The following message and appeal was shared with Rorate by our friends in Chémeré-le-Roi.
New Stalls and a New Pulpit for Contemplative Preachers
Fr Augustin-Marie Aubry, FSVF
Prior of the Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer
(Chémeré-le-Roi, France)
On September 14th, feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a traditional date for the beginning of the conventual year, we invited all our friends and benefactors for a day at our convent. It was a truly blessed day, marked by a sky as radiant as the countless smiling faces gathered there.
The Call of September 14
After lunch (prepared by the lay brothers), I shared updates on our community, our projects and apostolates. I concluded with an appeal to embrace the religious life, ending with these words:
“Young men, young women, hear my call and spread it far and wide.
I am seeking generous hearts to spread the light of truth.
I am seeking apostles to go forth find those who are searching.
I await you with open arms!”
This call remains pressing.
Indeed, and this is a powerful reason for both admiration and thanksgiving; this mysterious call to give one’s life to Christ, to live the radical commitment of the evangelical counsels, and to preach the truths of the Kingdom, continues to resonate in souls—even amidst the deafening noise of our society of indifference. A society that only captures attention with a flood of images and endless distractions, and shows little regard for that higher good of humanity: interior freedom.
This freedom is a treasure, a sacred flame, that we must guard jealously. Its sanctuary is silence, which is the “Father of Preachers.” It is in this silence that Christ’s voice can be heard: “Come, follow me!”
On the feast of Saint Michael, September 29, four postulants from France and England arrived at the convent. They have heard this call and have come to test their desire and discover our way of life. They join our two novices, Brother Dalmace-Marie and Brother Damien-Marie, who have received the habit in recent months. May God’s Will be done in them. Please do pray for this intention!
Expanding Our Walls
In preparation for these new arrivals, we had to undertake some work in the novitiate: moving some brothers and arranging new cells. For now, everyone has been accommodated, but all the cells are occupied, and there’s no more room at the tables in the refectory. The nest is full. Before long, we’ll have to either expand the nest or send out a new “squadron” of brothers to carry the Word of Salvation farther afield.
This growth (arithmetic rather than geometric) is accompanied by an increase in visitors to the convent, as well as families and young retirees who settle nearby. This requires a greater commitment to the apostolate on our part.
We are increasingly asked to meet many new demands—preaching, recollections, retreats for priests, religious men and women, and people of all ages—and we rejoice in Domino.
Sustaining Our Life
However, to respond to these requests in a way that aligns with God’s designs, we must continually return to our “religious ecosystem”—the water of our “fishbowl”—where we find what nourishes our inner being and interior life. Our preaching must flow from an abundance of our contemplation, not from an abundance of activity.
For us, this means fraternal life, silent prayer, study, and the Divine Office.
The latter is vital—central—to our lives: “Seven times a day I praise Thee!” (Ps. 119:164). Seven times a day, the friars gather in the church to chant the Psalms of David. Over the years, verse by verse, the choral office works on our hearts, like the steady plowing of a field that makes the soil fertile.
For us, the choir is a place of labor, just as a workshop, factory, field, or office is for others. We are continuing to beautify our convent church with the construction of choir stalls and a pulpit. These two “pieces of furniture” summarize our life as apostles: the stalls symbolize our contemplation, the pulpit our preaching.
I commend this project to your generosity. You may help us through this portal.
Last Saturday, at Vespers, we sang with the prophet Isaiah (30:27) about the “Name of the Lord, which comes from afar and fills the whole earth with its radiance” (Magnificat Antiphon for the 1st Vespers of the first Sunday of Advent: Ecce nomen Domini venit de longinquo et claritas eius replet orbem terrarum).
I wish you a recollected and fervent Advent, as we await the Light that is to come.
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| Architect, Friar, Craftsman |
