We Would Love
to Keep in Touch!

Ecology as a Way of Seeing

Untitled-1
Jones Family Farms owner Terry Jones walking
through his Connecticut fields with his grandson,
Jackson. Photo c/o Jones Family Farm
I grew up in a small rural town in New England. A couple of factories were the major employers of the local population, and the town was surrounded by family farms. In fact, my mother’s parents owned a small farm, which proved a most delightful place to visit – after I got over my fear of bulls and large pigs! It was incredible to stand next to a cow as a child and be able to touch such a large creature. It was delightful to see young chicks moving from egg to incubator and then out in the barnyard. Such a mystery! Nor was I spared seeing chickens separated from their heads on the tree stump used for such a purpose. It was a revelation to understand that this was to be our evening meal. My grandfather and uncles would milk the cows and my grandmother would turn that milk into butter and cottage cheese. A large garden provided fresh vegetables in season and the hay would be mown and baled to feed the livestock. Pigs ate the peelings and any vegetable matter not fit for the table.

 

Life was oh so simple then…

Read more Ecology as a Way of Seeing

A Clear and Compelling Mission

At this point in time, we North American La Salettes need a sense of purpose, a direction, a clear and compelling mission.

Untitled-1In his apostolic exhortation, Christifideles Laici, Pope John Paul II points to the universal yearning for participation as a true sign of the times. And indeed all of us, from the youngest to the oldest, must participate in articulating that clear and compelling vision. All of us must strive to scrutinize the signs of the times and listen carefully for the gentle whisper of the Spirit in our heart of hearts.

The briefest norm in our La Salette Rule of Life boldly proclaims: "Christ is the Rule of our life." Well, the Gospels tell us that for Jesus certain insights were essential:

l) That God has a dream for our world. Jesus called it the "Kingdom of God."

2) That God has begun to make God's dream come true.

3) That we can be a part of that dream if only we are willing to become part of something bigger, something greater than ourselves and our little world.

4) That compassion is the way to enter into that dream – compassion, the capacity to put ourselves and our worries aside in order to understand and to respond to the concerns of others.

5) That compassion is costly.

6) That persons who try to save their lives inevitably lose them, while those who are willing to lose their lives for the sake of others finally save their own lives.

Read more A Clear and Compelling Mission

La Salette – Still Relevant

Untitled-1
Fr. Jean Stern, M.S., author
and long-time La Salette
Archivist in our Rome
General House, a convert
from Judaism who lost his
family in a World War II
concentration camp.

My childhood was spent in an environment which allowed me to experience a world where God was neither mocked nor worshiped, but was, for all practical purposes, ignored and forgotten. Then I looked into the face of war and was a first-hand witness to what becomes of this so-called adult world when it is left to its own wisdom.

The apparition of La Salette with its distinctive signs — the words, the tears of the Virgin, etc. — seemed to me to be the echo or the image of heavenly realities. It helped me to realize that God does not remain indifferent to the tragedies brought about by humanity's proclaimed self-sufficiency.

 

La Salette can help us grasp the Word of God

La Salette did not reveal the heart of God to me, or that his Son had wept on Jerusalem. The Gospel had already told me this. But La Salette helped me to grasp the living, throbbing Word of God. This is why, in spite of a psychological and cultural background almost diametrically opposed to that of a 19th century alpine village, I have no difficulty recognizing the present day relevancy of La Salette.

The true paths leading to the mystery of La Salette are many. Neither one single idea nor even a series of ideas will ever adequately express the contents of an experience that is vital, concrete. And La Salette belongs to the order of the concrete. For some, it will mean primarily reconciliation; for others, the missionary calling, or the victimary spirit and reparation; for some others it will mean the tender solicitude of our Father who is in heaven. All these various aspects complete one another and need not be opposed one to the other...

Read more La Salette – Still Relevant

La Salette and Ecology

Untitled-1The charism of the La Salette Missionaries is reconciliation. Since the foundation of the La Salette Missionaries in 1852 by Philibert de Bruillard, Bishop of Grenoble, France, our main purpose has been to preach the word of God, to exercise the Ministry of Reconciliation, to celebrate the Eucharist, and to heal the hurts and deepen awareness of God's ongoing call to repentance. We were asked by Mary to “make her message known”, that is, the message of her Son, Jesus.

We have historically emphasized three aspects of reconciliation in our ministry: reconciliation with God, with others and with self. There is a growing need to look at a particular aspect of “reconciliation with others”, given the words of our Church leaders and the dire situation of God’s good creation. In justice we need to work for our reconciliation with our fragile home, the Earth.

 

Catholics and Ecology

Like Mary at La Salette, Pope John Paul II, in his World Day of Peace Message on December 8, 1989 spoke powerful words of concern and alarm:

“When the ecological crisis is set within the broader context of the search for peace within society, we can understand better the importance of giving attention to what the Earth and its atmosphere are telling us: namely, that there is an order in the universe which must be respected, and that the human person, endowed with the capability of choosing freely, has a grave responsibility to preserve this order for the well-being of future generations… The ecological crisis is a moral issue.”

Read more La Salette and Ecology

Maximin and Melanie – One of Us

There is much to learn, I believe, from the behavior of Our Lady of La Salette toward Maximin and Melanie.

Untitled-1First, she chose the humble, ignorant and poor. There is nothing much to envy in them. Second, they were not saints in the sense of official recognition as such by the Church. Nor will they probably ever be. And third, their lives after the apparition and after the local Bishop had assumed responsibility for spreading the news of La Salette, were still very ordinary.

Maximin and Melanie – one of us

True, they were very often recognized as celebrities of a sort, but they manifested all the shortcomings of ordinary human beings. But it would seem that Our Lady wanted to hold them up to the world as people able to serve God and the Church even though their lives gave no evidence of outstanding holiness.

It is clear that Our Lady showed them special affection and consideration throughout the apparition. The first sign of this consideration is her calling them to this special mission to the whole world. La Salette is the strong affirmation given to the people of God of the importance of their role as individuals.

Read more Maximin and Melanie – One of Us

Somebody’s Knocking at Your Door

Untitled-1
William Holman Hunt’s
1853 painting, “The Light
of the World.” Notice there
is no door knob on the
outside. we have to let Jesus in.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). Jesus is forever knocking at our door – perhaps even today, at this very moment.

God created everything in harmony. There is a cycle of life all around us – sunrise and sunset, light and darkness, night and day, life and death. There is an invisible hand that holds the sun, the moon, and the stars and everything else in their proper place.

What we are describing is a precious web of relationships and connectedness – all in glorious harmony. We describe all this as “a reconciled life”. The heart of us human beings, the heart of all creation, beats as one with the heart of God.

At times we may even dream about God. But then it’s time to wake up – that is, if we want to have our dreams come true. Here is a story that can wake us up and stir our hearts!

A Stirring Story

It happened on an ordinary Saturday, September 19, 1846, in the small village of La Salette, near the town of Corps and near Grenoble. In this poor area in southeastern France, to quite two ordinary, uneducated children – Maximin Giraud, 11 years of age, and Melanie Calvat, just 14 – were hired on that day to look after the cattle of their employer. They leisurely herded the cows up the mountainside, expecting nothing but a pleasant lunch with a requisite nap to follow.

Read more Somebody’s Knocking at Your Door

Lent, La Salette and the Centrality of Christ

Untitled-1Some short phrases in the Bible have vastly more importance than the space they occupy. In the Ash Wednesday selection from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them." Even praying, and giving and fasting can be done with a dash of élan.

Fr. Marie Joseph Lagrange (1855-1938), the great biblical scholar, said that, "the synagogue was the stage where reputations for sanctity were made." In this passage Jesus prefaces his remarks with the admonition not to seek the applause and approval of people when one gives alms, prays or begins fasting.

There is a very short preface to what we are about to read. It is a sharp warning about the way of practicing religion. It comes early in the gospel of Matthew and it is included prominently in the Sermon on the Mount. The Christian must "beware of practicing piety before others in order to be seen by them." The consequence of this kind of behavior is radical in the extreme: "for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven."

Read more Lent, La Salette and the Centrality of Christ

Born to Reconcile:

 

The Missionary Vocation of the Philippines

Untitled-1
Fr. Raymond Boulet, M.S.

Editor: This article (edited because of length) was originally written in 1966, just after the closing of Vatican II, at the time we as La Salettes were forced to leave Burma (presently Myanmar), well in advance of our return as La Salettes to Myanmar and our recent ordinations there. It was also in advance of our Philippine Province’s outreach and entry into India in the early 1980’s and India becoming a province in 2007. This was also well before the La Salette vocation explosion in both Angola and Madagascar and the rise in the world’s focus of attention on China as a world-class power.

From the Celebes Sea of southern Malaysia to the Himalayas of Southeast Asia, missionaries belonging to an identical era and, very often, hailing from the same countries, applied a similar pastoral, taught more or less the same catechism, preached the same Gospel. Now, in 1966, we observe the results: one Asiatic country, only one, is predominantly Christian. We refer, of course, to the tiny, valiant Republic of the Philippines. Among the Orient's 32 million Christians, at least 20 million are Filipinos. Pope Paul VI did not hesitate to qualify this turn of events as a “miracle”. Speaking to the Bishops of the Philippines, the Holy Father did not attempt to hide his enthusiasm:

Read more Born to Reconcile:

The Importance of Marian Devotion

Untitled-1As we are reminded during the Advent and Christmas seasons, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” 

Simply put, without Jesus we have no New Testament, no Christian Church, no Christian faith. Understanding this, then what is the proper place of Marian devotion and piety in the Church? Why is it important and how can it strengthen our faith? 

Pope John Paul II, in the introduction to the Vatican’s 2001 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy: Principles and Guidelines, explains that “Popular piety is an expression of faith which avails of certain cultural elements proper to a specific environment… Genuine forms of popular piety, expressed in a multitude of different ways, derives from the faith and, therefore, must be valued and promoted. Such authentic expressions of popular piety… predispose the people for the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries.” Indeed, popular piety is seen as “a true treasure of the People of God” (Directory, #59).

The Directory, in chapter five, discusses extensively “the veneration of the Holy Mother of God, which occupies a singular position both in the Liturgy and popular devotion”. Let us take a brief glance at the history of Marian devotion over the centuries in order to better understand what Pope John Paul II has stated.

The Roots of Marian Devotion

Read more The Importance of Marian Devotion

Zacchaeus, Reconciliation and La Salette

Untitled-1
Christ saw Zacchaeus in a tree

You remember him – his name was Zacchaeus, the short man who climbed the tree in order to see Jesus (see Luke 19:1-9)… In the time of Christ, tax collectors were a special breed of sinner. They were across-the-board violators of God's law and public traitors who licked the boot of the local Romans who had all the power.

Now, Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector in his area. The gospel's choice of sinner is intended to show the saving force of Christ's personality. It is also meant to make manifest the power of his mercy. We don't often associate mercy with power, but in cases like this one Christ's mercy is powerful indeed. It was strong enough to have Zacchaeus come down from his tree to a new life. His story does not define conversion but shows us what it looks like in real life.

A Gift That Changed His Life

Read more Zacchaeus, Reconciliation and La Salette

More Articles …