Autumn...

Dear Friends,

The last few leaves are clinging to our trees by a thread before being swept away by the damp November breeze. This part of nature’s cycle leaves behind an inevitable, luminous effect on our forests and orchards, and then for a few months nothing is left but naked branches, stripped of their golden finery. Every season has its beauty. I have learnt to love the autumn here in the Franche-Comté, a land of abundant and colourful seasonal foliage. Autumn prepares us for winter, which surprises us with its mildness year on year. Yet every winter is deafeningly silent, as an irresistible wait for springtime begins: the sap stops flowing, held back for a while, but sure to reach its destination at the peak of each treetop. It is easy to see God’s irresistible path through our lives reflected in the language of nature. “Victory is certain!” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

Despite its often greyness, I like this time of year, where everyone retires to the home hearth, in search of warmth and light. The time of year when seasonal restrictions (and also this year health restrictions) drive us into the depths of our homes and invite us to inhabit our inner caves, to centre ourselves around what’s essential, to sink in and drink from the Source. I like this time of year, with Autumn and Advent, where the church fills its cup with fervent anticipation, until these words resound on Christmas night: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy!” (Isaiah 9, 1-2)

Advent in 2020 coincides with our second period of lockdown, which has been hard on many. In the heart of autumn, springtime still seems so far away and the race to create a vaccine allows us to hope for freedom from this fear. In this season, once more, we are prevented from welcoming you, to protect you and to protect us. But we remain firm through this invisible link of prayer, a link which your many letters nourish with comfort. Just as we did in the spring, we are letting our hearts burn with the Word and we hope to continue our journey with you, on a digital pathway, sharing our time with you as we normally would by the fireside.

In this festival of Christ the King, the final Sunday of the liturgical year, we are pleased to publish an extract from a speech made by Roger on Jesus’ appearance before Pontius Pilate given during Holy Week in 2017: a passionate regard on Jesus, the King of every soul...We will remain at your side during this time of Advent that takes us up to Christmas (though we still don’t know how we will be able to celebrate...) by sharing something on the blog each week to nourish our fervor.

We are together, as they like to say in Africa...And I thank you for all the friendship and generosity you have made known in these times.

We carry you with us.

Olivier Sournia

French to English translation by Debbie Garrick and Cécile Simon