WHO AM I?

WALL SILHOUETTE ENTREE TO THE
MONASTERY IN ATTLEBORO,
MASSACHUSETTS, USA

Si tu sais qui je suis, ce sera plus facile pour toi de savoir qui tu es.
If you know who I am, it will be easier for you to know who you are.
Si sabes quien son, sera mas facil para ti saber quien eres.
Se sai chi sono, sara piu facile per te sapere chi es.
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Sometimes it helps to introduce a communication with words that will make the mind grind a little bit and wonder what is meant by the introduction.  This blog has spent some time presenting new expressions of the apparition of Our Blessed Mother Mary at La Salette.  As we gathered for the Annual North American gathering of La Salette Lay Associates in North America, we came face to face with this creative silhouette.  I have been here often.  Never have I been moved by this silhouette.  Never, that is, until now.  I therefore present it to you as an object of admiration and a stimulus for prayer and reflection.
I present it in the spirit of the search for completeness in life.  Most of our lives are spent seeking out the true and full meaning of the realities that stimulate our curiosity.  The most intriguing and demanding of these realities are brought to us through the grace of faith that is given to us early in life.  We find ourselves delving deeper and deeper into it in order to stay allied with the Will of the Creator, His Son, the Savior and their Love, the Sanctifier.  In order to make this effort more productive, God permits us to experience on-going teachings that He puts before us through the inter-mediation of His Holy Mother.  We, La Salettes, live in the spirit of the last.  We live with God together with His Son's Mother.
This thought brings me to the echoing reflection of what Father Norman Butler said at the La Salette Lay Gathering in France at the beginning of the month.  We are here not because we want to encourage people to be better helpers for "Father" but because we want to remind the laity that they too have a vocation to the mission.  The presenters at the Annual  gathering of Lay Associates of North America reminded us of the Vocation of Association.  They reminded us of the words of Father Joseph Bachand, MS, Provincial Superior of Our Mother of the Americas Province, to wit, "We are called to embody the message of reconciliation."  Further down, Father Bachand, addressing the question of mutuality, was quoted, "Our Province in North America recently put together a vision statement.  In the middle if that statement there is the simple sentence, "  The entire day was one of solid teachings about the Lay Vocation to Association.  There were many reminders of the call to mutuality between the Laity and the Vowed Religious.  In simpler terms, and without the strong emphasis on the La Salette Mission, the day was an echo of the La Salette Experience on the Holy Mountain.
The closing few minutes focused on the process of defining our identity, personal and congregational.  The lead presenter hit it on the head when he talked about the call to Reconciliation expressing itself in the warm hospitality that suffuses itself in so many details of La Salette life.  I, of all people can attest to that.  I have said it often, and continue to do so.  It made me happy to see someone from the "outside" moved by it.  Thank you, Mother Mary.

I leave this page here.  I will put some extraneous thoughts on the page that follows this one.

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT SEPTEMBER 19?

One of the favorite personal stories that was told from the head table during a plenary session of the Rencontre at La Salette was the following.  It was told by the leader of the Presentation for the day.  he was talking about some ritualistic behaviors that would take place at his home when he was growing up.  Since he was born and brought up in a household where Our Lady of La Salette was the Queen, there was always something going on for September 19.  His big question at the time was, "Why September 19?"  He would always get an answer, but bright boy that he was [still is], he kept nagging for a better answer for a long time in life. Why September 19?  Why the 19?  Finally, one day his mother, in exasperation told him, "I don"t  know.  Go ask the Blessed Virgin why she does things.  So, he went to the Queen and asked.  Imagine his disappointment when she didn't give the the answer he wanted right then and there.  Now, Our Boy is not easily deterred.  He kept asking and, he says, after many years, he finally got the answer.  September 19, 1846 is the only day in their lives that Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud were together, working at the same place at the same time.  So, as Father Adilson tells it, Our Mother, Mary struck while the iron was hot.  He has lived all his life in the company of Our Lady of La Salette and he is happy with her answer.  I am too.

So that was September 19, 1846.  It has been 165 years and the work still goes on.  Much of it starts in a family and stays there.  Father Adilson comes from such a family.  So does my spouse.  So do I. My father was a La Salette seminarian in Hartford Connecticut.  My mother and her siblings were all baptized by La Salette Missionaries in Holyoke, Massachusetts.  Her father, my grandfather worked for the La Salette Missionaries as the cabinet maker and maintenance overseer for fifty years.  The same school that we all attended for over 70 years...three generations.  We are not alone.  It is the grace of La Salette.  It is no wonder that we are known for the grace of our generous and warm hospitality.  We can't help it.  With Mary as the head of household, how else can you be?  We're all family.   I am comfortable with September 19.  I am glad that Mama Mary waited for these two children to work together.  It makes the story so powerful that it warms the heart of the entire world.  So, that's what I did today.  I played with Melanie and Maximin in God's sandbox.  God blessed the 19th.
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We also went to visit Father Maurice Cardinal, MS.  He is doing fine.  He is in a convalescent home.  A nice one.  Clean.  Fresh smell.  Kind staff.  Maurice has founded a new parish.  I get the feeling that they may never let him go.  I also know that he has something to say about that.  He is scheduled to leave on Saturday, and he is not about to negotiate that away.  We respected his dignity and didn't take a picture of his face with a patch of his left thigh grafted onto his face.  We also respected his dignity by refraining from asking if they took the skin from the top or the...  He is doing well.  He also doesn't mind my correcting myself about his age.  I've been telling you that he is 86.  He proudly states that he is 87, going on 88 in December.  I stand corrected.  I did tell him one thing that I want you all to know...This is one of God's creatures who, at 88, is not old.
One last thing:  He appreciates our prayers.  He is also praying for all of us.  I assured him that it is mutual.  I know that I am right.  
Kadakayo amin iti Isabela.  Naoneg unay koma ti utangyo a naimbag a nakem kenni Father Maurice.  Pangaasiyo, iloaloanyo isuna tapno nasayaatto ti tungpalanna.  Arakupenatayo amin isuna iti nakemtayo tapno mariknana ti ayattayo, uray no adayo ti pagyananna.

LASALETTE HOSPITALITY -- BREAD, CHEESE AND FINE WINE

July 20, 2011.
A large group of LaSalette Missionaries from the four corners of North America came together in Atlanta, Georgia this evening in preparation for the first annual Lay Summit.  I confess that I was not there.  I am still not there.  My spouse, Isabel M. Dion is there.  She called me from her hotel room at just before midnight, local time.  She was very emotional and very grateful for the opportunity to imbibe the teachings about LaSalette spirituality that will be imparted during the next three days.  Had it not been for the thoughtful generosity of the Province of Our Mother of the Americas, the opportunity to be a carrier of the message back to the faithful in the Southern California area entrusted to the LaSalette Missionaries would be lost.  Southern California would be without a lay messenger who had been exposed to the current understandings of the message itself.  So the Summit got off to a dynamic start.  Mass, a keynote presentation by Rev. Fr.Joseph Bachand, MS, Provincial Superior of the Mary, Mother of the Americas province and a formal welcome by the pastor of the host parish, of which both names escape me.  More precise information about these events can be obtained by clicking here www.lasalette.org.
What struck me during my conversation with Isabel was the message from the pastor that the spirituality of the LaSalette Missionaries is that of Hospitality as well as Reconciliation.  It is true, that the officially recognized spirituality and charism of the missionaries is Reconciliation, but the people who know us, know that we are high on the hospitality charts.  This something that is often overlooked by the missionaries themselves.  It most often requires that someone from the outside mention it.  In this case, the host pastor mentioned it in public just two days after it had been mentioned in the St. Christopher Information Night Meeting on July 18.  In fact, I am the one who brought it up during my short presentation entitled, "Who are we?"  I grew up and was educated in a parish maintained and operated by LaSalette Missionaries.  The mark of the LaSalette "Brand" in those days was hospitality.  In fact, the French Canadian community who was being served by these missionaries, and others, would refer to them as "Les p'tits peres de LaSalette." [The little LaSalette Fathers]  The max compliment to these humble priests for whom hospitality was the most important human virtue that they practiced.  I mentioned it in Southern California on Monday night and it was mentioned again in Georgia on Wednesday.  There must be something there, right?
That's it for tonight.  Don't forget to click on the Icon of the Weeping Mother to visit www.lasalette.org for more information and insights on the Lay Summit.