On the 11th of November 2017 some thirty sisters came together at Arcueil, near Paris. The organisers had the good idea of opening this meeting to the Associates of the Congregation. Six from the Parisian region responded to the invitation. For the group it was a good meeting.

The associates give us some echoes of the day:

“The associates were given a very warm welcome. We liked the ambiance and the structure of the day as well as the subjects touched on.”

In his first intervention

Father Annequin O.M.I.

presented us

with some features of our society of today:

The domination of money

Disparities are growing as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. This impacts on fraternity as money provokes globalisation and indifference.

Digital technology

The new digital landscape has revolutionised our life in all its aspects. Great changes are happening:

• Economic objectives realised to the detriment of the person.
• Occupations are disappearing while others are appearing.
• The depersonalisation and automation of work.
• The growth of individualism and de-socialisation.

The ecological challenge:

We have become conscious of how :

• Immediate profit is destroying biodiversity.
• Intensive exploitation is impacting on the climate and destabilizing the common good.
• Pollution, rubbish and waste affect all of us but each one of us can struggle against them.

Revisiting the “Our Father …”

In his second intervention Father Marcel reflected on how we can imagine religious life and mission radically as well as re-find our true identity in this world.

What way should we take? By revisiting the “Our Father” he made us understand the intensity of the words of this prayer and after his exposé we were more than ever convinced that The Lord invites us to follow in his footsteps.

We found these talks on society and theology, rooted in his own experience, extremely interesting. The subjects he touched on are identical to those debated by our politicians, except that he treated them from a standpoint where the human being is more important than profit. The issues are not the same. The debate is healthier.

What we liked :

• Discovering actions in different domains but always at the service of the poorest.
• The concern for how our world of today is evolving, how to live and act constructively.
• The priority given to fraternity …

Other associates said :

“We were surprised to see so many sisters come from so far for this meeting. I felt that we made up a big family for we were there for the same reason, to be close to the frailest.”

« It was warm meeting between sisters and associates. For my husband and I, it was a moment of fruitful exchanges and a discovery of situations. The very convivial meal made me feel as if I was being received by friends. Gérard who has a restaurant at Arcueil opened his doors to welcome when, normally, it is closed at the weekend. Why? Gérard who is known to many Daughters of Jesus, could have been an associate himself, given his closeness to the impoverished and his care for his disabled mother.”

Communauté d’Arcueil and some of the associates