Items filtered by date: April 2025

Faith
(Second Sunday of Easter: Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31)
We tend to think of faith as a matter of the mind, like the knowledge or awareness of any truth. But we see in today’s readings that faith is much more.
The first community of believers was led by faith to share with one another everything they had. The believers to whom St. Peter wrote were willing to prove their faith through trials. And Thomas the Apostle, once overwhelmed by faith in the Risen Christ, cried out from the depth of his being: “My Lord and my God!”

In the case of the Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette, the response of those who came to believe took primarily two forms.
First was a return to the practice of their faith. Maximin’s father, Mr. Giraud, like Thomas in the Gospel, did not come to this belief easily. But once he did become a believer, the first thing he did was to go to confession. After that, he went to Mass every day for the rest of his life. (He died nearly two and a half years later.)

A second response was a deeper understanding of Mary’s role in our life. It was ordinary believers, not the official Church, that gave Our Lady of La Salette her title, Reconciler of Sinners.
Yes, reconciliation with God, reconciliation with the Church—Mr. Giraud is a good example—these are the natural and spontaneous effects of faith in the Beautiful Lady. And, like the faith shown in today’s readings, it leads us to “rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,” “with exultation and sincerity of heart,” just as “the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.”

Perhaps we ourselves have experienced periods of doubt. We all know people who have little or no faith. This is distressing to anyone who understands the real difference between ordinary knowledge and faith.
Knowledge has to do with content, with facts that can be useful, fascinating, even beautiful. But ultimately they don’t really matter. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians in history, realized one day that all he had written was just so much straw.
Faith affects us in so many important ways, and provides a solid foundation for our lives. Faith matters.

“See, I am doing something new!

Now it springs forth,

do you not perceive it?” (Is. 43:19)

Easter 2017

Dear Brothers,

The Lenten journey we have undertaken in light of the Word of God and the discernment necessary for a change of heart, brings us yet again to celebrate with joy the Resurrection of Jesus. Conquering death, he has in fact restored to the world the hope that everything can be renewed and can change for the better if our lives are anchored in his. I hope with all my heart that this Lenten journey has been for everyone a fruitful time to reflect on the foundations upon which we have constructed - or are constructing - our religious, community and apostolic life. Pope Francis proposes three foundational “building blocks” for our consideration: memory, faith and merciful love. A treasure for our reflection!

1. Memory: Certainly during this important spiritual season, in a climate marked by prayer, silence and listening to the Word, we have been urged many times to ask for the grace of knowing how to recover the memory of what the Lord has done in us and for us from the last celebration of Easter so as not to forget our true identity as religious, as well as the mission to which we have been called in the Church and in the world. This gift of memory would also help us to look to the future more serenely and with full awareness that God never leaves us alone, because he travels always by our side.
2. Faith: There is always a danger, says Pope Francis, which can make the light of faith fade: this is the temptation to reduce it to something passed, to something which was once important but is now relegated to other times, as if faith were something already acquired and a beautiful book of miniatures to be preserved in a museum. But if it remains locked up in the archives of history, faith loses its transformative force, its living beauty, its positive openness to everyone. But faith is rather born and reborn from the living encounter with Jesus, from the experience of his mercy which gives light to every situation in life.
3. Merciful Love: Love in the concrete is the calling card of the Christian, because by that everyone will know that we are his disciples: if we have love for one another… God, in fact, dwells where there is love, especially where we take care of the weak and the poor with courage and compassion (cf. A, Tornelli, Francesco in Viaggio, Ed. Piemme, pp. 279-280.)

These three “building blocks” are not at all foreign to our spirituality, to our religious and community path, and to our charism.

The Beautiful Lady, in her apparition at La Salette, reminds us that she thinks of us and suffers for us without regard for time; that God has not forgotten us and that her greatest joy is to be able to embrace us with a hug of pardon, mercy and reconciliation.

She further reminds us that our faith must not be simply an occasional thing or relegated to various formal or ritual acts, no matter how important these may be; but it must become flesh in our flesh, and be translated into a manner of thinking and living that is transparent, consistent, and evident to all.

The reading of the signs of the times, finally, is a reminder to keep our attention lovingly fixed on the many situations around us where people are experiencing discomfort, difficulty, marginalization or existential loneliness, even in our own local communities. In such situations we are called to witness our nearness, offering the precious and disinterested gift of our fraternal service.

May Easter this year be a real opportunity for a deep renewal of ourselves, reimagining and refounding our relationship with God and with others, especially as regards fraternal life in community and our dedication to ministry as missionaries of reconciliation.

As can be seen in the decisions taken there, the Council of the Congregation, held in Bangalore, India, this past February 6-26, were characterized by a new missionary awareness on the part of our Congregation with the pending opening of a La Salette community in the diocese of Pemba, Mozambique, the support for the mission in Haiti, the movement of the La Salette Laity, and the erection of the District of Myanmar as a Region.

The time spent in India was experienced as a special grace which the Lord and the Virgin of La Salette wanted to bestow first of all on each participant, and through them, to the entire Congregation.

The Theme of the Year, taken from Isaiah 43, quoted at the beginning of this letter and offered to the Congregation for its reflection, helps us grasp with gratitude and thanksgiving, the newness, the vitality and the hope emanating from the Council of the Congregation this year and characterizing the Congregation’s present situation.

I pray that the call to strike out into the depths, daring new horizons, will put into the heart of each of us a renewed desire and an intimate enthusiasm to spend our best energies for the cause of the Gospel in today’s world, without tiring and without fear; but rather with the same grit and determination that accompanied the missionary thrust of our first confreres.

The Council of the Congregation also presented the opportunity to convoke officially the next General Chapter, which will take place in the spring of 2018 in Argentina, and to open the way for its preparation on the part of the entire Congregation. To this end a theme was chosen to act as a unifying element along the path we are taking singly and together in prayer, reflection and study:

“Reconcilers for the World, Prophets in the Grace of La Salette”

This theme immediately presents us with three elements that I invite you to keep in mind throughout this year in your personal work, community meetings and ministry:

+  the Apparition and the message of La Salette are a grace and a richness, not for us alone, but for the entire Church;

+  this grace is entrusted to us to be put at the service of today’s world, which more than ever is in need of forgiveness and reconciliation;

+  we, Missionaries of La Salette, called to be believable proclaimers and ministers of this grace, must, in our turn, be indefatigable “bridge-builders”, enabling men to meet, dialogue, and be reconciled with one another and with God.

Easter is the feast of hope which breaks into the personal histories of each one of us and of the world (histories marked by sin and weakness) offering once again the opportunity for rebirth and new life.

My Council and I send greetings to each of you, dear brothers, wherever you are, to our young in formation, to our aged and infirm members, to the La Salette Sisters, to our friends and benefactors, especially the numerous La Salette Laity who, touched by the grace of the Apparition, desire to accompany us in the difficult but always exciting mission of announcing the Good News of Jesus Risen.

May the Beautiful Lady of La Salette, our Mother and Patroness, continue to protect and guide you - all of you and each one of you - along the path of evangelical and charismatic faithfulness.

Holy and Happy Easter!

Fraternally yours,

Fr. Silvano Marisa, M.S.

Superior General

News from Rome:

+  Early on March 11, Fr. Adilson returned to Rome from a ten-day visit of Myanmar, where he guided the preparations for the first meeting “ad instar capituli” , which will take place in Mandalay, May 8 - 12. This meeting will be the setting for the election of the Council of the new Region, the approval of new statutes, and setting the direction for the ministry of the community there for the near future.

+  On the morning of March 24, the religious community of the parish joined with that of the General House for the first meeting together, which, if all goes well, will take place every two month.

+  As announced at the Council of the Congregation, the first meeting of the International Commission of La Salette Laity took place at the General House March 20 - 23, under the direction of Mr Mario Alone, the new international Coordinator. Fathers Adilson and Silvano were present. Only four provinces and one region were represented: Argentina, Brazil, India, Italy and the United States. For the representatives of the remaining Provinces (Angola, Philippines, France, Madagascar, Poland) a meeting will take place November 13 - 16 here in Rome.

+  The Finance Council of the Congregation, at its annual meeting in the General House, March 27 - 30, examined the financial report of the General Council and of all the Provinces. Doctor Corrado La Rosa was also present at this meeting. He is the lawyer representing the General Council in negotiations with the Commune di Roma for the renewal of the contract regarding the former scholasticate building.

+  April 1, Fr. Adilson began the visitation of the Italian Province in Naples. The visitation will continue until April 26, and is the final official visitation of this administration.

+  The young La Salette Sisters, who are preparing to participate in this year’s PPP, spent four full days in Rome as guests in the General House. They were accompanied by Sister Marie France, their formator and the present Director of the Shrine of La Salette in France. The stay in Rome certainly allowed them to get to know and appreciate the rich religious and cultural history of the Eternal City, but even more, presented them the opportunity to touch the face of the Universal Church.

YOUR URGENT HELP NEEDED: Would those Provincials who have not yet sent the Names and e-Mail Addresses of their members participating in this year’s PPP, please do so immediately to the attention of the Secretary General. Thank you.

Quézac 2017 April 01

"Be disciples, follow Christ in our multicultural diversity, committed as SNDS
on the way of foundation"

Dear Sisters,
We enjoin you to be one in spirit and prayer with our Sisters in Madagascar who need our moral support because of an untimely attack by robbers in the local community of Kianjavolasoa, Antsirabe. The psychological shock is deep, more so with physical wounds inflicted.

We carry this “cross” together as we continue our Lenten walk with Mary who leads us on at the foot of the cross of Jesus where we find strength. We include in our prayers the victims of violence all over the world as we unceasingly pray and offer sacrifices for the Peace that comes from our reconciling God and from our collective struggle wherever we are sent.

In this event, Sr Elisabeth and Sr. Estelle are going to be there for our sisters.

Faced with this violence, we have not fully expressed the sentiments that were stirred within us, even if it may be needless to say. For this reason, we invite you all to be present before the Blessed Sacrament tonight, to render time of adoration to unite our prayer for all the victims of all kinds of violence.

Sr Elisabeth et son Conseil

(Sunday readings: Acts 4:37-43; Col. 3:1-4 OR 1 Cor. 5:1-8; John 20:1-9)
In many languages we say, “Seeing is believing.”
When the Beloved Disciple entered the tomb of Jesus, “He saw and believed.” This is not a case of “seeing is believing.” What did he see? The emptiness of the tomb. In other words: nothing. And he believed. The tomb had become, as it were, a portal to the deepest conviction of faith.
The first persons who went up to the place where Our Lady appeared, above the village of La Salette, saw nothing. Of course they saw the all the same things they would have seen before the Apparition, but they saw nothing that could confirm the story told by Maximin and Mélanie.
And anyone looking at those two children would not be spontaneously inclined to believe them. They were nobodies.
In the first reading, Cornelius and his family believed Peter’s words. They heard and believed. And so it continues to this very day. As St. Paul says in Romans 10:14 and 17, “How can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?... Faith comes from what is heard.”
Most of those who listened to what Maximin and Mélanie had to say, became believers. There was a quality of truth in their words, accompanied by something new in their manner, whenever they spoke of their “Beautiful Lady.” They had become “witnesses,” not only because they saw and heard something, but because they faithfully carried out their commission to make it known.
From a material point of view, none of us living today can possibly have seen what the Apostles and other witnesses of the Resurrection saw.
From another point of view, however, most of us have seen, in the bleakest moments of life, what Mary Magdalen and Peter and the Beloved Disciple saw: emptiness, nothing, a void. They had every reason to lose hope, but one of them, at least, believed nonetheless.
Our darkest moments, then, can be a portal to faith. Like the empty tomb, they do not have to be the end, but a glorious new beginning. The Lord is truly risen!

Redemptive Suffering
(Palm Sunday: Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:15—27:66)
The first time I participated in the afternoon Eucharistic procession on the Holy Mountain of La Salette was in the late 1960s. At the end, everyone knelt on the unpaved ground, with their arms extended in the form of a cross, and sang: “Spare, O Lord, your people, and be not angry with us forever.”
This was an act of “reparation,” a then popular form of devotion, which consisted in doing something painful or uncomfortable as a way of atoning for sin, and making up for unrepentant “poor sinners.”
Our Lady of La Salette said: “However much you pray, however much you do, you will never be able to repay the pains I have taken for you.” This kind of challenge further encouraged the reparation movement that already existed.
Imposing on oneself a share in the sufferings of Christ is a way of participating in his redemptive act, which in turn was the great act of Atonement toward his Father. Jesus “humbled himself,” St. Paul writes. As the Suffering Servant Jesus refused to defend himself, as we see in Matthew’s account of the Passion.
In wearing a large crucifix, the Beautiful Lady draws our attention to Jesus’ Passion and death. She who, in Luke’s Gospel, calls herself the “handmaid of the Lord” and God’s “lowly servant,” appeared humbly in an attitude of weakness, weeping in front of two children, two strangers.
The Passion according to St. John, which we will hear on Good Friday, describes the scene of Mary at the foot of the cross. Here was fulfilled the prophecy of Simeon: “You yourself a sword shall pierce” (Luke 2:35). She participated intimately in his redemptive suffering.
In Colossians 1:24 St. Paul writes: “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.” Theologians disagree on the exact meaning of the text, but we find an echo of it in Mary’s message: “How long a time I have suffered for you!”
Jesus suffered for us. Mary suffers for us. Can we not choose to enter, in some way, into their suffering?

(Fifth Sunday of Lent: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:1-11; John 11:1-45)
Sooner or later the gates of death will close behind us as they did for Lazarus. In much of the Old Testament, the grave is the ultimate prison, the ultimate exile, even from God. The dead “are cut off from your care,” cries the Psalmist. “Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades arise and praise you?” (Ps. 88:6, 11) Through Ezekiel, however, God, using the image of death, promises deliverance from exile: “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel.”

“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” writes St. Paul. By this he means those who have do not have the Spirit, those devoid of a spiritual life. They live in a self-imposed exile from God.
These are the people Mary calls “my people.” Their behavior shows that they have rejected the salvation won for them by her Son. They have cut themselves off from her people, from “the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8). They “cannot please God.”

The Beautiful Lady is profoundly concerned about the consequences of such an attitude: she weeps over the famine that is imminent and, worse still, the death of children. Her invitation to Mélanie and Maximin, “Come closer,” is addressed to all her people.

It is in the spirit of Ezekiel that Our Lady, Queen of Prophets, makes a promise of her own. There is hope, great hope for her people, “if they are converted.” Her message paraphrases Psalm 95: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Which reminds us of yet another promise of Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

The faith of Martha and Mary is exemplary. Unlike those who harden their hearts and blame God for their troubles, they continue to believe in Jesus, even though he had not arrived in time to save their brother from dying.
Jesus shows us it is never too late to put our trust in him. Mary at La Salette reminds us of the same. It is never too late for reconciliation.

(Second Sunday of Lent: Genesis 12:1-4; 2 Timothy 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9)
The imperative form of a verb is used for commands. It occurs in all of today’s readings. It also marks the beginning and end of the message of La Salette.
Imperatives usually are nothing more than commands, one person telling another what to do or what not to do. Sometimes, however, they highlight the importance or the urgency of what is commanded.
God had a plan for Abram. It was urgent that Abram leave everything behind and follow that plan, not knowing where it would lead.
St. Paul reminds Timothy of the importance of bearing hardships for the Gospel. Suffering, an evil in itself, finds value when borne for the cause of Christ.
The Transfiguration of Jesus sets the stage for the command from heaven: “Listen to him.” What could be more dramatic, more urgent? And what could be more important, after such an experience, than the comforting command, “Don’t be afraid”?
The first imperatives of the Beautiful Lady, “Come closer, children, don’t be afraid,” are followed immediately by the words, “I am here to tell you great news.” And the final command to “Make it known” is given in two slightly different forms.
A La Salette Missionary from Angola once explained that, in his culture, the normal course for sending a message would be to have the messenger come to your house and sit down with you for a chat and a cup of tea. Then you would communicate the message and the messenger would go off. But if the message is especially urgent, you would meet the messenger at the door and communicate the message at once. Thus, the fact that the Blessed Virgin remained standing and launched immediately into her message is yet another sign of the importance and urgency of what she had come to tell her people.
Lent has a character of urgency about it that distinguishes it from all other liturgical times. It begins with the command to “Remember that you are dust and unto dust you will return,” or “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
Well? What are you waiting for?

Seeing Light, Being Light
(Fourth Sunday of Lent: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-14)
If you have ever been questioned by people who don’t want to believe you, you have a good idea of what the man born blind went through. And so you also know what the two children who saw Our Lady of La Salette experienced.
They were first subjected to interrogation by the mayor, who did not want his town associated with anything like an apparition, and was by no means disposed to believe in it himself. He even tried to bribe Mélanie, whose family was desperately poor, to deny what she had seen and heard.
After all, who could reasonably be expected to believe that the Blessed Virgin could come to this remote place, and to such persons as these? But, as we read in the first reading, “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.”
Even the clergy were naturally skeptical. The last thing they wanted was to have a fraud perpetrated in the name of Our Lady. They, too, questioned the children, trying to trip them up; but, unlike the mayor, they came away convinced of two things at least: these children were not lying, nor were they remotely capable of making up such a story and such a message.
As more light was shed on the event, the more the truth of the event became evident. St. Paul writes that “light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.” He goes so far as to say that Christians are light.
The man born blind received light in stages: physically first, and then spiritually. The hostility he encountered actually helped him to deepen his understanding of what had happened to him, preparing him for his profession of faith at the end of the story.
Lent is half over. It provides an opportunity for us to be gradually enlightened, both over a six week period and from year to year. The discipline of Lent is not meant to be easy. Through it we are challenged, or we challenge ourselves, to turn ever more toward the light that is Christ.
It is time for us to become light.