70 years... "Continue, continue, keep going forward!"

The time we spend at Roche d’Or makes us feel like we are on a train that’s had the emergency brake pulled right in the middle of a journey and everyone has been asked to get off. That’s more or less what happened last Wednesday evening when lockdown was announced starting the next evening. In the run-up to this happening the inevitability of the situation became evident, so from the first evening of our retreat, Oliver spoke as if each session was the last. The Thursday morning Eucharist was a real motivator, here is a brief extract:

“Nothing can separate us from the love of God.” says St Paul in his letter to Romans, and St John in his 1st letter says: “Our victory, is our faith!” It is the strength of our trust, our renewed commitment to the Christ who communicates his permanent, eternal attachment to his Father with us from within. That is the force that makes us cross over. Remember that in St John, Jesus does not calm the storm. No, it is always there, the night is always there, the shadows are always there, the waves are always there, but as soon as he has said these words: “It is me, do not be afraid.” - they don’t even have the time to say “Come with us” to him - then they have finished the crossing.

I wanted to read you those texts so that we leave prepared, with an awareness of who we have in our lives. We are not alone. Yes, we are treading water, the world is treading water. But as far as our relationship with Christ and his impact on the world is concerned, the Lord Jesus says to us: “It is me, do not be afraid, I am the vanquisher in all senses of the word in your life and I won’t let you go, I will always take you to meadows of fresh grass to give you my food, the only food that will keep you alive: Myself.”

(Father Olivier Sournia, Eucharist, 29th October 2020)

For his part, in his evening email, Jean-Luc writes:

“Our third, annual ‘Holy Week’ retreat, which is particularly dear to us, will have lasted exactly the time of a recollection, the equivalent of Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime... The Holy Spirit was in ‘full evidence’ in Olivier’s speech and there is no doubt that those attending the retreat left better equipped to handle the tumultuous ups and downs of our world. They received the recipe for a good week!

This year, our first official “Holy Week” tool place in front of the cave. In August we had the honour of letting Mary shine bright and unrestricted, beneath the dipping sun, in front of the Glory of her Assumption-Visitation at the depths of all of our consciences. And on All-Saints day, coming to gather us in the sun of the grace of our foundation to direct us once more to the depths of our caves...

There is a sort of insistence that for everyone everywhere, a return to the cave is utterly essential so that an “after” can arise...”

At the end of this rousing Eucharist, we learned of the passing of Mithé (Marie-Thérèse Naudin), our Dean. She was the oldest of our members who experienced the first few years of the foundation, she joined the community in Gouille in 1957. Alzheimer’s had taken her from us physically 4 years ago. “I am the vine and you are the branches. As long as you remain in me and I in you, you bear much fruit; but apart from me you can do nothing”  (John 15:5) with these words we would like to accompany the passage of this Burgundian, daughter of a winemaker, to our community heaven. The community heaven which rests at the Clearing welcomed her on Saturday next to Annette, who had departed one month earlier.

We ourselves should have had our Community Committee meetings next week and some of our colleagues from Fontanilles and Russey had already joined us. We were preparing to celebrate All Saints Day, the 70th anniversary of our foundation, happily writing this a blog entry, giving you a few memories of the long years where Mary has never stopped visiting her home and honouring all those who have come to Her.

Today, each person who was attending the retreat has gone back home, and we all welcome you to the heart of our community, to Roche d’Or, Fontanilles and Russey. With Florin and an infinite host of witnesses from Heaven, we say THANK YOU once and again! Thank you for these years of Visitation by the one we like to call:  “Mary, so close in the Glory of the Assumption as a permanent visitor at the heart of our consciences.”

“Humble are the meek, for they will inherit the land...” In this text - the extract from the book “A poor man calls, God responds,” Florin opens a path for the times to come. “This beatitude could become ours if we choose it. As there is no person within whom God does not speak, if we have the soul of a small child and a vulnerable heart ready to receive it, the slightest breath from the Spirit can be captured as if in a large open sail!”

We also enjoy running through these years of history with you, here is a little glimpse, via a short film depicting the construction of la Roche d’Or until 1994. We continue to bring together the threads of our history, of our houses (Mas Quinta, Fontanilles), and the holy events and relationships from where today, more than ever, our Community arises in its own grace. It is the work of a holy action of visitation which we continue to experience and we would like to share. In the meantime why not take a new look at our website where we have worked carefully to share this vision in our “Origins” page? As soon as the new lockdown was announced, one of the visitors on our retreat cried: “Are you going to continue the blog?” As you see we will be continuing, in fact, we never stopped! Although you may not be physically within our walls for a while, you are always in our hearts...

Danièle Valès

French to English translation by Debbie Garrick and Cécile Simon

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