the means which exist.
"Everything which is human concern us ", writes also Paul VI. It's through that, that we can and must enter into communication with the world.
"Go and teach all nations ". (Mat. 28,19). Paul VI doesn't hesitate to write:
The Church must enter into dialogue with the world in which it lives. The Church becomes a word; the Church becomes a message; the Church becomes conversation ". (N° 67).
So go, and
communicate in a fruitful dialogue. Evangelization takes place
also in and through communication.
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On 11th February 1961, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Foyer, Father Finet made this speech .
With regards to the retreat, he said :
" FOYER OF LIGHT : In six days of silence and prayer it gives to our retreatants , brought together as a group of Christianity, a strong doctrinal synthesis. During the four long daily conferences it makes us believe in love, following St John, and discover with wonder this family plan, for a long time hidden in God, which gives us, together with its demand of filial and fraternal love in the efficient maternity of Our Lady, the boldness to say to God : Our Father ".
FOYER OF LOVE : It receives the gift of God, devoutness, which becomes incarnate in the retreatants' soul under the action of the Holy Spirit, rising up again in praise at each one of our Masses on the sublime altar, up to the heart of the Father.
FOYER OF CHARITY : It puts us in action, at the service of our brothers, in a constant gift to each and every one, and a total gift to God.
... Carried by the example and prayer of the members of our communities and the children of our schools, convinced by the demanding account of the message of charity, our retreatants don't leave the Foyer without some Church commitment, either in Catholic action or in missionary action, but always a work of unity, in order to realize these parish foyers of charity which our bishops, in plenary assembly, have asked us for in one of their messages. Each retreat is crowned by a magnificent blossoming of religious and sacerdotal vocations.
... The Foyers of Charity receive their order from the apostle Paul : " Oh Timothy, keep the sacred trust with the help of the Holy Spirit who constantly rejuvenates it. Confide it to men who can be counted on, and who are capable of instructing others in their turn ". Ah ! the man who can be counted on ! Henceforth all the audacities of the apostolate are permitted; in the following retreats this man who can be counted on comes to us : Catholic, Protestant, Jew or Moslem, - he lives in Europe, in Africa, in America - he has the faith or he doesn't - he is a workman, a country man, an intellectual or a manual worker, married or ecclesiastic.
In this way each one of our retreats shows the widest variety possible in its recruitment : " a true message must fit every foot, mustn't it ? ", said our dear Father Monier; " but the same Spirit of Love finishes by intensely uniting in Christ Jesus these souls, opened up by the same Hope. "
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During the Assembly of the Foyers, Bishop Marchand presided at the Eucharistic Celebration on Thursday 4th June. Here are a few notes taken during his sermon when he preached on the texts of Holy Scripture of the day : the Second Letter of St Paul to Timothy 2,8-15; and the Gospel of St Mark 12,28b-34. This is how he spoke to the Foyers de Charité:
In the midst of your work, since you meet here every 5 years, ...here is this Eucharist celebrated with the Bishop of the diocese in communion with all the Bishops of your Foyers. This is the important moment where we find again in the Eucharist the source and the summit of all activity, of all life. This is the moment when priests draw their strength and their life from the Eucharist, and when they also draw their conformity with Christ, Priest and Head of the Church. The Word of God today questions us and helps us. Timothy was a sort of auxiliary bishop to Paul, and Paul encourages him. When meditating on this test I thought of what the Foyers are. Indeed, in this letter to Timothy, there is first of all a profession of faith, we know it too well: " Remember Jesus Christ, the descendant of David; he has risen from the dead, that is my Gospel ". It is the profession of faith of the Judeo-Christian groups of that time. It expresses the whole Gospel. Further on, it is written that the Word of God cannot be chained up, the Gospel cannot be chained up, the Word of God always gets through. It sometimes goes through martyrdom, but it always gets through.
The Foyers: a mission of evangelisation
Throughout the world the Foyers have this mission of professing the Faith, of announcing the Gospel, of evangelizing. I remember this passage in the very beautiful letter of Paul VI: " Evangelii Nuntiandi ": " For the Church, to evangelize is to carry the Good News to all circles of humanity and, through this impact, to transform from within, to renew humanity itself. " And I will make all things new ". But there can be no new humanity unless there are first new men with the newness of Baptism and of life according to the Gospel ".
On re-reading this very beautiful passage of Paul VI, which has often, moreover, been taken up again by John-Paul II, I thought of you, Foyers of the world, charged with evangelizing, charged with transforming humanity from within by your impact, and with permitting each man, each woman, who comes to you in the Foyers, to live ceaselessly the newness of Baptism and of the Gospel. That is what evangelizing is. That is what it is to bring to humanity as a whole the strength of the Holy Spirit, the strength of the Gospel, the strength of God.
The Foyers: a family where the calls of God can be heard
Then I said to myself: these Foyers de Charité throughout the world want to be a family. I thought of the African Synod where the Bishops of Africa spoke a lot of the Church as a family. I said to myself: The Foyers de Charité are really these family places which are living cells in the midst of the world, of the living Church where each one can find God, where each one can also discover his vocation. I'm not making the Statutes of the Foyers de Charité... I'm simply trying to say what seems important to me in what you are in the society of today such as it is: family places where people come, and where they can re-discover, or discover for the first time the call of God which is within them, a deep call of God. When I make pastoral visits, I meet a lot of people, whom I clearly feel have not been helped enough to find the call God has put in them; not the call that I, as bishop, want to make heard, but the call God has put in them. And it seems to me that the Foyers de Charité are a family, where it is possible to love, to help and to listen to one another; a family where one can discover one's vocation, as in a human family where the children try, with the parents, to discover what is the call of the Lord.
I think that you have there a very particular mission in today's world, a very rich mission. These calls of God which are always in the heart of men are perhaps undiscovered, not sufficiently brought into light. It seems to me that the Foyers could be, and are, places of light where the call of God is heard more clearly.
The Foyers: a work of the Church in diocesan reality.
I say to myself: these Foyers are a work of the Church. They are a work of the Church throughout the whole world, but in the reality of the diocesan Church. That is why there is this bond between you and the diocesan Church where you are. This bond between you and the bishop where you are. This bond is indispensable. You are a work of the Church, and a work of the Church is always linked with others, and for you, specially linked to the dioceses where you are. Through the dioceses you are linked with the whole of the universal Church. And through the Pontifical Council for the Laity linked with Rome, and with everything Rome represents throughout the entire universe. The Work of the Foyers is a Work of the Church. A Work of the Church, I would even dare to say, indispensable today to the life of the Church, in its fundamental intuition.
Your mission: to mark out clearly the path of Mercy.
At the end of the reading it is said to Timothy: " Mark out clearly the path of the Word of truth ". The path of the Word of truth must be marked out clearly. This word of truth is sometimes hard to say, difficult to hear, but your mission is that of marking out clearly the path of the Mercy of God, for it is the first path which leads to the truth. To mark out the path of the Mercy of God, to mark out the path of the Love of God, to mark out the path by the welcome you make, that is the welcome of God Himself. Mark out that path, continue, ceaselessly to mark it out, and that path leads to the whole truth. As the Holy Spirit tells us and does, in this way these things are realized through you.
Foyers of Love, Foyers of Light, Foyers of Charity.
Foyers of Love. What is the first commandment, Jesus is asked? The first commandment: love God and love your neighbour. That is one and the same thing. The name is perhaps difficult to carry. When one is called Foyer of Love and Charity, one gives to the world and the society of today a certain image. And you know that today one receives and lives a great deal through images. This image is strong: Foyers of Love. Foyers of Love, that commits you terribly in your fraternal life in the Foyers, in your welcome, in the love you radiate. That commits you to perpetual, continual conversion, in order to be rightly Foyers of Love and of Charity, and the Light will come from there. Foyers of Love and of Charity. And Jesus tells us, He says it for you, He says it for us, He says it to everyone. The first commandment: to love God and love others, that is one and the same thing. And that is what we all have to live. It is even our first vocation, the first vocation of the baptized who participates in the ministry of Christ. It is Christ who gives us the example, in loving to the very end.
I share this meditation very simply with you, so that you may be, that you may continue to be, these Foyers of which our society and our world of today have need, as places of intimacy with Christ, as places of reflection and love, as a light which reflects the Love and the Mercy of God; and you mark out this path for the men and women of today. Continue to do so. May the Holy Spirit accompany you.
