This year the group from Bouëtiez Hennebont (France) combined the tradition of Candlemas with the « seriousness » of a meeting of Associates of the Congregation.

 

 

A special meeting of the Associates in France

 

This year the group from Bouëtiez Hennebont (France) combined the tradition of Candlemas with the « seriousness » of a meeting of Associates of the Congregation.

 

At the end of our last meeting on 10 November 2018, the usual questions came up :

 

– When should we have the next meeting ?

– Who would prepare it ?

– What theme should we take ?

 

We had just settled on the date – February 2^nd 2019 – when we realized that it would be Candlemas! In France the Feast day of the presentation of Jesus in the temple is still associated with the tradition of eating pancakes. One of the group members said, « How about meeting up beforehand for a pancake meal ? » « Oh, that’s a good idea, replied another, but where and how? »

 

The whole group agreed unanimously.

 

The pancake meal

Michel and Marina, armed with their pancake making material (a bilig, rozell and spanell in Breton) welcomed us to the parish hall of Saint Thérèse of Keryado (Lorient). Our artisan pancake makers were happy to accomodate their « guests’ » wishes and offered us a choice of accompaniment … ham, egg sunny side up or scrambled … etc … etc … etc.

 

 

Everything contributed to a relaxed atmosphere, but also to working seriously on the theme of our meeting.

 

 

 

 

Meeting and reflection

 

Sylvie and Colette, who had agreed to prepare the meeting, chose to discuss the Parable of the Good Samaritan, based on one of the 2017 / 2018 proposals for the Associates.

 

After reading the text we began to discuss it, taking care to listen to each other without judging. Here are some of the conclusions of our discussion :

• Fear can prevent us from approaching the « other », who seems to be different from us.
• We very often need to make an effort to reach out to others.
• We can be both the wounded man and the healer, depending on the circumstances.
• Getting close disrupts our time and our activities.
• Close … to those around us, whom we do not always “see”.
• Each one’s life journey and temperament make us close or distant, in a different way, to one another.

 

We ended the meeting with the text proposed by the Workers’ Mission for Christmas 2014, “The Promise of a Possible“.

 

A first homily

 

In fact the meeting was not quite ended because we also wanted to help Michel, our Deacon, who was preparing to preach at Mass for the first time since his ordination on October 21, 2018 at the Cathedral of Vannes. Michel was a bit emotional and stressed … especially since the Gospel for the Sunday (Luke 4, 21-30) is not easy to comment on and Michel had not chosen the easiest method!

In the event Michel took advantage of the presence of a group of scouts and children and started by asking them questions. It all came naturally to him and he did very well. The group were proud of him!

In terms of variety and depth of the experience, it turned out to be an intense meeting.

 

The group of Associates of Bouëtiez (Hennebont)