May 31, Feast of the Visitation

Greetings, mes soeurs!

Today on this feast of the Visitation we visited the old Carmel of Lisieux. How special!

Below are photos of places in the old monastery that you will recognize from the photos of that time. Hilary and I were very moved by this experience which we shared with a number of other sisters. However, the photo we asked one of the nuns to take of us in Therese's cell is so dismal that we're embarrassed to post it! So you just have to believe we were there and we prayed for you!

Hallway leading to Therese's room

Therese's cell sans Hilary & Claire

Courtyard where Therese was photographed as a novice

Cloister Walkway around the courtyard

Below: Recreation room off the cloister walkway where Therese was asked to write her autobiography

The infirmary as it was in Therese's time. 

Back at the meeting, we gathered in small groups. 

L to R: Claire-Agnes (Caen), Line-Marie (Compiegne), Veronique (Le Paquier - Switz)

The meeting folders have excellent demographics, website statistics for each page, archival updates etc. We noted that 4 Carmels of the French Federation have closed in the last 6 years. 

The average age is 69. 

FYI: Hilary found our equivalent of Starbucks across the street from the meeting place. We made a B-line there for an afternoon pick-up. I always leave it to Hilary to practice her French on sales-persons. She is amazing at ordering cafe au laits - believe me! She also paid her first bill in euros. 

Daniel Chowning began the first part of his talk tonight entitled Ongoing Formation of the human person according to St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. Excellent! I shall ask him if we can share it. 

Bonne Nuit and Happy Feast!

Monday, May 30th

Today began the Federal Assembly. But before then, we all gathered in the very lovely Chapel of the Virgin of the Smile (it is her figure which outlines the Blessed Sacrament in the center) for 45 minutes of contemplative prayer.

The title of the Assembly is: The Transmission of the Beauty of our Vocation! 

Michelina Tenance, an Italian theologian living in France for the last 20 years, gave several talks throughout the day interspersed with small group sharing. Hilary and I were helped with translation.
Sr. Miryam of the Molineuf Carmel typed notes in French into Google Translator and they appeared in English in the box to the right...amazing! In this way I could follow quite easily.

There are 71 Carmelite sisters participating in the meeting: 62 from the French Federation and 9 international guests from Africa, Germany, UK, Belgium and the good 'ole USA. 

The presentations by the international sisters will be at the end of Wed. morning and the beginning of Wed. afternoon. After that the assembly will begin closed discussions re: elections. Hilary and I alan to use that break to walk up to Les Buissonnets (the home of St. Therese). 

I thought we were pretty techy preparing a PowerPoint translated into French for our little presentation. But when Sr. Mary from the UK (Ware Carmel) said they are doing a Google bobblehead presentation (or something like that!) I knew we were still in the dark ages. 

L. Hilary and Sr. Marie-Paule (her translator) from Mazille, France




Below: L to R
Sr. Mary (Ware, UK)
Sr. Francis (Maryton, UK)
Sr. Juliane from Mazille, France

There are a good number of younger sisters attending the Fed. Mtg for the 1st time. YES!

Meeting Room

Sr. Christine has been greeted by all the sisters of CCA and returns her love 100 fold!

Below: the meeting room was transformed into a concert hall this evening when we were treated to a spiritual concert of Hebraic Songs.  I do not know the story behind the choir but it was very touching that they came to sing for us. Christine thanked them at the end of the program and we sang the Salve Regina to close the evening. 

I will close with some photos Hilary took of l'ermitage, the retreat house where we are staying. 

You are all very much in our hearts and prayers!!! 

Corpus Christi Sunday, Lisieux

After a L O N G sleep, Hilary and I met Srs. Christine and Marie Jo arriving at the retreat center, helped them stuff folders and then made a desperate foray for coffee. The first shop we stopped at was a bar/coffee/horse-betting place. Leave it to the Reno-ite to find a gambling joint for coffee! We found another place in a French bakery that held the promise of goodies along with the coffee!


Arriving back at the monastery we found a group of people setting up an outdoor space for the reception of the Blessed Sacrament from the Basilica later that day. They created a 'carpet' of crosses using what appeared to be colored grass/hay which several women arranged for hours. Life-size figurines of the Martin family were placed along-side the pathway. Therese here is the baby!



Visiting the monastery chapel later in the afternoon we discovered they were having exposition for most of the day.
see (chapel photos
L & R)

The tomb of St. Therese is just to the right of the chapel and all day long people come to make a visit there. Today we saw 2 little girls come in who had just made their first communion...little white dresses and crowns of flowers...future St. Thereses? 

The opening Eucharist was celebrated in the Monastery Chapel ...

followed by dinner...

Thanks to Claudette's determined coaching, Hilary has been heroically making out in French while Claire's jaw hangs low in amazement! Congratulations, Claudette!
We're in Europe. The first meeting session started at 8:30pm. Pray for us now and at the hour of....

Bonne Nuit from the 2 US Zombies! 

May 27 - 28, 2016

Bonjour, mes Soeurs!!

Here we are - ready to board the flight in Boston.
Not only did we arrive in France - we figured out how to do a blog again! Another miracle of
Therese ...

The taxi driver who met us in Paris texted us a photo of his vehicle to help us identify him. It worked!


We are the first arrivals for this meeting. Having reached Lisieux around 11:30 am, we made a quick visit to the Monastery chapel next door to the retreat center, where we gave thanks for our safe crossing of the pond. As usual, there were hundreds of children touring the Monastery, which, as you all know, is a place of pilgrimage. Devotion to St. Therese continues to flourish!

Below is the lovely little chapel at the retreat center.

Claire took a walk in the afternoon and happened upon a parade! We thought maybe it was in celebration of our arrival. :)

We were delighted to learn that tomorrow on the feast of Corpus Christi there will be a procession of the Blessed Sacrament from the Basilica of St. Therese to the Monastery, followed by exposition in the Monastery chapel. 

Tomorrow we get to experience the 'other side' of what it means to be an international guest. 

We are very mindful of each of our CCA communities and are keeping you in our prayers with much love! 

Bonne Nuit!!

Hilary and Claire