Memories of our trip to Angola

Our time of service as the Responsible Couple for the International Leading Team (ERI) has come to an end. Throughout all our years of service, the Lord has been very generous and we have received many gifts from Him in the form of numerous encounters with Team members from different parts of the world. We can say that these gifts are unending because we really consider our trip to Angola in late March as a great, great gift. We travelled to meet and get to know our African brothers and sisters with the Responsible Couple for the Portugal Super Region, Isabel & Paulo Amaral, the Spiritual Counsellor, Father Armindo Vaz, and those responsible for the Youth Teams of Our Lady, Martha and José.
This trip had been postponed a couple a times because of visa problems. We eventually left, but were a bit worried about the numerous and tiresome mosquitoes, who in the end were actually ‘very nice' inasmuch as they hardly showed their faces!
We visited two towns, the capital Luanda and Caxito, where the amount of Teams is the highest. We were very warmly and affectionately welcomed and were made to feel "at home" everywhere we went. Indeed, by the end of our trip we had adopted local dress!
This was the first time, since the birth of the Teams of Our Lady movement in Angola, that a couple from the International Leading Team had visited the country and for this reason, we were received officially by the bishops in place: Monsignor Franklin, Kahango, Ferreira Lopes and by Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento. They spoke to us about the Church and the challenges it faces in Africa and in Angola. However, what we took away with us was rather the joy that the couples showed in having us amongst them. Their songs and dances that met us upon our arrival made us feel that we were expected and loved.
Our visit to the sanctuary of Mama Muxima, (means Mother Heart in Kimbundu, a Northern Angola language), was a highpoint as we all prayed and sang the Song of Mary (Magnificat) for everyone-for those present and in union with all Team members throughout the world.
One of the goals of this trip was put in place two training days for couples to learn about what the service of Sector and Regional Responsible Couples involved. We were very impressed by the commitment and enthousiasm of those couples who attended.
The extensive development of the Movement in Angola in the past few years is certainly due to the great commitment of all Team members who spread the word. It seems obvious that when someone believes in something, they communicate it with enthousiasm to others. And this is precisely what we saw in Angola. The rapid development of the Movement has also brought with it its share of disorganization and instability of the Teams, but our Angolan brothers are ironing out these challenges with passion and humility. They are also learning from the older Regions and Super Regions as well as placing their confidence in Cristina & Joao Baptista Makenengo, the Regional Couple of the Province.
Our meeting with numerous Team members and with some Spiritual Counsellors, true missionaries of the Good News, meant that this trip was became a celebration of friendship and fraternity which enriched us and for which, once again, we can say our Magnificat to the Lord.

Maria Carla e Carlo Volpini

Logo of the XI International Gathering of the Teams of Our Lady

We are off to Brasilia together!

It has been announced, and here are the details: the next International Gathering in Brazil, result of the "blank page" presented to the meeting of Regional Couples in Rome in January 2009, is at our door:

• The place: Brasilia.
• The dates : 21/26 July 2012.
• The title: To dare to live the Gospel.
• The gospel chosen as the theme: The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10, 25-37)

Another very important sign was born and will accompany us during these next two years: the LOGO for the Gathering, fruit of the work of a Brazilian team-member and selected from among other very beautiful images by the participants at the College of Madrid in 2010. It is a very beautiful image that has several meanings: we invite you to discover them in the enclosed explanatory sheet. Always keep this image in your heart; it is the image that unites us all the way to Brasilia 2012!

We invite you, team-members throughout the world, to start preparing for this journey that will lead us to the XIth International Gathering of our Movement: undoubtedly not everyone will be physically present at the final destination, Brasilia, but all will be able to participate in the lead up stages and share the experience of conversion which is always lived each time one undertakes a journey of the heart and soul.

We strongly desire that the actual participation at the meeting in Brasilia is as large as possible!
This is why we hope that each one of you, coming from all countries of the world, perceives the need and makes the effort to really be present at this extraordinary event that for the first time takes us outside Europe, to Brazil, a country that, among the very first after France, welcomed the message of Father Caffarel with enthusiasm. To be there means basically that the internationality of the Movement will have the face of thousands of team-members who, from each corner of the earth, set about finding themselves around the banquet and at the feast to which the Lord Himself calls us....

We understand that for some couples it will not be easy to plan a distant voyage and "commit" from an economic point of view! But we want to forcibly underline the witness given by fellow team-members from Brazil: their enthusiasm and their love for the Movement moved them to come to the preceding Gatherings in Europe in greater numbers. These team-members did not back away from an economic sacrifice to be able to take part in the International Gatherings of Rome, Fatima, Santiago, and Lourdes: they now await us in their home with joy and anxiety: they await our sharing the same enthusiastic response!

And we also want to stress that all the ERI, and us personally, are convinced that this International Gathering in Brazil, the first non-European one in the history of our Movement, offers us an interpretation and an answer to the signs of times: The youth of the Church, renewal of the Spirit, the strong conversion that requires us to return to the roots of our faith, it should be sought today outside this old Europe which shows all its limitations and its frailty. We are certain that these thoughts are shared by many among you

and that each team-member, each team, each Sector, each Region and each Super-Region will do their utmost so that the XIth International Gathering experiences the greatest participation from all the team-members of the world.

We said that the journey starts as soon as one starts to think about it and to prepare for it: it is there too that expectation starts. Each time something is announced, the expectation also starts. The Gospel is filled with announcements that are followed by expectations. In the same way, each person's life is a permanent expectation because the present alone is not enough for anybody, and we all look to the future, while living the present.
The grain of wheat hidden in the ground during the long winter will grow, because it dreams of the wheat ear to come: it is this image of the future wheat ear that forces the present forwards. How often do we also live the present in a more intense and stronger way because we already see the future?

It is the same for our faith is it not? Isn't it the certainty of a future of eternity with God that gives direction to our present life and invites us to forge ahead in our daily lives?

The XIth International Gathering in Brasilia set for July 2012 therefore starts today, when the meeting becomes for each one of us a call to take part. The time of expectation also starts, a time that, if lived in-depth and with faith, will be a time of renewal and richness for all the movement. The theologian and biblical scholar Bruno Maggioni says that "the temptation for those who seek God is to always confine God's gift to their own expectation: but God does not allow himself to be confined to the expectations of man: he expands them." For this reason the phenomenon of the International Gathering concerns all the team-members of the world and not only those that will take part in it physically. Indeed, it is only through a community walk involving all the team-members of each country of the earth, that the final meeting in Brasilia is bound to be a strong time of faith and meeting with God.

In Brazil, 18 service teams, coordinated by Roberto and Garça Rocha, have been at work for months to best bring about this great event. We express our great thanks to Graça and Roberto and all the couples who with much of love made themselves available for this service.

You will find all the practical information in the dossiers that will follow. But be aware that your Regional and Super-Regional couples will also have all the information at the appropriate time. Also consult the website created for this event where you will find all the updates: www.Brasilia2012.com

Good journey, good cheer and may God bless us all!

Carlo and Maria Carla Volpini Father Angelo Epis

LA FAMILLE : ÉCOLE D'AMOUR
march 2012
Father Angelo Epis
(Extrait de son intervention au Collège de Bogota 2011)

Brasilia 2012: we not only have to meet in a new place; we have to revive and give life-blood to our movement in order to become more and more a movement of formation and reference, as pf. Caffarel wished. It is our vocation in the Church.
Both the life of Fr Caffarel, and the meeting with the first couples has increasingly led to this conviction: "The one and the others had no difficulty in thinking that their vocation was the holiness: holiness appeared to be the talisman of love, the fulfillment both of the married love and the love for Christ. And then the discussion led them to discover in a whole new way the sacrament of marriage, not simply a formality, but a prodigious source of grace: the Christ who comes to save the love that became ill because of the original sin, and who brings aid and enormous graces. " (Chantilly 1987).
F. Caffarel didn't want us only for the exclusive sanctification of individuals or couples. The équipes are made for the world. It would be a useless effort to check in the Scripture for a clear, detailed and direct speech on the couple. This statement can leave one quite surprised and perplexed, but the fact is that in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament, when you talk about a relationship between men and women, it is always to say something about God.
In other words, the Bible is not a moralistic discourse, it makes no pedantic sermon on marriage and sexuality, but through wedding categories it reveals the face and nature of God.
In this way, men and women feel called to realize a model of life only insofar as they look for God and reflect him. It is certainly not without reason that the Lord Jesus asked us to look for the kingdom of God "first" because everything else is given accordingly. Speaking of a couple, today, means to talk about a subject that has gone through a period marked by enormous economic, social, and political changes and that, despite the declaration of dissolution and death of the '60s, has maintained its own structure, stable and shared by the majority. However, we must face up to the gift of God and the complexity of families today and seek answers.
- Evangelizing the family. Perhaps the time has come to refer to a serious and critical examination of how today in many areas of the Church we deal with family problems. Often, the moralistic expectations predominate: there is much talk of moral problems. The moral aspect is often preponderant: we talk about many problems that are more or less linked to God, forgetting that moral behavior is only a consequence of the encounter with God.
Often narrow and suffocating problems of moralistic and devotional character haven't been capable of opening the hearts to the great and varied mission of the family in today's world. A family should not be judged, crowded with thousands of recipes, but evangelized with the love of Christ. An evangelization which bases its roots in a journey of conversion and rootedness in the sacrament of the Covenant. The attachment to Jesus Christ implies a choice of faith, but at the same time it demands to conform your life to the Gospel. The reception of the Word can be only translated into concrete choices of life.
- Becoming the lived Gospel. The problem of how to set your life in harmony with the Gospel is primarily a problem of personal choice. The bride and groom included in that primordial community which is the family, respecting the freedom of its individual components have to ask themselves: "What shall we do? What impression, what style must we give to our life in the family and outside the home? ". While it accepts and shares the religious duties of all Christian families - praying, attending mass, feeling included in the formation of the paths of the community - the "Christian" family chooses and lives with a mark that should characterize the daily life in all its expressions: inside the family as well as outside. This choice, enlightened by faith and the daily dialogue with God, should create an original mark in the relationships between spouses, with children, with the ecclesial and civil community. It should gradually change the relationship with material goods, with money, with time, and with the commitments of everyday life.
- With a style of Christian couple. The style is not a mask that the couple should take to be consistent with its evangelical inspiration: it is rather the result of a gradual transformation that occurs almost spontaneously from the experience of feeling loved by God and to feel that the mutual love between spouses, with children and everybody is to be transformed by this experience. The lifestyle of the Christian couple is the result of an original synthesis between interiority and physicality, it is the expression of our own identity as the result of research, conquest, continual overcomings; "it is a dress "that is woven with the patience of dialogue, with the search for solutions to problems, which also passes through painful conflicts, and provocations that with sometimes become suffered choices. The lifestyle of a Christian family, as St. Augustine says: "becomes a new song ... Whoever can love the new life, can also sing the new song...".
A family that bears inside, in its style of life, the mark of its relationship to the Lord Jesus and his Gospel, is a "new song", a symphony that lights up hope.
More than the denunciations and proclamations that contrast the challenges of the styles of life, which are apparently familiar, the "Christian" family, with the sacrament of a marriage, receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, capable of transforming the spousal love and to open it to the more radical and challenging needs.
- The "resource" of équipes: the spirituality. Even if the family cannot perform specific services in the community, it is important that it meets the essential task of the service, which is to be witnesses to true love: which is embodied by fidelity, patience, forgiveness, service ... in short, a life of communion.
Don Tonino Bello, Bishop of Molfetta, used to express the sense of family, as a resource in the life of the Church in this way: "The family has been designed by God as a Trinity image. Not as a neutral image to be framed in a photo album, but as a provocative image. That pushes men to peace, conviviality, difference ... the family as an branch agency of the of the S. Trinity: a laboratory that produces the same experiences of communion, the family as an icon of the Trinity, as a place where you experience relationships and recover the meaning."
* Spirituality of dialogue: (Duty to sit). It is through the dialogue that lays the salvation for couples and families. Cardinal Tettamanzi wrote, "Dialogue is the emergency of our time ... just look at the plot of solitudes and suffering, fears and hostilities that tear the flesh (of the city), transforming the urban web into an archipelago of small islands, often with no communication among them. "
A dialogue not only "external", but also "inward and spiritual". The space of the relationship with oneself. The dialogue with the other. And with God. Christ, "compass" of the wise man", offered to us as a wonderful example of a man in dialogue" with God and with men. "In the meeting with a person and his mystery, the language of facts is not enough. We also need what we call the language of the heart.
I would like to express a certainty: the dialogue is possible between both languages-- cultures and religions. "Dialogue as a seed, as yeast, is now essential if you want to survive in a time which is broken by antipathy or, worse, hatred." (C. M. Martini).
If the dialogue is a necessity, it is also a pleasure, a challenge, for the quality of our lives depends, to a very high degree, on the words we say and the feelings with which we manifest them. I think this is a task of the individual pairs, but must be extended to the équipes around the world.
* Spirituality of sharing. "If you and me exchange a dollar, we still remain with one dollar each. But if we exchange ideas, you shall have two and me, too." (Dan Zadra).
Exchanging a coin or an object is, in fact, an act that leaves you unchanged and, ultimately, is a sign of selfishness.

Sharing an idea or love is, however, an enrichment: the passage, in fact, means that you still keep your idea or your love, but simultaneously you also give to the other and, thus, we both have become more gifted. Those who live only for the trade will never understand the paradox that Jesus has proposed in a sentence from S. Paul and ignored by the Gospels: "There is more joy in giving than in receiving" (A. 20.35).
There are people, and sadly pairs, families, communities, who have a life full of things, yet empty of serenity and peace, because their relationships are based around the calculation, without understanding that it is the liberty of dialogue or the giving which makes existence full.
The confrontation of ideas, the abandon in love, the intelligent conversation, represent the real paths to enrich the soul and enjoy the beauty of life. Maybe you will rediscover the language of signs, which are more intuitive and more communicative. The Church feels the same discomfort of not knowing how to communicate with the world and new cultures. Perhaps it feels that the communication is not just made of words (to say, to announce...), but of feelings (you first must love the other!), designs (giving signals). But what worries us most is that the lack of communication is eroding the couple and the family, who should provide the most fertile place, free in communication and dialogue.
* Spirituality of pastoral action. (Subject of study) The documents of the Magisterium of the last thirty years, indicate to us the path that leads to value the family as "resource" in pastoral planning. Let's quote the document on the evangelization of the sacrament of marriage, in which we state that, "The spouses by virtue of their ministry are not the only objective to the Church's pastoral concern, but they are also active responsible subjects to the mission of salvation which is accomplished by their words, their actions, and their lives. " (CEI, CSMn.59).
In fact, the council says: "It is the duty of the Church (...) to read the signs of the times through the light of the Gospel (...) and respond to the perennial questions which men have, in the sense of present and future life and their mutual relationship "(GS 4).
One of the strongest expressions of Paul VI, repeated several times by Pope John Paul II, is this one: "the future of the Church and of humanity passes through the family." John Paul II added: "Following Christ who came into the world to serve" (Mat. 20:28), the Church considers serving the family as one of its essential tasks. In this sense, both the man and his family are "the way of the Church" (letter to the families n.2).
If the future of humanity passes through the Family it means that, "Marriage and the Family-- the bishops comment-- are one of the most precious values of mankind and the values of the reality of marriage cannot be renounced."
Our topics of study may not be an exercise in cultural debate; our personal growth is at stake, but also the mission at the service of the Church.
The pair is really a "resource" if it lives its identity and mission on behalf of the entire
Christian community, in a way that is "proper and original" (Familiaris Consortio n. 50).
According to the divine plan, the family is constituted as an "intimate community of life and love" (GS 48), which will be accomplished entirely in the Kingdom of God. In other words, a family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love as live reflection and real participation to the love of God for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord, for the church his bride.
* Eucharistic spirituality and forgiveness. (Prayer and Partage). We gather in our homes to remind us that Jesus ate the Passover, realized the Last Supper, he instituted the sacrament of priesthood, the sacrament of Eucharist, and washed the feet of the apostles in a house. All these mysteries have occurred in the dining room of a house, for which the house-- the family space-- remains a very significant place to build the Kingdom of God. If the family is "small church", "domestic church", it is from how we live at home that our concrete reality of life, illuminated by the daily prayer that we address to God and by the liturgy of communion which prepares us and makes us live the great Sunday communal liturgy.
This tells us that the family is not an appendage of the Church, which organizes and proposes, but it is itself a proactive stimulus because it exists within it.
Space of absolute importance is the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is the Alliance, new and eternal! But, "Alliance" is also the Christian marriage. And precisely the Eucharist Alliance, "then" the source and nourishment of this marital alliance, that is the sharing of this communal-sharing in couples and family. And the "yes of love" of Jesus for the Church. "Yes" spoken on and by the cross, which makes the Church "his bride" forever.
"The two shall become one flesh": this is what is said primarily of Christ and the Church on the cross, what is remembered and repeated in every Eucharist, and it is the substance and foundation of being "one heart and one soul", but only for Christian couples.
The Eucharist is the source of life because it is essentially and fundamentally the food of life;
Jesus says: "I am the bread of life come down from heaven, whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world ... unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man ... you will have no life in you. " Eating this flesh, the couple may be, within its profound truth, the sanctuary of life. The family is there and can only live to give life. God thought of it that way, He who is the God of love and life.
All love cannot be unfruitful, because love needs to spread, to conquest, to renew. So the Christian spouses, at the same time that give birth to children, expressing their fruitfulness materially, give thanks to receive the nourishment that they receive from the Eucharist, and become generators of a renewed humanity, solidarity, joy of living.
The Eucharist is the source of life because it is the memory of the sacrifice of the cross, that is the total self-giving love that Christ gave and gives to all mankind and to the Church. Now, this love and this donation, which is found alive and throbbing in the Eucharist, becomes the only great law of life, for the couple and the Christian family. Interpersonal relations, both inside and outside the family, are inspired and supported by the logic of love and giving.
It is a perpetual "love school" that makes us understand the gesture of the cross: "No one has greater love than this: to offer one's life for their friends" (John 15:12).
Each pair, with time, makes a project and creates a mission inspired and blessed by Jesus himself, who is living in their communion ("The Kingdom of God is among you," Luke 17.21).
God does not unite two people unless they bear good fruits. Of course, in this area, mutual forgiveness is very important.
It is Christ, the source from which we have to draw from, in order to refresh our journey as believers. We have called on him several times over the years! We live our lives on Christ, not only one aspect or another of the method, or on the choice of our lives. The crisis, however, unavoidable in life, can be faced looking at him and starting from him.

Internationales news

Presentation :
The island of Mauritius is located to the Southwest of the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Madagascar. It is a volcanic island that covers 1865 km² and is home to 1.3 million inhabitants. Mauritius gained independence in 1968 from the United Kingdom and sugar, textiles and tourism are its main industries.

Some History :

In the 17th century, the Dutch discovered the island and called it Mauritius. It became a stopping point for produce and products along the route to India. At this time, the Dodo, that legendary bird, became extinct: unable to fly, it was easily captured by sailors searching for fresh meat.
In 1721, the French took possession of the island and christened it Ile de France (Island of France). Slaves were ‘imported' from Madagascar and Africa to work there on the sugar plantations. The French rule ended in a ferocious battle with the British in 1810. The latter renamed it Mauritius and ruled there until independence in 1968. Slavery was abolished in 1835 and workers came from Indian to replace the slaves in the sugar cane fields. There were also several waves of Chinese immigration.

The Current Multi-Ethnic Situation
The composition of the Mauritian population today reflects these past 400 years of history. Descendants of the English or French colonists, African or Madagascan slaves, Indian workers or Chinese business people make up Mauritian society. The Indo-Mauritians are the most important group making up 68 % of the population, of which 52% are Hindu and 16% are Muslim. The mostly Catholic Creoles, descendants of the slaves account for 27% of the population, while the Sino-Mauritians make up 3% and the Franco-Mauritian-Whites from Mauritius complete the final 2%.

The Church :
In 1841 Father Jacques Désiré Laval, a French missionary, arrived on the Island of Mauritius. He revitalised the Mauritian Church, by teaching catechism to groups of slaves and training them to help out at the mission. Today Father Laval's tomb is a highly venerated place where Mauritians of all religions come and pay their respects. When he visited in October 1989, Pope Jean Paul II told the Mauritians, "You know how much I love Father Laval. I love you as much. Continue following his way." Jean Paul II beatified Father Jacques Désiré Laval on April 29th, 1979.

Teams of our Lady :
Today there are 46 Teams spread over 3 sectors in Mauritius. The national Team is made up of Responsible Couples for each sector and a national Spiritual Counsellor. We meet every month and share our joys and the challenges encountered at the sector level.
We pay special attention to developing and nurturing new Teams of young couples. In today's world, a professional career and a social life occupy most of their lives and committing to a church movement is seen as a constraint.
Indeed, young couples find it difficult to adhere to the Charter and prefer not to join a Team. This year, Tandem was introduced and 6 Teams are currently underway.

There are few priests, but fortunately our Spiritual Counsellors are very involved and faithfully accompany their Teams. We are very proud of the solidarity and friendship that emanates from our Teams here. We are terribly lucky to enjoy a great spirit of collaboration between our priests and Team members, all in the service of the Church.

Geneviève et Hervé de Corn