Promoting vocations to traditional Catholic societies, institutes, and religious orders using the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite for men and for women.
The Institute of the Good Shepherd have some photos from recent ordinations in Courtalain (France) which occurred this month. A full photo gallery is available at the website of their seminary, the Seminaire Saint Vincent de Paul.
Having informed readers of the foundation of the Little Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the sister congregation of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, and also the first reception of the veil, we have the greatest pleasure in informing you of another excellent initiative of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, a congregation of brothers, the Institute of the Angelus, as an house of formation for brothers ad experimentum under the moderation of M. l'Abbé Regis Spinoza.
The Institute proclaims its belief that the vocation of male religious should be better known to raise a revival among younger generations who too often think of brothers as "people who failed to become priests." This is obviously wrong, they rightly say, because the brothers are souls who are chosen of God to serve His Church and by the evangelical counsels of obedience, poverty and chastity who are, like the Lord, giving their lives for the glory of God and the salvation and sanctification of souls. Thus, the image of the friar "tuck" in Robin Hood and other images having a similar purpose to destroy the real meaning of the gift of self through various ministries in which the brothers can thrive from any point of view.
The Brothers of the Good Shepherd will be in two branches, first, the teaching Brothers. Some of them have opted to serve young people by introducing them to art or crafts. The Institute of the Angelus is developing this educational project. The brothers teachers will receive adequate training to their condition. In fact, over two years, which correspond to the "year of formation" and "novitiate", they are trained in spiritual, liturgical and doctrinal teaching. It is required for the Brothers secondary education. Some are going to university by correspondence at the end of "noviciate", after receiving the habit, at least for the standard license to teach in secondary schools. Others will deal with the administrative organization of the school. In the third year, following their commitment to the Institute and private vows, to be renewed every five years, they will receive additional training depending on the educational choices they have made.
The second branch will be coadjutor Brothers, who will receive training in their own spiritual state ("Catechism of the vows") and in areas of liturgical and doctrinal instruction. They will mostly develop their ability to perform manual activities serving not necessarily in a school.
On 19th June 2009, two foundresses of the excellent Little Sisters of the Good Shepherd were received in simple vows and took the veil in the Church of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, St. Eloi in Bordeaux. With a number of professed Sisters and a new home at Bargemon near Cannes, the Little Sisters are now ready to receive postulants.
Notre Seigneur, Bon Pasteur, nous Vous prions de protéger les Petites Soeurs!
The Institute of the Good Shepherd have informed us that their excellent initiative, a congregation of Apostolic Sisters known as the Little Sisters of the Good Shepherd, whose foundation has previously been reported in CHRISTVS REGNAT, now situated in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, is ready to admit candidates to a year of spirituality to begin in September, 2010. Young ladies who are less than 35 years of age and of good character can contact the Little Sisters:
By e-mail at: soeursdubonpasteur@hotmail.frBy telephone at: 00.33.06.66.06.47.94 By post at: Les Petites Soeurs du Bon Pasteur, Presbytere,17, Rue Marceau, 83830 Bargemon, FRANCE.
The Little Sisters are affiliated to the Institute of the Good Shepherd and are directed by M. l'Abbé Henri Forestier, I.B.P., formerly rector of the Institute's Seminary at Courtalain. The Spiritual Life of the Sisters is founded upon the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Please spread the news to all!
The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb are a contemplative community that enables girls with Down’s syndrome to respond to a religious vocation.
To Offer Oneself to God in witness to the Gospel of Life
Together for a contemplative life
To consecrate one’s life to God, offering it for love of the weakest and most deprived of our neighbours, this is our vocation! By accompanying them, we want to enable young, intellectually disabled girls to offer a consecrated life to God and to the Church.
To allow those who have the “last place” in the world, to hold in the Church the exceptional place of spouses of Jesus Christ. To allow those who depend on others for their everyday life to take in charge, in their prayer, the intentions that are entrusted to them. To allow those whose life is held in contempt to the extent of being in danger from a culture of death, to witness by their consecration to the Gospel of Life.
The Institute of the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb, a contemplative vocation, offer young girls with Downs the possibilty of realising their religious vocation. This realisation is made possible only by the support of sisters without this disability, who have responded to a special call to consecrate themselves to God with their disabled sisters to form one community with them.
Today, more girls with Down’s Syndrome are knocking at our door. To respond to their request, our family needs new vocations. Vocations to share a contemplative life with “the smallest in the Kingdom”.
Together in work and prayer
Guided by the wisdom of St Benedict, we teach our little disabled sisters the manual labour necessary for their development. We live poverty in putting ourselves at their disposal. With them, we share the work of everyday life.
The office, adoration and the praying of the rosary are adapted to their rhythm and their capacities. In a spirit of silence, our prayer feeds every day on the Eucharist and on the meditation of the Gospel.
Close to the abbey of Fontgombault, we benefit from its spiritual support.
The Institute of the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb
The community was founded in 1985, and canonically recognised in 1990 as a public association by the Archbishop of Tours. It settled in Blanc in 1995, and was erected as a religious institute of contemplative life by the archbishop of Bourges in 1999.
The Little Sisters now have at their disposal a priory on the edge of the town. Here, for a period of vocational discernment, they can receive young girls touched by the spirit of poverty and dedication, ready to offer a whole existence to the service of Christ in the person of their sisters with Down’s Syndrome.
At the school of St Therese of the Child Jesus
We follow every day the “little way” taught by Saint Therese; knowing that “great actions are forbidden to us”, we learn from her to receive everything from God, to “love for the brothers who fight”, to “scatter flowers for Jesus”, and to pray for the intentions entrusted to us.
The community was founded with the encouragement of Jerome Lejeune, and is currently supported by, among others, the Lejeune Foundation, according to this page. One sister made her perpetual profession last June.
Recently there was a meeting of French faithful attached to the usus antiquior, the rencontre pour l’Unité Catholique (Meeting for Catholic Unity), in Versailles, France. In the course of the meeting, Fr. Laurent Spriet of the Association Totus Tuus made an important announcement.
(The Association Totus Tuus, which was established in 2007 by the Archbishop of Avignon and this year recognised canonically by Cardinal Barbarin, the Primate of Gaul and Archbishop of Lyon, is itself attached to the celebration of the usus antiquior, without excluding saying Mass in the Ordinary Form if so requested by the bishop. Msgr. Jean-Pierre Batut, former pastor of the Parisian parish of Saint Eugène-Sainte Cécile, which is equally dedicated to both forms of the Roman Rite, who was appointed auxiliary of Lyon last year, functions as the protector of this association.)
Fr. Spriet announced, that Cardinal Barbarin will open next year in Lyon a "bi-formalist" seminary, i.e. a seminary dedicated to both forms of the Roman Rite, which will be both taught and celebrated there. This is the first diocese in France after that of Toulon which offers this possibility to its seminarians. Cardinal Barbarin's project will even go further than that of Toulon: not only will the seminarians have the opportunity to be formed according to the extraordinary form, Mass according to the usus antiquior will be celebrated every day in the seminary, open to all seminarians, including those of the ordinary form.
The Abbot of St Mary's Abbey, Lagrasse, the Rt Revd Emmanuel-Marie de St Jean CRMD will be visiting England next month, accompanied by the the Sub-prior, Pére Augustin-Marie de la Trinité. His visit has been organised by the newly-founded English charity, The Friends of the Canonical Abbey of Lagrasse.
On Saturday 10 October at 11.45am, Father Abbot will say Mass in the usus antiquior in the Crypt Chapel of Westminster Cathedral, by kind permission of the Canon Administrator.
In the afternoon, from 1.45pm, Father Abbot will lead the Rosary Crusade of Reparation through the streets of London from Westminster Cathedral to the London Oratory where he will give Pontifical Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
On Sunday 11 October at 9am, Father Abbot will say the regular usus antiquior Mass at the London Oratory, by kind invitation of the Oratory Fathers. He hopes to be able to meet members of the congregation after Mass.
The above photo is from Fr John Boyle's Flickr set from the Pontifical Mass at the Merton Conference in 2008.
After only four years, the Institute of the Good Shepherd's Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul has seen remarkable growth both in numbers and in strength. Recently, news was posed in French on their website. It translates roughly as follows:
After the ordinations of July 4 at St. Anne d'Auray, where Fathers Beaugrand and Raffray were ordained, the seminary has (almost) emptied of its occupants for a well deserved holiday before a sizeable inflow. Indeed, the seminary is entering its fourth year and this means that we open the cycle of theology in September 2009. For the more senior seminarians who have completed their year of spirituality and their two years of philosophy Courtalain will be able to continue their training on site by commencing the study from September of Catholic theology. This is a milestone because it shows that the seminary of St. Vincent de Paul has reached a certain maturity that allows it to provide comprehensive training for future priests.
The venture commenced three years ago when there opened in France a traditional seminary under the auspices of the Institute of the Good Shepherd that we hoped would be successful and that, by the Will of God, we would be able to answer the call of the Pope who recalled the necessity of the seminary in the life of the Church during his catechesis on 19 August:
"Foundations laid during seminary training, are the irreplaceable "spiritual soil", in which we can "learn Christ" by gradually letting ourselves be configured to Him, the one true High Priest and Good Shepherd. Time at the seminary should be regarded as the realization of the moment when the Lord Jesus, after calling the apostles before sending them to preach, granted their request to stay with him (cf. Mk 3 14).
The faculty of the Seminaire St. Vincent has changed this year as l'Abbé Henri Forestier, IBP, having successfully undertaken for three years the heavy task of the foundation of this house, has left the seminary to direct the Little Sisters of the Good Shepherd full time; l'Abbé Yannick Vella leaves the faculty to join the staff of the parish of Saint-Eloi in Bordeaux. We wish to express our gratitude for the work they have completed while at the seminary.
Providence is good. Since l'Abbé Emmanuel Ducla, IBP has been conferred with his licentiate in Canonical and Dogmatic Theology this month, he will begin to teach these subjects to the Fourth Year Seminarians. l'Abbé Leszek Krolikowski will continue to give courses in philosophy and moral theology, in addition to his PhD in philosophy at the Angelicum in Rome. The younger generation of the Institute is will represented by l'Abbé Stefano Carusi who will undertake the teaching of Latin and Greek and Ecclesiastical History. l'Abbé Matthew M. Raffray begins his first year of priesthood by teaching our courses in philosophy and theology.
Finally, I will assume the office of rector of the seminary and undertake particularly the education of first-year seminarians and ensuring the general introduction to Sacred Scripture. We will be aided by some outsiders who transmit their knowledge and apostolic flame, especially l'Abbé Paul Aulagnier through his course on the recent history of the Church.
Seminarians return to Courtalain Saturday, September 19 and will begin the year with a retreat preached by l'Abbé Chanut which will launch the Holy Year of Priests of the Holy Father. Then we receive the fourteen new candidates that come from around the world to increase the Institute of the Good Shepherd. With twenty-seven seminarians, three brothers and five teachers, the house begans to crack at the seams and this presents us with difficulties of all kinds. It is urgent for us to make the investments necessary to accommodate these young people open to God. Also, we are asking for your generosity to give us the means to carry out the noble work of training future priests.
Clergy pilgrimage to Ars and Lyons, 8-12 February 2010, led by Fr de Malleray FSSP - for the Year for Priests
On August 8th, 2009, Feast (EF calendar) of St John Marie Vianney, Patron of Priests:
Reverend and dear Fathers,
On this feast of our common Patron, please accept my heartfelt wishes of peace and joy in your priestly life.
To meet among priests and ask for the intercession of the holy Curé, I have the pleasure of inviting you to a pilgrimage to Ars next year (in exactly six months) from February 8 to 12, 2010 (i.e. the week before Ash Wednesday – 17 February 2010).
(image: the shrine of the Curé of Ars)
Dates:
Depart Monday morning 8 February 2010 from the UK, arriving in the afternoon in Lyon and reach Francheville (FSSP house on the outskirt of Lyons).
Return Friday morning 12 February 2010 from Lyons.
Our pilgrimage will be under the special protection of Our Blessed Lady, the Mother of God and the Mother of priests as the anniversary of Her Apparitions in Lourdes will occur while we are still in Lyons. (Feb. 11th).
Location:
We will be based in the beautiful St Padre Pio House run by the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter in Francheville (Lyons), less than an hour drive from Ars. Single room accommodation. Garden.
Scheduled:
A full day in Ars, the climax of our stay. Possibility of offering Holy Mass in Ars. Visit of the Curé’s presbytery. Veneration of his relics.
One day in Lyons, original Episcopal See of St Iraeneus: visit of the Basilica of Fourvières; prayer at the place of death of St Francis de Sales; visit of the Roman amphitheatre where the protomartyrs of Gaul SS. Polycarp, Blandina, Pothinus and others suffered in 117 a.D. On a lighter note, meal in a ‘bouchon’ (traditional Lyonnais restaurant; see here).
We will also have conferences on priestly spirituality, including the theology of the Mass, the EF Roman liturgy and prayer life.
Price (estimate):
About £150 for return train ticket London St Pancras-Lyons-London St Pancras (reduction possible if we travel as a group).
Alternatively: Easyjet direct return flight Stansted-Lyons-Gatwick: minimum price £51 (for group ticket of 15 passengers).
Accommodation will be very affordable in the FSSP house - rough estimate: £30/day with breakfast + 1 main meal at least, i.e. £120 for 4 full days (4 nights).
To be added: transport in Lyons and to Ars. Meals outside of the house (at least twice).
Liturgy:
Possibility of offering private Mass daily in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite (please bring only your alb, biretta, cingulum and linens). Compline (or one other Hour per day) in the EF of the Roman rite (please bring EF Breviary if you possess one).
Booking:
please send a £120 cheque made payable to ‘FSSP ENGLAND’, posted to : Fr de Malleray, FSSP, 179 Elgar Rd, RG2 0DH, Reading, Berkshire, UK. Please include your complete contact details in the booking.
Number of places available as of today: 13.
I am looking forward to meeting you again soon and I wish you a blessed Year for Priests. With my prayer,
From Vannes.maville.com, in turn by way of Le Forum Cathoiique comes news of the ordination of two new priests of the Institute of the Good Shepherd in the basilica of Sainte-Anne d'Auray on July 4th.
The ordaining prelate was Msgr. Appignanesi, archbishop emeritus of Potenza, Italy.
One of the powerhouses of traditional Catholic culture in France for several decades and one of the first feminine Latin Mass congregations in union with the Holy See, the Domincan Sisters 'of Pontcalec' have, at long last, launched an internet site.
The Dominican Sisters of the Holy Ghost is a Congregation of Pontifical Right within the Dominican Order.
In imitation of St. Catherine of Siena, and following an ancient form of Dominican Religious life that had disappeared from France since the Revolution, the Sisters are simply consecrated Dominican Virgins.
The Community Office is celebrated in Latin according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
As the Constitutions of the Congregation state: "Since the institute belongs to the Order of St. Dominic, where we seek holiness in the contemplation and the transmission of divine truth, the sisters must apply according to their ability to diligent studies in order to penetrate only the truth and teach only the truth."
In the spirit of those Constitutions, the Sisters run six schools in France: Notre Dame de Joie (Pontcalec, Brittany), St. Thomas (Pontcalec, Brittany), St. Catherine (Nantes, Brittany), St. Pius X (St. Cloud, near Parish), St. Dominic (La Baffe, Lorraine), and St. Joseph (Draiguignan, Cote d'Azur).
The Sisters can be contacted by writing to:
Rev. Mère Marie-Geneviève, Prieuresse, Couvent Notre-Dame-de-Joie, 56240 Berne, FRANCE.
The Paris-Chartres Pilgrimage is a three-day walk from Notre-Dame de Paris to Notre-Dame de Chartres, approximately 75 miles. Pilgrims are organized into groups of 20-65 people, that are referred to as "chapters". The "walk" is through the streets of Paris, and then into the countryside. It can be muddy, rocky, and demanding-and the rewards of such a penitential exercise are eternal. Good sturdy shoes are a must. Each chapter is accompanied by at least one chaplain, who hears confession and gives spiritual direction to each pilgrim who avails himself of the priest's presence en route. This pilgrimage originated in the 12th century.
On 8th September, 2008, M. l'Abbé Philippe Laguérie, I.B.P., celebrated Mass in the small chapel of the Chateau of Arrou.
L'Abbé Laguérie, is the Moderator General of the Institute of the Good Shepherd. The Mass marked the foundation of the Little Sisters of the Good Shepherd, les Petites Soeurs du Bon Pasteur, something akin to the 'second order' of the Institute of the Good Shepherd.
The Little Sisters are seen above with M. l'Abbé Forestier, I.B.P., who is the Rector of the Institute's Seminary at Courtalain, during a pilgrimage made to the shrine of the Little Flower at Lisieux on 8th December, 2008. The formation of the Little Sisters is taking place at the Chateau of Arrou, which you can see below, not far from Courtalain, to the west of Chartres.
The sisters, now four in number, have come together to be formed in the spirit of the Institute of the Good Shepherd as apostolic sisters in accord with the vision of St. Vincent de Paul, the great Apostle of Charity.
Their beginnings, like those of the Good Shepherd, Himself, and like the beginnings of the works of St. Vincent de Paul, are humble and hidden.
However, they promise great things for the future. The Little Sisters of the Good Shepherd have entered upon an heroic journey to create a religious Institute, living the burning zeal of apostolic Charity while maintaining the great traditions, not only of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but also that traditional religious life that was so often France's great gift to the Church.
Their website states that, as with the Institute of the Good Shepherd, itself, the proper Rite of the Little Sisters will be the Traditional Roman Rite contained in the Liturgical Books of 1962. May the good God grant them increase of holiness and increase of sisters!
From September 18th to 27th, 2008, the Congress of Benedictine Abbots took place in Rome. In addition to reelecting Dom Notker Wolf as Abbot Primate of the Benedictins for another four year term, the Confoederatio Benedictina Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, the Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict, admitted to its memembership the Abbey of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux (it also is listed now on the Confederation's website here). The abbey, which is attached to (a slightly modified form of) the usus antiquior, continues to depend from the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. As the source for this news, the website of the French Bishops' Conference, puts it:
This integration manifests that this community pursues its way of belonging to the normal structures of the Church and of fraternal collaboration with the monasteries of the Benedictine family.
This is very welcome news as it is a sign that the Older Use is becoming a normal part of the life of the Church as it rightfully should be.
This Sunday, as we mentioned in August, the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux have been raised to the honour of the altars. On this occasion, the Institute of Christ the King made a pilgrimage for vocations to Lisieux. Here are some impressions:
Note the new dress of their altar boys, which I first noticed here.
Afterwards there was Benediction:
The Founder of the Institute of the Holy Cross of Riaumont, Fr Argouac, was also present:
Recently the NLM published some photographs of the October 11th ordinations of the Institute of the Good Shepherd in Bordeaux, France.
A French reader sent in a link to the following photos which were of extremely high quality, so they seemed worth showing in addition to what we have already.
I was pleased to see that two of the ordinandi were clerics of the IBP I had the pleasure of meeting in the spring while in Europe. They are pictured below in the first and last photograph respectively. Congratulations to them.
(In the usus antiquior the Ordination Mass of a new priest was the one and only time one would see concelebration of the Mass.)
A blog to promote vocations to Traditional societies and religious orders using the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, including religious communities for women.
