Christian testimony

When I started this blog, very quickly the idea of ​​writing on the liturgy came to me. Not to claim specialist status, but to share my experience about what is at the heart of a Christian's life. There were therefore two paths that had to merge: It was necessary to tell the mass (and its benefits), and then entrust the journey that had revealed it.

Part 1: Which mass for which Church? - In front of the church

priests in cassocksDuring 1987, I thought my time had come. My life was falling apart. Life never falls apart, it will take me a few years to figure it out; either it stops, or it is transformed. My life was therefore transformed, violently, intensely, it offered me the enantiodromos as the Greeks say. The enantiodromos is this road which splits, which separates, which becomes two, and confronts us with a choice. The enantiodromos allowed me to understand what freedom was. It was an unprecedented situation, I was about to realize it. This crossing where life takes a completely unexpected turn marks the passage from childhood to adulthood. This moment has no age. I mean you can experience it at any age. What you shouldn't do is not live it. Not understanding what differentiates the freedom experienced in childhood from the freedom chosen in adulthood. Because the choice made, we become another; the experience reveals to us and gives a framework and foundations to the personality.

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A year that ends...

On a year that is ending, we often cast a furtive glance. Don't linger too long. You never know how many things you've forced yourself to bury in memory might pop up again, like those impromptu, rude and irritating pop-ups on the Internet. The exercise that can be performed is to concentrate very strongly to extract the important events; the events that will make it possible to understand why they mattered so much; how they turned out to be decisive. It is also important not to lose sight of when the event occurs.

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Monsignor Centene...

The Vannetais are well off people. The homily of Monsignor Centène in the Saint-Pierre de Vannes cathedral last Sunday is invigorating. This is not the first time that the homilies of Monseigneur Centène have been cited on Catholic sites, and given the quality of these, it is not about to end.

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Priest "Generation Benoit XVI"

Dear Father,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome your departure. Not that I am happy that you are leaving the chapel of Notre-Dame du Lys, but because I am happy to have met you and that you are continuing your priesthood by showing the example of the priest according to Benoit XVI.

Yesterday, for the feast of the Holy Trinity, you celebrated your last mass according to the extraordinary rite in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. In this pious little chapel, where you arrived in 2009 when the diocese of Paris began to assume responsibility for the chapel and to appoint priests to its service. And while you had already been ordained a priest for almost ten years, you learned to celebrate Mass according to the 1962 missal! A great lesson in humility! You have cast yourself in the mold of the bi-millennial form. To meet the request of your superiors, but also that of a group of die-hard faithful lovers of the extraordinary rite.

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Newman and Socrates

The links between ancient Greek philosophy and Christianity are numerous. The most famous of the Greek precepts: Gnothi Seauton , "Know thyself", inscribed in Delphi retains a certain mystery. Another end of the sentence has stuck with us: “But not too much”… Know yourself… But not too much! Plato leads Socrates to reflect on the Delphic formula in the Philebus :

SOCRATES: In short, it is a species of vice which takes its name from a particular habit, and this part of vice in general is a disposition contrary to that recommended by the Delphi inscription.

PROTARCHUS: It is a precept: know thyself, that thou speakest, Socrates?
SOCRATES: Yes, and the opposite of this precept, in the language of the inscription, would be not to know oneself at all.
"Know thyself" in order to improve yourself, to erase in you what hinders your development. Not knowing himself is already a fault for Socrates. "But not too much", because man so easily believes himself much more than he is, son of Adam, man is the plaything of his presumption. “But not too much” so as not to take yourself for a god.
This is one of the foundations of Greek culture, the idea of ​​knowing oneself, the idea of ​​wisdom, of advancing in wisdom, but also the feeling that if you dig too deep, surprises can arise, and not necessarily good. The Greeks were very aware of man's weaknesses, his shortcomings. The Greeks are even, with the Christians, those who have most highlighted the possibility of human weakness, it is also what makes them so close to us. The weakness of man is expressed in their gospels, the tragedies. Pity and terror are the two pillars. Know yourself… but not too much.

Emotion at Notre-Dame du Lys

It is a very beautiful emotion that all the assistance of the faithful of Notre-Dame du Lys felt this morning at the holy mass at 11:15 a.m. A delegation of Iraqi Christians from Baghdad was present as well as an Iraqi priest who had simple and touching words to testify to the massacre last October in Baghdad's cathedral. The recall of the facts by one of the witnesses of this carnage transported the assembly for a few seconds in deep contemplation. The young Iraqis present followed the Mass of the Extraordinary Rite with fervor and contemplation. Father Charles Fazilleau's beautiful sermon has been translated into Arabic so that Iraqis can learn the lessons of this Passion Sunday.

On leaving the chapel, the smiles and handshakes exchanged with these young men from the Orient who had already been so tried in their faith were a moving and joyful moment. Well beyond the language barrier, an infinite joy was reflected in the eyes. The joy of being alive in Christ.

Japan book review

I have just finished reading “Le Masque du Samourai”, an essay by Aude Fieschi (Éditions Philippe Picquier). It is a didactic book, well written, which presents the different facets of the Samurai through the Japanese Middle Ages until its decline with the advent of modern Japan.

The path of God passes through our humanity…

Extraordinary passage from Blessed Cardinal Newman :

By sinning, by suffering, by correcting ourselves, by improving ourselves, we advance towards the truth by the experience of error; we achieve success through failure. We do not know how to act well except after having acted badly. […] We know what is good not positively but negatively; we don't see the truth all at once to go towards it, but we throw ourselves on the error to experience it, and we discover that it is not the truth. […] This is the mechanism by which we achieve success; we walk towards the sky backwards; we aim our arrows at a target and think that he is most skilful who misses the fewest.

Tibhirine's breath

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It's a smart movie. And in saying that, a lot has already been said. At a time when stupidity reigns unchallenged, making an intelligent film about faith allows you to get your head above water and inflate your lungs; to satiate. Men and Gods exemplifies the life of the monks. That the monks in the film live in Algeria comes second in my opinion. It comes in the background to dodge the eternal debate of the "Clash of Civilizations". This debate that wealthy people treat with contempt and that less well-off people try to flee on a daily basis.

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