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The fundamental retreat |
Our essential mission :
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The fundamental retreat |
| Fundamental retreats | Others retreats | Retreat programme | Witnesses |
Dear friends. We deeply appreciate the excellent spiritual work accomplished in each one of your houses, thanks to the demanding retreats you offer to the diversity of members of the people of God. In spite of so many other negative signs, a number of our contemporaries are showing today a hunger for the Word of God and for prayer. We warmly congratulate those in charge for giving an authentic doctrinal and spiritual teaching in a climate of silence, charity and Marian devotion, which opens souls to conversion, deepens their life with God, provokes them into the apostolate.
May all the
retreatants of your Foyers de Charité contribute to the
spiritual renewal of the Christian communities where they are
called to insert themselves! We wholeheartedly bless all those
who consecrate their lives to the animation of the Foyers, and
those who come there seeking a supplement of soul.
There are more than 2500 a year who come for a week's retreat at Chateauneuf. Other identical retreats take place in more than 70 Foyers de Charité in the world, and all recognize in these retreats a gift of God which comes through the prayer of Marthe Robin.
These retreatants are of every geographical origin: neighbours, from the other side of France and of the whole world..
What characterizes these retreats is the teaching of the most solid and most open basis of the Christian faith and life. Since the start, in 1936, these retreats last 5 days and take place in silence. The retreatants discover little by little the immense benefit of this. The teaching is given by a priest, generally the Foyer father, but it is the whole community, including the old ones, who carry the retreatants before God by their welcome, the work and the offering of every moment.
Witness of Bishop Guy Thomazeau, bishop of Beauvais, Noyon and Senlis, preacher of retreats, in the Foyer de Charité review: "L'Alouette" (skylark) in December 1997
"This
last summer again, at each retreat I observe the astonishing picture
made up by the participants of 17 to over 80 years old, with all
states of life mixed up together...a Church in miniature. Some
come with joy in their hearts to give thanks, others to reflect
before taking a serious decision, others are going through secret
or known ordeals. There are always a few priests and nuns, and
nowadays deacons. Together, they go along for five days and six
nights, solidary in the adventure of giving themselves up to the
presence of God in the crucible of silence."
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"I had looked in vain for a happiness that could last forever. In fact, the luminous revelation of the Father came to me through my retreat. I had never felt such immense joy and peace in the depths of my heart. It was a unique experience. It's the three last days above all, which most marked me". | |
| "At the end of the week, I am enraptured by the richness of the silence, which I had apprehended as a heavy emptiness. How many treasures it has allowed me to bring to light in the depths of myself! It's necessary to be silent in order to hear the One who knocks so discreetly at our door in order to give Himself". | "I was overwhelmed by the teachings, at the same time theoretical and practical given during the retreat. I also experienced the intense depths of the Rosary, and its recitation so filled with gentleness". | |
| "A week passed with such a big family showed me that I too belong to an even bigger family: the Church". | ||
| "I thank the Lord for all the light received from this retreat. Above all, I have understood that one is not a Christian for oneself; through us, God sees the multitude, that is to say all those who are close to us and far from God". | |
Lay people engaged
in the family of the Foyers de Charité
"I, the Lord, in due time I will hasten it" Is 60,22
What a gap between my poor Christian knowledge and the advanced scientific training I was receiving! This was the thought that was to shake up my student life in Lille. I had a thirst for a serious Christian instruction. I had been reading the Bible on my own for one year. I had to go on. I began by reading the documents of the Second Vatican Council and some other books I bought second-hand from the Catholic Institute. Gradually the Church's faith was imparting form to mine. But my increasingly personal faith was limited by a lack of prayer. Some Saints' lives would lead me on.
I used to go to mass every Sunday, but I knew nothing of intimate personal prayer. Alone, in silence, without boast nor shame, you kneel down and talk to God as a person. This is what I did. He was for me the unknown God; but was He not able to listen and to answer? "O Lord, if you do exist, please, reveal yourself to me." Thank you, my God, for these chapels where you first opened my lips and after that taught my heart to stay with you.
Then, some friends of mine decided to say the rosary once a week. I joined them, even if that type of prayer was still unusual for me. One or two months later Mary had won me over. Thus I discovered the rosary: Mary making home gently in my heart. Mary's presence and action had been enlightened for me from the beginning by the teaching and the consecration of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. And he was to lead me all the way. But for now I had to go to confession... It is amazing how quickly, with Mary, my heart had been made ready to welcome God's call! And for ten years my heart would harbour that same clear call, longing for a yet unrevealed home
I left Lille for Toulouse. There, I took part in a good student group of prayer and Christian instruction. The sharing of our faith fostered real friendship. Then came the time, which I appreciated, to do my military service. After that I decided to enter the seminary in Ars. I spent there five good years of training. But a question came and remained with me: if I became a priest, how would I be able to teach and live the mystery of Christ if I still understood nothing of his Cross? I would like more time given me to first become a Christian.
The last year was at hand. I knew I would leave the priesthood way, but I didn't know yet for what else. Finally I had to make a decision It happened on 4th August that a friend told me with assurance that I should absolutely go on a retreat in the Foyer de Charité of Châteauneuf. I couldn't refuse this last opportunity of making things clear, so I took the plunge.
Monday evening. In my retreatant's room I found on the table the "Alouette" presenting the Foyer: adult Christian instruction, silence and prayer, Mary, the rosary, St Grignion de Montfort, humble service in a family spirit, the schools and finally, in Marthe Robin, a living word on the mystery of the Cross. There was the answer to my inner call. It was clear now.
On 15th August I met Father Michon: "we need someone for the boys' school of St Bonnet; you're welcome". Ten more days to set everything in order and break the news to my parents and there I was, in the work of preparation before the new school year. Since then has often come back to my mind a word from Isaiah I received at my last birthday in the seminary: " I, the Lord, in due time I will hasten it."
The Church, mystery of missionary communion.
On 7th December 2002, in the midst of the pupils finishing their annual retreat by the solemn mass of the Immaculate Conception, I made my commitment in the Work of the Foyer. I didn't want this act of my admission to the Foyer to be celebrated without the pupils. We are a community of prayer and work; now in the schools, our prayer and our work are realized with and for the pupils. So, the "yes" I was to say to Foyer life, I couldn't imagine but in the impulse and as a crowning of the four years then spent with the children.
That commitment into action reminds me of these nice Annunciations by Blessed Fra Angelico where, behind the Holy Virgin saying her "Fiat", lies an open door: the Visitation is in the immediate radiance of the Annunciation; the call of God always inclines us to service. It is why I am sorry for those who couldn't see me after mass, but I had first to take care of the pupils; was it not the meaning of the commitment I had just made publicly? Then, after they had all left school, I came back to meet the guests and the family. Life in the Foyer is simple just as Christian life is one does one's duty first and everything else follows.
By prayer, many were close to me on this occasion. I thank them with all my heart. It has really been a time of grace, especially through that family spirit so essential to the Foyer and to which we all have been so sensitive.
That community of prayer and action, that family with the Foyer father, that mystery of communion in Christ and communion at the service of the same mission, there lies the heart of the Foyer. The mystery of the CommunionChurch is at the center of all the teaching of the Council*, and it is inseparable from missionary efficiency. It is in that communion of prayer, of work and of self-offering that our baptismal vocation is realized and that we are efficient. In the Foyer, one can do nothing good if one does it alone. That communion with God, and that communion among us and with the father must ever be sought; then grace is given. On their part, the father and the person responsible have to care about the good growth of the members, giving each one the opportunity of assuming their responsibilities at their level, to realize their vocation. There is our way to "belong to the church" according to the spirit of Vatican Council II.
O Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of the Foyer, you really are our heavenly mummy who gives us the Spirit of missionary communion; I beg you, keep us faithful, in prayer and service, to our wonderful vocation and give us yet many other brothers or sisters whether tall or not.
Patrick
Berger
"Poor
pilgrim your charity accepted to receive"
Member of the community of Saint-Bonnet
* cf. Christifideles laici n°18-19