The "Foyers de Charité"

The Statutes of the "Foyers de Charité" The Community, heart of the Good News Witnesses

A community in the spirit of Vatican II

How is a Foyer organised ?

Who enters the Foyers de Charité ?

Together in daily life

Living the demand of Love

A community in the spirit of Vatican II

Amongst the new communities of this 20th century, the Foyers de Charité have their particular gift. In a Church where it was being discovered that lay people had their specific vocation, Marthe Robin and Father Finet were attentive to this need of today. They founded a community in which the baptized live all the dimensions of their vocation of lay people and priests, together, in the service of evangelization; their principal task is to form Christian lay people for the service of the Church and of the world.

This life of prayer and apostolate between lay people and priests gives them an original place in the Church of today.

The community life is a family life lived in simplicity. The daily work is turned towards the reception of retreatants, rooted in communal prayer. The offering of the joys and demands of this fraternal life is a source of fecundity for the retreatants: it creates a climate which favourizes the reception of the Word of God.

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How is a Foyer organised ?

The "Father of the Foyer" bears the responsibility before God and the Church. He is helped in his task by a lay member, a man or a woman, who is in charge, and by a council made up of a few members of the Foyer who are elected by the community.

All the members contribute to the growth and the mission of the Foyer and are responsible for its life.

Who enters the Foyers ?

- Those who join the Foyer as members and chose to live in a state of virginity, offer themselves forever with their body, heart and spirit to belong entirely to the Lord. They trust his grace, and place themselves under the protection of the Virgin Mary, to live this consecration in an indefectible union with Christ as well as a greater availability to all.

- Married people may also be admitted into the Foyer communities : they will live their baptismal consecration, their vocation of lay people in the fullness of the grace of the sacrament of marriage.

Together in daily life

Our life and welcome

Gathered together by the Lord, we are there for Him.

Each day follows a rhythm set by prayer and work, brotherly love and welcome. Regular meetings enables us to adjust our family life, our life of union with God and our work life in order to provide an ever more Christian welcome for those that the Lord brings near to us: retreatants, helpers, friends passing through, members of other communities.

 

Prayer

Every day, the Mass gathers us together and consecrates our unity. It is the summit of our day. In the morning and evening, prayer links us to the praise and intercession of the entire Church.

 

Every day in the adoration of Christ in the Eucharist, we find love, joy, the grace of forgiveness and unity in order that our entire day may belong to Him.

 

Every day we turn to the Virgin Mary in our prayer of consecration and in the rosary.

 

Work

During the week everyone carries out the work required of him or her, according to their abilities and gifts: welcoming groups, spiritual and liturgical activities, cooking, book-keeping, video...

But we also share the usual duties that occur in any family life in order to welcome the retreatants.

Celebrations

Fraternal communion permits spontaneity in meeting, in prayer and in action. It also permits to have times of relaxation and of feast. Each one will take his part according to his gifts. According to each country and each culture, the community expresses its joy and affection between all. Feasts are times of renewal and punctuate the Foyer life. We must also bear witness to the joy of the Beatitudes.

 

Living the demands of love

in order to be :

a Foyer of Light,

by the teaching given,

which are those of the Roman Catholic Church

in the light of the Second Vatican Council.

a Foyer of Charity,

through our life of work,

and in persevering in the search for unity, forgiveness

and the conversion of each of the members,

and through the pooling of all our material,

intellectual and spiritual goods at the service of the community

for the growth of us all and of evangelisation :

"through a total gift of ourselves to each and everyone, in a total gift to God."

Marthe Robin.

 

a Foyer of Love,

through our communal life,

in order to reveal the face of God.

 

"Our aim is love,

and in order to tend towards love

we need the light of Christ and the exercise of charity"

Father Finet.

 

 

Consecration to Jesus by the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

Every morning we like to place our day in the hands of Mary. It is with this same prayer that we consecrate our whole life when we make a definitive commitment.

In your presence, oh Mary,

I renew my baptismal vows :

 

"I choose you today, Mary,

in the presence of the angels

and the saints of heaven,

for my Mother and my Queen.

I consecrate to you,

in obedience and love,

all I am, all I have,

and all the good I may do,

putting myself and all that belongs to me

entirely at your service,

for the greater glory of God

in time and in eternity."

 

From Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort.