Clergy Retreat for the Year for Priests

by Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP

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,

Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP

Link:

• pictures of Francheville and FSSP in Lyons

(image below: Priests in the Padre Pio House Chapel)

Chartres pilgrimage - sponsors required

With the annual Chartres pilgrimage under way, it's time to mention that Una Voce Scotland are sponsoring twelve students from the University of Glasgow on this pilgrimage from Notre-Dame Cathedral in Parish to Notre-Dame in Chartres (see here). The total cost is estimated to be around £1200. Donations will be gratefully received, those interested in making a donation can send a cheque to the acting treasurer, Thomas Thomson at 62 Torphin Crescent, Glasgow - please make cheques payable to "Una Voce Scotland".

Novena for 3rd anniversary of Juventutem Federation

Ad Deum qui laetificat + Juventutem meam

Dear Juventutem Friends,

Greetings in the Lord.

In 10 days (Sunday after the Ascension, 24th May) on the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians we will celebrate the third anniversary of the foundation of the International Juventutem Federation. We invite you to pray each of the next 9 days one decade of the Holy Rosary for all Juventutem members worldwide and for the clergy supporting Juventutem.

With my prayers,

Fr de Malleray,
Ecclesiastical Assistant, Juventutem

~~*~~

Upcoming events:

1) Traditional international ‘Pilgrimage of Christendom’ from Paris to Chartres, France, May 30th – June 1st, 2009 (see here). Join the Juventutem chapter and walk from Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris to Notre-Dame cathedral in Chartres, together with 8,000 other young pilgrims! All Masses in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite. Meet with dozens of clergy and religious from the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter and other ‘Ecclesia Dei’ communities. Contact: Madeleine Readings: madeleinereadings at googlemail.com.

2) Juventutem retreat in England, Douai Abbey, Berks., September 18-20, 2009: all young adults welcome. Preacher: Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP. Contact: Damian Barker: juventutemcatholicam at yahoo.co.uk; for more details, please see here. Cost: from as little as £25 for students (or £48.88 for for non-students).

Scottish contingent to Chartres

Juventutem Scotland is organising a Scottish contingent to go on the Chartres Pilgrimage.

There are two options for those wishing to go:-

1. Going with the party travelling from London.

Complete the application form sent out by the organiser, Francis Carey (latinmassuk at madasafish.com) and send directly to him. You will have to organise your own travel from Glasgow/Edinburgh to London. Juventutem Scotland has an electronic copy if anyone needs one so leave a comment here if that is required.

2. Traveling from Scotland and joining up with the English speaking chapter in Paris.

Juventutem Scotland will organise transport from Scotland and accommodation once we're in France. However, we need to move quickly on this one. Can anyone who's interested let us know for definite by the 31st March at the latest.

The dates of the actual pilgrimage are 30th May to 1st June with a days travel either side. More information can be found by clicking here, or here. There is also a meeting at the Glasgow University Catholic Chaplaincy starting at 5.30pm on Friday 13th March regarding the Pilgrimage.

More information about Chartres

(reproduced from "Young Catholic Adults", the Juventutem Chapter in England)

Paris-Chartres Pentecost Pilgrimage in France (30 May-1st June 2009):

Juventutem Chapter

The Youth of Britain marched last year under the banner of Juventutem. Fr Withoos, Madeleine Readings and Gregory Flash inspired the enthusiastic youngsters on the muddy road to Chartres. Banners and flags flying, singing hymns and songs with gusto, the miles flew by. It was reassuring to witness their laughter and perseverance as they waded through inches of mud and water. To build on this success and to cater separately for the broad age range of young people, another chapter is planned this year for those aged 13-18 to be led by Agostino di Falco and Anthony Readings in addition to the main Juventutem chapter for 18 to 30 year olds. This is now a very important part of our apostolate and we ask for both your prayers and financial support.

For more information please contact:-

Francis & Julie Carey

Tel: 01494 729 223 e-mail - Chartres@duc-in-altum.co.uk

~~*~~

Gregory Flash -International Juventutem Chairman writes about the Juventutem chapter:-

Celebrate Pentecost with a pilgrimage!

I would like invite you to join me and several thousand other young people on a pilgrimage in France at Pentecost this year.

What is the pilgrimage?

The pilgrimage involves walking from Paris to Chartres, along part of one of the ancient routes to Compostella. This particular pilgrimage, the largest of the annual pilgrimages that takes this route, is now in its 26th year, so it is a well-oiled and efficient machine. By the end of the pilgrimage, some six thousand people come together in and outside the glorious cathedral in Chartres for a solemn Mass. The average age of the pilgrims is somewhere in the low twenties, as the vast majority of the pilgrims are young, though people of all ages are welcome.

Who will be going?

I invite you to walk with the British young adults' chapter, dedicated to St Alban, which will be made up of 18-35 year olds. All the pilgrims in this chapter will be English speaking, with the majority coming from the UK, though there we hope to welcome pilgrims from other countries too. We will have English speaking priests looking after us, giving talks, hearing confessions and leading the prayers. There will also be lots of opportunities to get to know pilgrims of other ages and other nationalities.

The majority of the pilgrims are French, but there are chapters from the USA, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Lithuania and other countries besides. The three Masses of the pilgrimage are celebrated in Latin (booklets are provided to help you follow the prayers), which enables this wonderfully diverse group of nationalities to pray and sing with one voice. We walk in chapters of about thirty pilgrims, singing and praying (in English mostly though there will be plenty of opportunity to learn and sing in other languages over the two and half days), listening to talks to from priests and chapter leaders, and getting to know one another. There is plenty of laughter and joy as well as prayer and hard work.

How exactly does the pilgrimage work?

On Saturday 10 May, we all meet at 6am at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The pilgrims enter the great Cathedral, where prayers are said and the pilgrims are blessed by the clergy. We then begin walking our way out of Paris, walking with the rest of our chapter. Half way through the morning, we have a short pause for water and some fruit, before making our way to one of the forests that surrounds Paris for Mass of the vigil of Pentecost in the open air. A picnic lunch follows, and we resume our walk until the evening (with a few pauses on the way), until we reach a camp site outside a beautiful village. We spend the night under tents (for details of sleeping arrangements see below). Early the next morning, we set off again. Mass of Pentecost Sunday is said again the open air, before another early picnic lunch. We walk until the evening (again with pauses), spending the second night in a campsite not far from Chartres. An hour before reaching the campsite we should catch our first distant glimpse of the spires of Chartres cathedral towering above the fields that surround the city.

The following morning we set off for Chartres. We have our final picnic lunch before arriving in Chartres in the early afternoon. At half past three the final solemn Mass of the pilgrimage begins, said in the presence of the bishop of Chartres. I don't yet have details of the celebrant for this year, but over the past twenty five years, bishops and Cardinals have celebrated this closing Mass.

What do I need to bring?

You need the following:

• Good walking shoes
• Sleeping bag
• Optional tent - as non-French pilgrims you can sleep in communal tents that are provided for the international pilgrims, though you are free to bring your own tent (this is the option I take, and which is arguably preferable to the communal option).
• Food for lunch on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. You should also bring food to supplement the evening soup.
• Clothing suitable for two and a half days of walking in the open air - you will need a good set of waterproofs. Last year we had a lot of rain, but the previous year we had unmitigated sunshine. Pentecost is early this year, so you should also bring a couple of jumpers/warm clothes.
• Two rucksacks - one large, which will hold your sleeping bag, tent if you take one, and any bulkier items, and a smaller one. The larger bag will be transported from Paris to the campsites and then to Chartres. The smaller bag will contain what you need to walk during the day, i.e. your lunch, raincoat, jumpers etc.

How fit do I need to be?

The pilgrimage involves a heavy amount of walking. You therefore need to be reasonably physically fit in order to cope with walking 100km in two and half days. It is gruelling and hard work, but it is not a death march!

Gregory Flash FIJ Chairman.

How do I book?

Francis and Julie Carey run a very successful and reasonably priced package (highly recommended!) for the pilgrimage with coaches, hotels and ferries all included, to book please email Chartres@duc-in-altum.co.uk for further details, or ring 01494 729 223.

Or you can register yourself at:-
http://www.nd-chretiente.com/inscript/index.php?inscript=1

Please contact Gregory Flash at flash@gregory-f.com for this option.

Caring for youth

Fr de Malleray of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter will give a retreat for young people linked with Juventutem (any other youth interested are welcome) at Douai Abbey from 18th to 20th September 2009. For more information, contact Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, 179 Elgar Rd, Reading RG2 0DH, Berks – Tel.: 0118 987 5819 – E-mail: malleray[at]fssp.org. Website: www.fssp.org.uk

A more festive and longer event will take place in France this summer from 18th to 23rd August 2009, when Juventutem will organize an international youth gathering in the medieval Marian shrine of Le Puy-en-Velay (between Saint-Etienne and Clermont-Ferrand). Like Wigratzbad in August 2005, there will be lectures in English, beautiful solemn liturgies and cultural excursions in the breathtaking landscapes of the Massif Central.

There will also be a Juventutem English chapter (accompanied by Fr de Malleray) on the annual pilgrimage to Chartres. This 70-mile traditional pilgrimage from Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris to Notre-Dame cathedral in Chartres is the largest all-walking pilgrimage in the Catholic world. If you haven't done it yet, you may like to consider attending this time and see the 8,000 young people walking and singing canticles, preceded by superb banners and processional crosses, while dozens of clergy from all the "Ecclesia Dei" communities hear confessions, gives spiritual advice and preach. A shorter and smoother itinerary is designed for families, even with pushchairs! The Order of Malta is in charge of the pilgrims' good health, with teams of doctors and nurses (specialized in blisters) posted every 4 miles! Whatever your age if you like walking, we hope to see you amongst British pilgrims: starting on Whitsun Eve (Saturday 30th May 2009), ending on Whit Monday (June 1st, 2009). Please comment here, or contact the FSSP for more information.

(excerpted/adapted from "Dowry", the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter's newsletter for England)