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Our Lady Reconciler And Her People
Editor: Fr. Jean Curtet, M.S. (1909-1993), a renowned theologian and writer, shared this article with his community in the years following Vatican II, published in the La Salette Periodical, Reconciliare, in April of 1968. We publish it in five installments, of which this is the fifth and last. Translated from the French by Fr. James P. O'Reilly, M.S.
Early image of Our Lady of La Salette speaking with the two childrenIt is an excellent requirement that we should be able to find in the Bible and Gospel, as a guarantee of authenticity, whatever teaching an apparition reveals to us. Here, then, are some biblical indications with regard to Our Lady Reconciler and her people.
Mary, Reconciler of Sinners as seen in the New Testament
From the first estrangement between God and humanity, Mary is present as a sign that divine forgiveness has already been granted in advance: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers...” (Genesis 3:15a). The most noble and inspiring women of the Old Testament who typify Mary and announce her coming are also women who sacrifice themselves in behalf of the people: such were Judith and Esther.
In her Magnificat, Mary speaks as the personification of Israel, the people of God. Indeed, certain words she spoke on the Holy Mountain sound like quotations from her canticle: “He has shown might with his arm... and holy is his name” (Luke 1:51a and 1:49b), and she announces mercy for repentant sinners.
Since the Annunciation, she knows that the Son who is to be born of her is destined to bear the name Jesus because he “will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
How to pregame Lent:
Septuagesima, Carnival, and Shrovetide
The three Sundays preceding Lent begins used to be named Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays... If all but the last of those holidays sounds foreign to you, you are likely not alone – they haven’t been officially a part of the Roman Rite’s liturgical calendar since the 1960s, after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
These strange-sounding days once marked a period of pre-Lenten preparation and feasting that is still observed by some rites within the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions....
Farewell to meat, cheese, fun: Septuagesima-tide, Carnival, and Shrovetide
Mardi Gras celebration in Binche, Belgium
Septuagesima Sunday traditionally kicks off a season known by various names - Septuagesima-tide, or Carnival (typically the name for more worldly celebrations during this time), or Shrove-Tide (particularly in Anglican traditions). The point of the season, Bradley said, is to prepare well for Lent.
“ Pope Saint Paul VI is said to have described the progressive move toward Lent in Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima, like church bells that call the faithful to worship, 15, 10, and 5 minutes before Mass,” Bradley said. “Each week in the lead-up to Lent is a nudge that the great and holy fast is around the corner, and our preparations for this should intensify.”
These days were also practical for Christians in pre-refrigeration days. They would use the pre-Lenten season to use up the rich, perishable foods such as meat and cheese that they had in their house before Lent began, and the unused foods would spoil, Michael P. Foley, Catholic author and associate professor of Patristics at Baylor University.
First Things First – Living the Ministry of Reconciliation
“I am willing to acknowledge the sincerity of my adversaries, but as far as loving and praying for them, that is beyond me. And yet I know that is what Jesus requires of his followers in the Gospel.”
Fr. Roger Castel, M.S., who ministered on the Holy Mountain in France for many yearsWho among us, at one time or another, has not felt the same way as this young Christian involved in some conflict or another? Certainly the occasions are not lacking in political, economic or social life, even in family life!
Christ’s challenge to love others
Respect one's adversary, love one's enemy, and pray for them? That which, upon reflection, appears to be a generous gesture of solidarity and faith, becomes especially delicate when we find ourselves concretely confronted by certain persons or groups.
Words of reconciliation become all the more difficult to speak because we are convinced that truth and justice are on our side, even while recognize that we can only claim, in the light of faith, a relative rightness and sincerity in our actions. Nevertheless the Gospel precept allows no exceptions:
“I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:45-48).
Read more First Things First – Living the Ministry of Reconciliation
What is Our Ministry of Reconciliation?
Editor: Fr. Jean Curtet, M.S. (1909-1993), a renowned theologian and writer, shared this article with his community in the years following Vatican II, published in the La Salette Periodical, Reconciliare, in April of 1968. We publish it in five installments, of which this is the fourth.
Our Lady of La Salette weepingSt. Paul defines his apostolate in the following terms:“And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
We are given a mission
This anguished appeal of the Apostle was echoed by Our Lady in her apparition at La Salette. It expresses in the best possible way her entire attitude and tears. It supposes a solidarity such, that whatever offends God, causes her to suffer. St. Paul shed the same kind of tears:“For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their shame.” Their minds are occupied with earthly things” (Philippians 3:18-20).
Christ is “entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ...” (2 Corinthians 5: 19b-20a). There, in a word, is our mission: you will make this known to all my people! And the burden of our Lady's message is the Cross. “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2), because in him everything finds its meaning and is seen to be part of a divine pattern.
Words For My People—A Message for the Ages
During the days following Easter one year, the chaplains gathered at the Holy Mountain of La Salette to pray, meditate and exchange views on the message of the Weeping Mother, which message will be in a very particular manner this year the theme of the summer pilgrimages. In the midst of a world on fire and dismembered, such a proposal may appear surprising. It seems only natural that those who believe in the Apparition should ascend in pilgrimage to this high place to pray to the Blessed Virgin in the solitude of these mountains.La Salette—A Biblical and Ageless Message
A photograph of Maximin (left) and Melanie a year after the ApparitionBut is not the message addressed to the two children, Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat, on the 19th of September, 1846—half in French, half in the local dialect—and referring to rural situations of the mid-nineteenth century, out of date? If the Gospel criterion still remains true—which tells us that a tree should be judged by its fruits—we can testify that the message of La Salette is more actual than ever. But in what does its actuality consist? That is what we are setting out to discover.It would be easy to comment at length using the Beautiful Lady's discourse as a starting point, seizing on a word or image and expatiating on it at will, on the principle that everything is in everything, and vice versa. What we are planning is much more demanding and precise. We intend, beginning with the first phase of our discussion; namely, reflecting on the critically established text of the Discourse, to strive to comprehend exactly the meaning of each phrase Our Lady spoke; to penetrate the profound reality it expresses, taking into account the context and the immediate and remote circumstances in which the message was delivered. It is then a matter of elementary intellectual honesty.
In our second phase, we will seek out in the Bible and especially in the New Testament the realities of the Faith which the attitudes and discourse of the Beautiful Lady emphasize. Finally, in our third phase, we will reflect in a constructive and positive way on our life and world, such as they are, we will endeavor to discover what are the profound needs to which this message responds to the point of attracting more pilgrims each year to this magnetic mountain.
La Salette – an Other-Worldly Event
Editor: This presentation was originally given during the La Salette International Gathering held at the La Salette Institute in Curitiba, Brazil on November 2-22, 2008. The text is edited for length.Let me begin with a brief story.
Plaque depicting the three phases of La Salette Apparition, Museum of La Salette Basilica, FranceIt was the afternoon of a Sunday in autumn, during my stay with the International Community on the Holy Mountain of La Salette in France. Few people in the world were on the mountain. The pilgrimage season had come to an end. Consequently little pastoral work was being done.I came out on the esplanade of the Shrine. An elderly couple walked by way here and there, apparently without knowing where to go. I approached to help them. Truly, they had no knowledge of the event of La Salette. Just information that had seen there.
The lady then suddenly asked: "Where is Our Lady buried?" I had a great difficulty holding myself from laughing. Finally, as I thought to myself that Mount Planeau was not often seen as a "secret airport for UFO’s”, I finally contained myself enough to say: "Madam, if you want, Our Lady initially appeared over there, seated near the small ravine called the Sezia. Then she rose, and after giving her message, she walked up this hillside onto that esplanade in front of the present Basilica. From there she departed..."
However, before this woman left the mountaintop, I shared with her the full story of the event of La Salette, bearing in mind that, in some aspects, Mary’s apparition site did actually look like an “other-worldly” place.
The Cross, the Sign of Humanity's Reconciliation with the Universe
Editor: This is the third in a series of several articles written by Fr. Jean Curtet, M.S. (1909-1993) based on this one extensive reflection on reconciliation. This article was originally contained in the La Salette Publication, Reconciliare, in the Supplement from April, 1968.
From the Hubble Telescope“This victory of Christ over the world of creation, outside of human persons, has not yet become manifest, except in sporadic fashion. The triumph of Christ over death, by his resurrection and his miracles gives evidence of his sovereignty over the powers of the universe. But this reign is not being exercised fully as yet, although the right to it has already been acquired.
Read more The Cross, the Sign of Humanity's Reconciliation with the Universe
Bread For Life
Our Weeping Mother said: "Here, my child, eat some bread this year at least, for I do not know who will eat any next year if the wheat continues like that!"
A very early depiction of Our Lady speaking with the two children at La SaletteMr. Giraud, Maximin’s father, was right. Since 1845, and without knowing that the situation would get even worse, one could predict that a crisis was in the offing. Today historians tell us that, from 1846 to 1851, and beginning with failure of the crops, a financial, political and social crisis swept through all Europe. I do not know whether Mr. Giraud had the least idea of such a chain of events. But, as a shrewd and practical man, he realized that the severe food shortage would strike the weak first – children and the poor class to which he belonged. In any case, the little that he had, he gave to his son that he might live.God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise
But Mr. Giraud had forgotten something, or rather two things which were practically one. We know today that he rediscovered it little by little, beginning with Maximin's remark: “But, papa, the Beautiful Lady also spoke about you.”
Yes, since Jesus lived on this earth, unknown and poor among others equally unknown and poor, we know where God, by preference, manifests his presence. “Consider your own calling... Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians l:26-27).
The Many Dimensions of Reconciliation
Editor: This is the second in a series of several articles written by Fr. Jean Curtet, M.S. (1909-1993) based on this one extensive reflection on reconciliation. This article was originally contained in the La Salette Publication, Reconciliare, in the Supplement from April, 1968.Reconciliation must be measured in its effect. Now, it restores: unity between God and humanity; unity among people themselves; unity between God’s people and the cosmic universe.
The Reconciliation of Humanity with God
Mary weeps for her wayward children“You were at one time estranged and enemies in mind through your evil works. But now he has reconciled you in his body of flesh through his death, to present you holy and undefiled, and irreproachable before him” (Colossians 1:20-21). Henceforth God “no longer holds people to account for their sins”, and “the access to God, through Christ, has been reestablished” (Romans-Ephesians).It is sin, then, and sin alone, which is the barrier between God and humanity. “The entire salvation of humankind depends on the solution to this one problem (of sin)”. It is in vain that present-day philosophers refuse to acknowledge the reality of sin and are silent on the subject; they cannot silence the voice of divine revelation (Ferdinand Prat, S.J., The Theology of St. Paul, English, 2010; Louis Bouyer, Le Mystère Paschal, 2009).
Sin is a social fact, a sickness
“Sin is a social fact, not simply something occurring and existing within a person, and as intimate as a sickness, or something which concerns only the individual's private relations with God. It affects the life of humanity in all its aspects, and it is in vain that they seek to solve the great problems of the day without reference to it.Mary Spoke of the Great Famine
"There will come a great famine. Before the famine comes, the children under seven years of age will be seized with trembling, and will die in the arms of those holding them."