Genesis of the call
Very weak and no longer strong enough to go to Mass, Aude asked me if I would bring her Communion. It was with great joy that I accepted and offered to pray this novena to the Holy Spirit with her.
Following this novena of fire, and with the enthusiastic agreement of Béatrice le Hodey, who heard a similar call in her heart, we're sending out the following invitation on Pentecost Sunday.
"Dear brothers and sisters,
We were invited by Benedict XVI to open the doors of faith, and on Sunday we received our "toolbox" of evangelizers. It's time to get down to work and pass on to those around us the Love, Tenderness and infinite Mercy of our Lord for everyone, as Pope Francis invites us to do in his book, Love Alone Will Save Us. There is an urgent need to think anew, to bring something new, to knead life with the new leaven of justice and holiness (Co 5:8).
We'd be delighted to share with you the fruits of our novena to the Holy Spirit over a café-prière at Aude's house, Wednesday May 28 at 10 a.m. "
Three suggestions were put forward:
1) Set up a rosary "for dummies" (breathed by Blessed Pauline Jaricot with supporting meditation (Saint Joseph, Saint Faustina, Saint Theresa, Saint Curé d'Ars...).
2) A Virgin on a pilgrimage of Love (the first would be that of Guadalupe) associated, let's be bold, with the Real Presence... (inspired by Blessed JP II who said the family is a domestic Church. If people find it hard to push open church doors, let's bring the Church into their homes.
3) Permanent adoration, inspired by the first commandment: "Listen, Israel. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength."
It's an invitation we're signing for the first time: "The Sentinels of the Holy Family".
On Wednesday May 28, 10 women answered YES, and for the first time we recited our ten together.
At the same time, Brother Daniel Marie, prior of the Franciscan Convent, gave a generous YES to our appeal, offering to host us in the church of Saint Anthony of Padua and agreeing to help us set up the Holy Family Sentinels prayer group by becoming our spiritual referent.
- 10 years earlier, at a friend's birthday party, I had seen around me an immense unfulfilled need to give and receive love. I had received this understanding that the Lord had put this love in our hearts and that he wanted to weave a huge army of love all over the earth. I received a call to set out to do just that, but I couldn't see how. It was only after the Presidia had been in existence for several years that I realized they were a response to this call.
- I was worried that churches were closing and that the faith might no longer be passed on. I realized that if women came to worship Jesus in the churches, they wouldn't close. I felt a call to women to take their place as pillars of the Church through humble and faithful prayer.
- I felt strongly in my heart that Mary and Jesus wanted to visit families, to be invited into families to give them many graces.
Les Sentinelles de la Sainte Famille was a project born of the different and complementary calls we had all received.
Right from the start, it was a great joy for us to come together and respond to this call to share the Rosary with a multitude of sisters, whereas at first we had thought of it as a Rosary shared by 20. Through our "yes", something bigger than ourselves was built. We were led by the Virgin Mary.
We marveled at the way the Lord led us and built the project step by step, always giving us what we needed at the right time. We received Brother Daniel Marie, a Franciscan, as the Church's seal on the Sentinels of the Holy Family. In our history, we remember so many cares and graces received from our Lord. Within Bethlehem, which is the active core of the Presidia, we have also received sisters with different and complementary talents, without whom nothing would have been possible. And the Bethlehem group is constantly being renewed.
So I discovered the power of humble but faithful prayer. And I was in awe of Mary, who knows not to ask too much of her little ones. Her delicacy is incredible.
I feel I receive so much by praying faithfully every day. This small daily offering is the beginning of a growing intimacy with the Lord.
Thinking of giving, we receive a hundredfold, already on this earth.
And the joy of penetrating the mysteries of Jesus' life, through Mary.
We gently enter into the intimacy of Jesus' life through Mary.
We live this Mystery for a month, and the Word becomes incarnate in us.
The Word and grace that accompany the Mystery heal us
Changes our lives.
Converts us.
And we women become light in our families, where we live and work.
And the Lord can act.
And the Lord expands his territory.
From the very beginning, when I called a sister to join the Presidia, following an inner impulse, I felt that it was Christ himself who was going to seek out each of his beloved sheep and invite her to join his flock. Then it was joy. Joy for both of us, the joy of gratitude before Jesus who so tenderly calls each of us by name and tells us: "I need you for my Kingdom on earth. And the joy of the yes that gave us wings.
The Lord hires us without our having any merit.
The Sentinel serves God in every state of life:
Even when very old, sick, in prison, .... We can be beautiful Sentinels who bear fruit.
It's a powerful safeguard that can prevent us from going astray, because thanks to our daily ten, we live our lives with the Lord.
We are reassured and built up by this mission.
We receive a new identity: we become God's Sentinels, belonging to him in a special way.
It's also a joy one day to discover the anointing when I say my ten with someone else when, for example, you ask someone you know and with whom you've never prayed to say the ten with you.
Crazy! We almost suffocate the 2 of us, so loving is God's presence between us. I also ask strangers or women who stay to pray in their pews after mass if they'd be willing to help me say my ten. It's a loving experience every time. I've discovered that when the Lord asks me to expose myself, if I say yes, He can touch other hearts.
I believe Mary wants to make the Presidia pillars for the Church.
A pillar that draws all its strength from God through the humble prayer of the rosary in communion.
The Church needs women, and women's prayer.
The Presidium movement rekindles each woman's faith.
By praying at least ten Rosaries a day, and meditating on a Mystery from the life of Jesus, we allow Mary to enter our lives.
Faith gives us the desire and strength to serve God.
The Sentinels, in their prayer of the shared Rosary, are united and become the body of Christ.
They are united across social, racial and geographical boundaries.
It's a body that can form anywhere on earth.
This body, because it is in bond with the Father and in fraternal communion, becomes the body of Christ.
And receives the Spirit of Christ.
Mary, the initiator of this movement, has invented a humble yet powerful way of enlarging the body of Christ throughout the world.
This body carries all those who have devoted their entire lives to God, families and the proclamation of the Kingdom.
This flesh of Christ continues His work and extends the proclamation of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth in a very simple, very humble, very hidden, very powerful way, through the daily meditation of a Mystery from the life of Jesus, offered for these intentions.
- 10 years earlier, at a friend's birthday party, I had seen around me an immense unfulfilled need to give and receive love. I had received this understanding that the Lord had put this love in our hearts and that he wanted to weave a huge army of love all over the earth. I received a call to set out to do just that, but I couldn't see how. It was only after the Presidia had been in existence for several years that I realized they were a response to this call.
- I was worried that churches were closing and that the faith might no longer be passed on. I realized that if women came to worship Jesus in the churches, they wouldn't close. I felt a call to women to take their place as pillars of the Church through humble and faithful prayer.
- I felt strongly in my heart that Mary and Jesus wanted to visit families, to be invited into families to give them many graces.
Les Sentinelles de la Sainte Famille was a project born of the different and complementary calls we had all received.
Right from the start, it was a great joy for us to come together and respond to this call to share the Rosary with a multitude of sisters, whereas at first we had thought of it as a Rosary shared by 20. Through our "yes", something bigger than ourselves was built. We were led by the Virgin Mary.
We marveled at the way the Lord led us and built the project step by step, always giving us what we needed at the right time. We received Brother Daniel Marie, a Franciscan, as the Church's seal on the Sentinels of the Holy Family. In our history, we remember so many cares and graces received from our Lord. Within Bethlehem, which is the active core of the Presidia, we have also received sisters with different and complementary talents, without whom nothing would have been possible. And the Bethlehem group is constantly being renewed.
So I discovered the power of humble but faithful prayer. And I was in awe of Mary, who knows not to ask too much of her little ones. Her delicacy is incredible.
I feel I receive so much by praying faithfully every day. This small daily offering is the beginning of a growing intimacy with the Lord.
Thinking of giving, we receive a hundredfold, already on this earth.
And the joy of penetrating the mysteries of Jesus' life, through Mary.
We gently enter into the intimacy of Jesus' life through Mary.
We live this Mystery for a month, and the Word becomes incarnate in us.
The Word and grace that accompany the Mystery heal us
Changes our lives.
Converts us.
And we women become light in our families, where we live and work.
And the Lord can act.
And the Lord expands his territory.
From the very beginning, when I called a sister to join the Presidia, following an inner impulse, I felt that it was Christ himself who was going to seek out each of his beloved sheep and invite her to join his flock. Then it was joy. Joy for both of us, the joy of gratitude before Jesus who so tenderly calls each of us by name and tells us: "I need you for my Kingdom on earth. And the joy of the yes that gave us wings.
The Lord hires us without our having any merit.
The Sentinel serves God in every state of life:
Even when very old, sick, in prison, .... We can be beautiful Sentinels who bear fruit.
It's a powerful safeguard that can prevent us from going astray, because thanks to our daily ten, we live our lives with the Lord.
We are reassured and built up by this mission.
We receive a new identity: we become God's Sentinels, belonging to him in a special way.
It's also a joy one day to discover the anointing when I say my ten with someone else when, for example, you ask someone you know and with whom you've never prayed to say the ten with you.
Crazy! We almost suffocate the 2 of us, so loving is God's presence between us. I also ask strangers or women who stay to pray in their pews after mass if they'd be willing to help me say my ten. It's a loving experience every time. I've discovered that when the Lord asks me to expose myself, if I say yes, He can touch other hearts.
I believe Mary wants to make the Presidia pillars for the Church.
A pillar that draws all its strength from God through the humble prayer of the rosary in communion.
The Church needs women, and women's prayer.
The Presidium movement rekindles each woman's faith.
By praying at least ten Rosaries a day, and meditating on a Mystery from the life of Jesus, we allow Mary to enter our lives.
Faith gives us the desire and strength to serve God.
The Sentinels, in their prayer of the shared Rosary, are united and become the body of Christ.
They are united across social, racial and geographical boundaries.
It's a body that can form anywhere on earth.
This body, because it is in bond with the Father and in fraternal communion, becomes the body of Christ.
And receives the Spirit of Christ.
Mary, the initiator of this movement, has invented a humble yet powerful way of enlarging the body of Christ throughout the world.
This body carries all those who have devoted their entire lives to God, families and the proclamation of the Kingdom.
This flesh of Christ continues His work and extends the proclamation of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth in a very simple, very humble, very hidden, very powerful way, through the daily meditation of a Mystery from the life of Jesus, offered for these intentions.
"What a grace it is to live this adventure hand in hand with Mary with you, the Sentinels of the Holy Family".
"When I went on pilgrimage to Medjugorge, I had asked Mary to 'meet' her, and She gave me this gift."
"Grace to present this Presidia project to our Pope Francis".
"Experiencing the beginnings of this beautiful community of prayerful women, with its difficulties and joys, questionings and abandonments",
And "to know that we are Mary's instrument in this desire she had to bring the 5 of us, the 6 of us, together for the birth and construction of this project".
"To see how much through this novena made to the Holy Spirit (between Ascension and Pentecost 2013), the Lord responded to us in such a surprising way."
"To have grown so much in Faith, in Joy, in Love of others through our differences by living in Mercy."
"To have been chosen without choosing each other, as a community of sisters and brothers.
She is a grace, because according to the doctors' prognosis, she should never have been born. She was condemned by the science of men.
Before her birth, she was blessed by Pope John Paul II, who assured us of his prayers for her and of the Virgin Mary's special protection for our unborn child.
Since then, our lives have changed, and daily prayer has transformed and saved us. Giulia can neither speak nor walk, and suffers from numerous epileptic seizures, but she is a joyful child, open to life.
A pilgrimage to Medjugorje was also a turning point in our encounter with the Virgin Mary and her infinite tenderness.
During our walks in the forest, and even more so since this pilgrimage, I would go to the foot of the Virgin Mary in a chapel in the heart of the Forêt de Soignes to give thanks for Life, and especially for the gift of our daughter's saved life and for the many blessings received by our family.
It was in this posture of the heart that I met Brother Daniel Marie during an evening of testimony, and those who were to become my Sentinel sisters of the Holy Family.
The call to create a prayer group with the other four founding sisters at the beginning of the Presidia was a Marian call (the prayer of the rosary). As in the song "Look at the Star", Mary is the one who guided our extended family through the rock of trials, and it was indeed to the Virgin that I consecrated myself with my sisters, at the foot of the grotto on June 21, 2013.
My husband Riccardo and our 3 daughters, but also all the many volunteers - some weeks 100 - who faithfully accompanied Giulia on her rehabilitation journey - a real marathon challenge - and helped her in her extra-ordinary growth, which eventually led her to the benches of the European School, where her schoolwork is today highly praised. But above all, her outbursts of laughter and joie de vivre have won her many friendships and touched so many people.
At the Convent Saint Antoine des Franciscains, rue d'Artois, following Aude!
A place where the words: "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not seized it", are perfectly embodied.
Maundy Thursday was the 3rd visit to the convent, following two others, and preparing the heart for the future YES.
The 1st was in autumn 2012, when we attended Brother Daniel Marie's conversion testimonial with our eldest son, a high school student.
The 2nd in December 2012 to ask him for a prayer of blessing and launch of our 2nd edition of the mission "1 film, 1 testimony" organized by my husband Patrice and his friend Olivier. That year, Brother Daniel Marie came to bless the "Des Hommes et des Dieux" project and the arrival of Michaël Lonsdale" from France as a witness and to touch an audience of 700 people drawn in part from the peripheries (dixit le Pape)._
The dark, soot-covered walls of the Church and a living word that shines forth his Presence on the evening of the Last Supper commemorating the birth of the Eucharist.
The source is obvious to our whole family. Jesus is present.
The first call we receive is to pray "for" families and "in" families, and to journey together along the path of truth and life.
A vital impulse, in the image of the "ecclesiole" (dixit Mariangela), to get down on our knees as a family in our own home and then spread Love to those around us and beyond into the world.
Thirst to accompany the creation by Brother Daniel Marie of youth groups: "Loupiots de Saint François" (children), "Hérault du Grand Roi" ("HGDR" for teenagers) and later for adults "Les Cordées de St François".
The second call, extending the first intuition, came on May 28 (a meeting of 10 women following a novena to the Holy Spirit prayed by Aude and Charlotte), prompted by the Holy Spirit and confirmed by the Consecration to Mary at the foot of the grotto on June 21, 2013 alongside the four founders, to pray for a dozen or so for five intentions, including precisely that of families. The Holy Family Sentinels were born.
Sentinels! Divine catapults" in the world, to bear witness that prayer (even as tiny as a dozen) can do EVERYTHING, and that the "perfect joy" (St. Francis) that flows from it works wonders within families and beyond in sharing and mission. Seven days later, with rosary in hand, I experienced a theophany, the fruit of my consecration and the grace of being a Sentinel at the service of my (our) sisters, near and far, all contained in my (our) heart.
The Lord had given me Sisters in Christ, an incredible treasure to share eternally!
