Issue Nr 58, June 2009

Newsletter

Foyers Retreat at S.E.N.T.

by Quentin Hall (House Manager, S.E.N.T.)

"I want the Work to be a Fayer shining with light, charity and love (...), an enlivening oasis for the souls of good will (...), the house of my heart opened to all" - Founding text of the Foyers de Charité.

SION Community has just hosted the first "fundamental! retreat by the Foyers de Charité in England. Four members of the Tressaint Foyers community came with Fr. David Hartley to organise the retreat, which was led by Mgr. Keith Barltrop for 16 retreatants who came from places far and wide (one even from Turkey!). To the memory of those working in the house, this is the first time we have had an outside group for a whole week, so we were somewhat concerned that our hospitality infrastructure would hold up.

In the event, we were extremely blessed by the week. The Tressaint members (Mana, Monique, Claude and Armelle) were superb. They adapted to our way of doing things, whilst still putting the Foyers stamp on the week. The retreatants were in silence until the Friday night when we had an information
session on the Foyers de Charité. I understand that "foyer! in French – meaning literally a fireplace, or hearth – has come to mean "a place of meeting!, and the founder was a remarkable woman called Marthe Robin, a French woman, born in 1902 who became bedridden in her early 20s, was blessed by the Holy Spirit in a profound way shortly thereafter, and received many visions and instructions from Our Lord and Our Lady. She is little known in the English speaking world, and I would commend you to visit the Foyers! Website www.foyer-de-charite.com.

Mgr Keith, the Foyers members and the retreatants all hope to come back again, and have extended a warm welcome to SION members to visit them in Brittany. Tressaint is a few km from Dinan, and not far from St Malo. There are 50 committed community members there and another 25 at their summer house in Dinard. Their charism is receiving people and running retreats – they have 20 full week retreats a year (including one in English) together with an extensive programme for families and children. Each of the Foyers houses (and there are dozens around the world – mostly in French speaking countries) is autonomous,
but they all follow the guidelines set down by Marthe.