Items filtered by date: Monday, 02 August 2021

INTERNATIONAL CONCERT OF LA SALETTE LAITY

In this very important year in which we commemorate the 175th Anniversary of the apparition of the beautiful Lady, La Salette laity are promoting a “Virtual Thankgiving Concert” for this event. This concert aims to unite La Salette charismatic Family in a cultural event as a source of evangelization and dissemination of the Message of La Salette.

Any member of La Salette charismatic Family, laity or religious, who feels the call and inspiration to write and perform a song dedicated to Our Mother of La Salette may participate, with only one song per country. The song, which should be unpublished, may have its composition based on the story, the fact, the characters, the message, or the mision requested by Our Lady when she appeared in La Salette. It can also be the musicalization of a prayer or part of it.

The international Concert will take place on September 18th, 2021, on the ZOOM platform, at a time determined according to the time zones of the countries. Registration from participating countries will take place until August 31, 2021.

More detailed information can be obtained through the e-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How to Serve the Lord, and Why

(21^st Ordinary Sunday: Joshua 24:1-18; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69)

Warning! This week’s readings will challenge all of us in different ways.

The last time we encountered these readings (three years ago), the title of the reflection was Whom shall we Serve?Everything pointed to the obvious answer— we serve the Lord. For us, the decision is made! We, like Joshua, choose to serve the Lord. Great! Now what? Next comes the how.

What does it actually mean to serve the Lord? What can we do? Our Lady of La Salette gives a partial list: daily prayer, weekly Eucharist, the annual discipline of Lent, respect for the name of the Lord.

The full list comes to us from the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church, which also place before us the importance of love of neighbor, through the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

So we are called to prayer, love, mercy. But the how of service does not end with the performance of these things. All of these presuppose two fundamental attitudes: submission and conversion, which we always experience as challenging.

Joshua gave the people options. He said, “Decide today whom you will serve.” This was their moment of truth. They gave the right answer: “We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” Was that enough?

The real how of serving the Lord may be summed up as follows: if I faithfully, truly and honestly want to serve the Lord, I may do so only if my commitment to him is absolutely unconditional. But can I really be so sure?

The answer to that question brings us to the why. Simon Peter spoke for the Apostles and, we hope, for us, when he said, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

What a powerful statement of faith! Is it ours, too? Do we really believe that our life is nothing without Christ? Are we willing to accept his will, and even be subordinate to each other, out of reverence for him?

The challenges are many, but still we may hope to cry out with the psalmist, “Let my soul glory in the Lord!”

Wayne Vanasse, and Fr. René Butler, M.S.