Cer e mo nies in Honor of the Tri umph of the Cross

Transcription

1 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october Triduum of the Com mu nity of the Lady of All Peo ples at Spiri-Maria, Sep tem ber 14-16, 2007 Cer e mo nies in Honor of the Tri umph of the Cross On the oc ca sion of the feast of the Tri umph of the Cross, a triduum of prayer was held at the Eucharistic and Mar ian Cen ter Spiri- Maria from Fri day eve ning, Sep tem ber 14 to Sunday, Sep tem ber 16. A few days be fore these cer e mo nies, the big blow an nounced by Heaven for the Mar ian Work struck with the ex com mu ni ca tion of Pa - dre Jean-Pi erre, of the priests he or dained, of the mem bers who at tended those or di na tions and of those who con tinue to par - tic i pate in the Work. And yet, there was not an at mo sphere of sad ness dur - ing this triduum which brought to gether, over three days, al most four thou sand Knights of Mary, some of whom had come from Eu - rope (France, Bel gium, the Neth er lands) to join our mem bers from var i ous Ca na - dian prov inces and the United States. These Knights of Mary are se renely con tin u - ing on their way, cer tain that God is act ing within this Work which He Him self is guid ing, and who al ways con sider them selves to be mem bers of the Church, the re newed Church of Pe ter, that is to say, the Church of John, the Church of Love. We are in God s hands, de sir ous of ac - com plish ing His will by be ing faith ful to His plan of love for the world. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 The Hu man Cross The triduum be gan on Fri - day eve ning with a pro gram that fo cussed on the Tri umph of the Cross, the li tur gi cal feast of the day, and the date which, this year, marked the 86th birth day of our Found - ress, Mother Paul-Ma rie. On be half of this lat ter, Fa - ther Denis Laprise wel comed ev ery one by re mind ing us of the sig nif i cance of the re - deem ing cross. Fol low ing in the foot steps of the Lord and the Co-Redemptrix, it is nec - es sary for us to pass through death in or der to know Life. The flag of the Church of John was borne in pro ces - sion by Jean-Charles Gingras, fol lowed by some twenty young boys each car - ry ing a small rep lica of the flag and by Misaël Rodrigue car ry ing the coat of arms of the Army of Mary which sym - bol izes the tri um phant cross, a sign of the tri umph of the Im mac u late Heart of Mary. We united our selves to some twenty young girls who of fered their crown to Mary while the choir sang My Crown I of fer Thee, which is a re minder of the of fer ing we made of our selves to our Mother in heaven and which we re newed at this hour of tran si tion, this turn ing point. This was fol lowed by con - fer ences, be gin ning with Sis - ter Jeanne d Arc who gave us the tes ti mo ni als of a few peo - ple whose lives were trans - formed when they joined the Army of Mary, and who rep - re sent some of the fruit picked from this tree. Lay peo ple, re li gious and priests, young peo ple and the el - derly, the sick and those in good health, all unan i mously af firm that their fer vor has in - creased, that their faith is deeper, or that suf fer ing has taken on a more pos i tive sig - nif i cance, etc. Fa ther Benoît Picard fol - lowed up on this theme by de - scrib ing the spir i tual ben e fits ex pe ri enced by souls fol low - ing in the wake of the Army of Mary. Con ver sions have mul ti plied and a great work of re gen er a tion is on the march. Through our con se - cra tion to Mary, we are called to par tic i pate in it. Sev en teen young men and women formed a hu man cross in the nave in the front, and the as sem bly re newed to gether its con se cra tion to Mary, re call ing a cer e mo nial that was used in the first years af ter the found ing of the Army of Mary to sig nify that the mem bers were com - mit ting them selves in a Work of Co-Re demp tion. The choir sang the very mov ing hymn The Cru ci fix by Jean-Baptiste Faure. It was fol lowed by a com men - The hu man cross tary on this hymn writ ten by Ma rie-paule in 1953 for a lo - cal pa per in which she signed a spir i tual let ter box col umn. Véronique Buyse from Bel - gium read this text to us in which our Found ress un der - lined the mis sion of vic tim souls who suf fer to com pen - sate [for those who stray] and ap pease God s an ger. Souls cho sen by God for so much gen er os ity, cou ra - geously raise your heads, smile bravely..., go be fore the cru ci fix; a few min utes of med i ta tion, and you will get up again strength ened and with greater cour age to sup - port the trial. Jean-Ga briel Michaud ex - plained the mean ing of these words said by the Lord as of the found ing of the Mar ian Work: THE ARMY OF MARY WILL BE REC OG NIZED BY THIS SIN GLE TRAIT: ITS FI - DEL ITY TO ROME AND TO THE POPE. Our fi del ity to the Church of Christ has been in ces - santly up held and it is still up - held. To day we un der stand that by these words Heaven was fore tell ing the new Rome that would be es tab - lished in Que bec about the Found ress of the Army of Mary, af ter the Church of Pe - ter re jected the Church of John. The di vine plans were re vealed lit tle by lit tle through God s ac tion as He ex pected from a soul ab so lute obe di - ence to His de mands in or der to bring His plan of love to ful - fill ment for the re newal of the Church of Pe ter through the ac tion of Mary Im mac u late. Thus, in this time which is our time, the fi del ity to Rome and to the Pope to which the mem bers of the Army of Mary are called is also a fi del ity to the new Rome and to the Lady of All Peo ples who has come to of fer the ter res trial King dom to hu man ity. by Sylvie PAYEUR RAYNAULD Marc Bosquart s Think ing on Excommunication Marc Bosquart ex pressed his thoughts on the ex com - mu ni ca tion im posed upon the Army of Mary (see page 4), end ing his mes sage with these words: Alas, it would seem that the Church pre ferred the let - ter of its ec cle si as ti cal laws to the spirit of sal va tion which was Christ s in tent twenty cen tu ries ago and still is to - day. Let us re peat it: this is se ri ous. And the Church, in lock ing it self in its Church logic, with its se ver ity and its ob du racy, can not see that the mys ti cism of the King - dom is al ready suc ceed ing it, and that this mys ti cism is shat ter ing all the bar ri ers and break ing through all the bound aries of the past. Its blind ness is con demn ing it; it has just pro hib ited its own ac - cess to this King dom of light and peace which Christ, through Ma rie-paule, has come to bring to us. Our Found ress has shown us how to win this King dom: through the cross will ingly ac cepted with love. That is what Sis ter Su zanne Palud re called for us as she read a mes sage from Mother Paul- Ma rie: To love, no mat ter what hap pens, our Found - ress wrote, is to be able one day to live in joy. In ac cept ing the cross it is to be found in ev ery life and in of fer ing it as ev i dence of our love to Him who has re deemed us, we learn to look be yond the sor row ful events and to place them within a con text of peace, cel e bra tion and joy. EUCHARISTIC CONCELEBRATION This was fol lowed by the cel e bra tion of Mass pre sided over by Fa ther Rémi Tremblay and concelebrated by 30 priests. The hom ily was given by Fa ther Bruno Ruel who em pha sized how the cross be comes glo ri ous or tri um phant. The Cross, he told us, is the door through which the ex change of love from man to God and from God to man in Je sus Christ takes place... The Cross is the sum mit of the gift of love,

2 6 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october 2007 Eucharistic concelebration pre sided over by Father Rémi Tremblay. of obe di ence to the Fa ther to the point of fac ing the gib bet, of giv ing one s life for oth ers unto death... When a be liever looks at a cru ci fix, he sees the im age of his King who, for love of him, has been vic to ri ous over ha tred, sin and death. Res ur - rec tion is the fruit of the Cross and the Cross be comes the tree of the knowl edge of God, and this to the end, there where Mercy opens its hand to reach out to the sin ner. Fa ther Bruno went on to say that in Christ s vic tory over death, there hides an - other vic tory, one prom ised from the very be gin ning of hu man ity, which is rel a tive to and de pends upon the ini tial vic tory of Christ, a vic tory which must give the King dom of the To tal Earth back to hu - man ity. Can we not see ris ing anew the stan dard of the Cross which must be planted at the cen tral point of the world? Yes, the Cross of Christ, of the To tal Christ, for, just as the Re demp tion was wrought and ac com plished through the Cross, so too the Co-Re demp tion must fol low the same path. Was it not on the Cross, from the open side of the New Adam asleep in death, that was be got ten the New Eve, the Co- Redemptrix, this helper born from His flesh and blood, this Daugh ter born from the two fold Fiat of the Son and of the Mother? And the Lady shows her - self to us be fore the Cross, arms ex tended, in a ges ture of in vi ta tion. Can we not see in her hands the marks left by the nails which bear wit ness to the fact that she too has been ex alted on the Cross of Christ the Re deemer and that, through Him, with Him, and in Him, at this time, she wants to draw all hu man ity, all the peo ples, to the only rem edy that gives it back life and free dom? Let us not be afraid of the Cross, this cru ci ble through which the great work of the trans mu ta tion of our lives and of all hu man ity into di vine life takes place. Thus, all of us will be in cluded with Je sus in the same mys tery of di vine filiation. As Saint Paul said: In my es ti ma tion, all that we suf fer in the pres ent time is noth ing in com par i son with the glory which is des tined to be dis closed for us, for the whole cre ation is wait ing with ea ger ness for the chil dren of God to be re vealed. Pa dre Jean-Pi erre s Mes sage Be fore the fi nal bless ing, Pa dre Jean-Pi erre com - mented on the act of ex com - mu ni ca tion of the mem bers of the Army of Mary and set forth the sit u a tion of the Work. An of fi cial con dem na tion of all the mem bers of the Army of Mary for her esy, that con tains so lit tle in the way of ex plicit in for ma tion and is with out pos si bil ity of ap peal, which to tally dis re gards the mys ti cal di men sion of the Work and the unique mis sion of the One whom Heaven chose to be the Co- Redemptrix, can only as ton - ish us, from a hu man point of view... These ac cu sa tions do not take into ac count, in any way, the in ter ven tions from Heaven which were re - counted so of ten in the pa per Le Royaume as well as in the other pub li ca tions of the Work, any more than the many ex pla na tions given over the years by the Of fi cers of the Work and of the Com - mu nity in or der to re fute so many false and un founded ac cu sa tions. If the or di na tions to the diaconate or the priest hood be ing re proached us had been the re sult of a hu man will, we could only have said that those who con demn us to day in the name of Pe ter, even if they know us very lit tle or not at all, were right. But the or di na tions, just like the prov i den tial events which led us to them, were con ferred by rea son of a di - vine in di ca tion and in ac cor - dance with the con di tions dic tated from On-High, at a time and in a man ner which nei ther the Found ress nor any other mem ber of the Work could ever have imag - ined... Even if, at this time, the Church au thor i ties, in Pe ter s name, are con demn ing the Work and ex com mu ni cat ing us, we are al ways part of the Church of Pe ter, for in our soul and con science, we do not re ject any thing of the trea sury of its faith... Thank you for not har - bour ing any bit ter ness or re - sent ment to wards the au - thor i ties who have just made pub lic their Dec la ra tion against the mem bers of the Army of Mary. With out re al iz ing it, these au thor i ties find them selves at war not against a sim ple move ment, but rather against a Work of God and there fore against God Him - self and against the One He chose to be our Co- Redemptrix, our Mediatrix and our Ad vo cate for all the time of the King dom. Let us be happy and grate ful for all that God, through the Lady, wishes or per mits for us at this time. In all hon esty, what is im - por tant is not the fact that we are ei ther ap proved or con - demned by men, re gard less of how im por tant they may be, but the fact of ad vanc ing to the very end in the faith ful and lov ing search for God s will in the light of the signs that are be ing ful filled and which, in this hour of the End, are fall ing upon us from the Lady s pierced hands in the form of Grace, Re demp tion and Peace. Have con fi dence, cour - age and love, al ways! May God and the Lady bless you and keep you. Fa ther Eric Roy s Mes sage Fa ther Eric Roy also had a mes sage for us in which he ex plained the pres ent sit u a - tion. From the Church s point of view, we are all ex com mu - ni cated for two de licts: that of schism and that of her esy. But how can we be ac - cused of be ing schis matic when the very mis sion of the Com mu nity and the Lady of All Peo ples is to bring to - gether all peo ples into one sin gle Com mu nity? The only pos si ble ex pla na tion is that the au thor i ties of the Church have not yet un der stood or do not want to un der stand or ac cept that this is what God wants for our time. More over, it is rather strange to be ac - cused of her esy when the Church s doc trine has not yet been de fined in this mat ter. In fact, nor mally, a her e tic is some one who is op posed to a well-es tab lished and wellfor mu lated truth of the faith. Since we have not re jected any thing of the trea sury and the her i tage of the Cath o lic faith, how can we be her e - tics? It was in peace, joy and es pe cially thanksgiving that we re ceived this dec la ra tion, for God has guided His Work from the very be gin ning, and re cently we were told that heaven is with us and it is with us to stay, es pe cially in this time of the Co-Re demp - tion. Any one who speaks of Co-Re demp tion can not speak of any thing else but the cross. It is there, firmly planted at the cen ter of ev ery life in one form or an other, but we re main at peace, for we know that in ac cept ing it and of fer ing it, it can help us as we climb up the road of pu ri fi ca - tion. It is quite likely that, in the days to come, this cross will pres ent it self to you in the form of del i cate sit u a tions, as much within your fam i lies as within your re spec tive workplaces and daily life. Through all of this, we as sure you that, what ever hap pens, the Sons of Mary, and es pe - cially the priests, will be pre - pared to do all that is nec es - sary so that your spir i tual and sac ra men tal life will not be de prived of its es sen tial re - quire ments such as the Eu - cha rist, con fes sion and spir i - tual di rec tion. Ap pro pri ate di - rec tives will be given to you as sit u a tions de velop. Those di rec tives will be passed on to you by your lo cal or re - gional Of fi cers. Un til then, let us con tinue to live our lives nor mally as we have done in the past. That is how the first part of our triduum ended, as Heaven gives us the honor of as so ci at ing us with the cross of the Co-Redemptrix which, for the time be ing, is pain ful, but which one day will be glo - ri ous. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 Ceremony in Honor of Motherhood On Sat ur day, Sep tem ber 15, a day of prayer in honor of the fam ily, Fa ther Maurice Péloquin trans mit ted Mother Paul-Ma rie s wel come and greeted in a spe cial way the moth ers in our midst, es pe - cially those who were with child and who would par tic i - pat e in the morn ing pro gram. The flag of the Lady of All Peo ples with the ti tle The Fam ily, was borne in pro - ces sion by Denis Fournier, the fa ther of six chil dren. He was fol lowed by his son Charles who car ried the coat of arms of the Fam ily of the Sons and Daugh ters of Mary. Sylvie Payeur Raynauld read a text en ti tled I Am She [ Celle ] Who Am in the Di vine Trinity, recalling Mary s words at Three Foun tains close to Rome in She

3 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october quoted an ex cerpt from the Con sti tu tions of the Com mu - nity of the Lady of All Peo ples in which Mother Paul-Ma rie ex plained who Celle is: The Woman, whose role was pre dicted in Gen e sis and the Apoc a lypse, who came a first time to give Christ to the world, He who through His su preme sac ri - fice opened the eter nal King - dom to it ; this same Woman who must re turn to pre pare the way for Christ the King, Celle who has re turned in her SOUL and in her SPIRIT, as she can re turn through all Mar ian souls, ac cord ing to Saint Louis Ma rie Grignion de Montfort who had an - nounced that souls pos sess - ing the spirit of Mary would ren der Mary pres ent on earth. Our Found ress is the pro to type of all those souls. Young peo ple came to of - fer dai sies to the Lady of All Peo ples. Emilie Lavigne laid a crys tal daisy on the al tar, and she was fol lowed by some fifty young girls and boys who put dai sies on the al tar and on a small ta ble be - fore the statue of the Lady of All Peo ples. The en try of the chil dren car - ry ing dai sies to the Lady. The Role of the Woman Charism to Love Ga bri elle Gi rard spoke to us of the role of the woman who is spir i tual and the in - spirer and the com ple ment of the man, and of her apostolate. In the Army of Mary so many women ac - com plished a tre men dous apostolate, in great hu mil ity and count ing on Mary s help; women who have suf fered much, be cause a fruit ful apostolate de pends, above all, on a life of mer its, with the help of God s grace. The man is also called. All, men and women, im - bued with the spirit of the Gos pel, go for ward un der Mary s ban ner. But the men, both re li gious and lay, whom we ad mire for their un der - stand ing, their open ness of spirit in a fruit ful ap os tolic ac - tion, will soon con trib ute their full mea sure, stirred by the power of the True Spirit. Fa ther Gilles Devaux spoke of the woman s charism to love and of the spir i tu al ity of the cou ple. The heart of the heart of the cou ple is the mother, that woman who be - comes a wife and mother, as much phys i cally as spir i tu - ally. He re minded us of what Mother Paul-Ma rie wrote in her book The Ho sanna of Life. Woman has a place of great im por tance in the di - vine plan, as have, through Mary, all those women who are con se crated to Her, whether they have al ways re - mained faith ful or have been re stored to grace. The role that has de volved on her does not usurp man s place; this role is source, is the me - di a tion of love; it is the el e va - tion of the soul, in spi ra tion with a view to hu man iza tion, spiritualization, equi lib rium, to the up lift ing of the world, while she re mains up right at the foot of the cross. God has given to woman a charism of love; it is the role proper to her to of fer, to wel come, to be un der stand ing, to en lighten, to pro tect, to ap pease, to con sole, to sup port, to serve, and thus to give and to give of self. And above all, is she not called upon to give life? This mystical priest - hood, which is that of ev ery bap tized per son, must be lived first of all by the woman in or der for it to be passed on to com ing gen er a tions, to the end that each one may give him self or her self, in his or her turn, to the ser vice of love which we owe to God and to oth ers. Fa ther Gillles shared with us an ex cerpt from the let ter Pope John Paul II ad dressed to women on June 29, 1995, in which this lat ter un der lined their dif fer ent roles of mother, wife, daugh ter, sis ter, con se - crated woman. And the Holy Fa ther con cluded: Thank you, ev ery woman, for the sim ple fact of be ing a woman! Through the in sight which is so much a part of your wom an hood you en rich the world s un der stand ing and help to make hu man re - la tions more hon est and au - then tic. Fol low ing Pope John Paul II, Fa ther Gilles con - cluded, we can ad dress our thanks to the Woman-Im - mac u late, Mary, for the gift of Christ to the world. Fi nally, thank you to you, Ma rie- Paule, our Mother, still on this earth, for the gift of this Work of Love, for the gift of the Church of John which is lead - ing us in its golden ves sel to the great Com mu nity of the Lady. Saint Anne and Mama Laura The young Cécile Mi - chaud car ried a statue to the The three gen er a tions: Saint Anne, Mary and the In fant Je sus. al tar that was quite par tic u lar: Saint Anne is car ry ing the Vir gin Mary who is hold ing Je sus. This statue, of fered to Mother Paul-Ma rie as the triduum was be ing pre pared, was quite ap pro pri ate since Saint Anne is in voked as the help of moth ers and the pro tec tress of chil dren. In Life of Love, the Lord com pared Mama Laura (Ma - rie-paule s mother) to Saint Anne. Anne-Catherine Gi - guère, Maman Laura s great grand daugh ter, shared with us a few bio graph i cal notes on Mama Laura, a woman of an ad mi ra ble great ness of soul and gen er os ity. In 1958, the Lord said to Ma rie-paule in ref er ence to Mama Laura: Be hold your holy mother, my child, who has fol lowed your cal vary with out ut ter ing a word, like my Mother. Her vir tues are ex traor di nary and please me so in that sim plic - ity which is char ac ter is tic of her. Like me, you will say to her one day: Mother, be hold your chil dren... these chil - dren who have been brought into be ing by him who has been the chief tor men tor of your daugh ter. Take them, for they are now your chil dren. The Fam ily Fol low ing the cer e mo nies of last May-June, Marielle Delisle wrote a note to Mother Paul-Ma rie to tell her of the deep emo tion and peace felt dur ing those days which left her with the de sire to draw al ways closer to God. She read this let ter to us in which she thanked her fam ily and her hus band s fam ily, par ents and grand - par ents, for the priv i lege of be long ing to this Mar ian Work, with out for get ting its Found ress: Thank you, Ma - rie-paule, for your Life of Love and for the two White Books. They are trea sures open ing up be fore our eyes. The light is in front of us and we will fol low it with you. It is on our knees that we re peat our thanks to you for your Fiat; thanks for sav ing us! Myriam Laprise spoke to us of Life To gether Un der the Eyes of God, a life which blos soms forth by giv ing life. Who can un der stand the mys tery of preg nan cies? For the role of an au then tic mother far sur passes what is per cep ti ble to the eye. Freed from the day s tasks, she con tin ues dur ing the night, in an at ten tive rec ol lec tion, by es tab lish ing an in ti mate ex - change in her soul with God, thus ren der ing pos si ble a vast hu man com mu nion, the riches of which will be come an op por tu nity to of fer and to love. Marc Bosquart pre sented the mys tery of the con cep tion of our three bod ies phys i - cal, psy chic and spir i tual. First of all, life, which is the first and uni ver sal ex pres sion of the di vine, is trans mit ted by the un ion of man and woman, agents of Cre ation, the links in a chain that is be - ing built from cen tury to cen - tury and day af ter day. Then, there is the in te gra tion of the first soul (the psy chic body) which de vel ops be fore the in te gra tion of the sec ond soul (the spir i tual body) takes place. Thus are cre - ated the three bod ies of which Ma rie-paule speaks in these terms in Life of Love: Ev ery mother await ing a child should un der stand just to what ex tent the child who is to be born de vel ops mor ally [psy chic body] and spir i tu ally [spir i tual body], just as it does phys i cally [phys i cal body]. (Life of Love, vol. II, p. 410) Marc also de scribed to us the mystical possibilities of chil dren, es pe cially once they are bap tized. Un for tu - nately, in the world in which we live, there oc curs, more of ten, a sort of sti fling of the spir i tual brought about by the re quired ad ap ta tion of the be ing to his mi lieu. When this mi lieu is not good, then the whole of one s spir i tual life may be com pro mised and dis solve, giv ing way to a sort of en gulf ment of the en - tire hu man be ing in the phys i - cal and the psy chic... For tu - nately, in the fu ture, when the King dom will be well es tab - lished, the sit u a tion will be quite dif fer ent. The world will have changed, the pri or i ties will be re versed, the ascendency of the phys i cal and the psy chic will be re - duced in pro por tion to the in - creased im por tance granted the spir i tual. Twenty-five moth ers-tobe, wear ing a golden cape over their white dresses, con - se crated to Mary Im mac u late the child they bear, ask ing the Lady of All Peo ples bless ing on them. They also rep re sented some forty other moth ers-tobe who would have liked to be pres ent but whose fam ily com mit ments obliged them to stay home.

4 8 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october 2007 Testimonial of Céline Devaux and Guy Chamberland A mov ing tes ti mo nial was given by Céline Devaux and her hus band, Guy Cham - berland. This young woman who is a doc tor ex plained her med i cal his tory to us, in which we could ad mire the in - ter ven tion of Prov i dence. Af ter a first ectopic preg - nancy in 2001 (the em bryo be ing im planted in the right fal lo pian tube, Céline al most lost her life be cause of a de - lay in di ag no sis), she wrote to Céline Devaux and Guy Chamberland dur ing their testimonial at Spiri-Maria on Sep tem ber 15, 2007 Ma rie-paule and they ex - changed let ters, with Sis ter Micheline also act ing as an in ter me di ary when re quired. Here is the tes ti mo nial of a young fam ily des tined to in - fertility. Five Preg nan cies and A Quin tet! Céline: May God bless the trio and may He grant that it be - come a quin tet! That was the prayer Mother Paul-Ma rie ad - dressed to God in one of the writ ten mes sages we shared with her when we were hop ing to see our fam ily in crease. In fact, at that time, we formed a trio com posed of our dear nat u ral daugh ter, Élodie, 3½ years old, my hus band Guy and my self. We were wait ing for a baby of Ko rean or i gin whom we wanted to adopt, and our hearts burned with the de sire to have other chil dren. What fol lows in this ac count is meant to be a tes ti mo - nial of grat i tude to God who, in His great love and mercy, de - sired to ful fill us with splen did graces. PRO TEC TION FROM HEAVEN Guy and I were united by the bonds of mar riage on June 24, At that time, we were far from think ing that es tab lish ing a fam ily could some times be so dif fi cult. Ten months later, to my great sur prise, I was preg nant, but it was n t long be fore con cern ac com pa nied this preg nancy. In fact, from the very first days, there was light bleed ing as well as ab dom i nal pain. Fear ing the worst, I con sulted a gy ne col o - gist who did not seem to be too con cerned, given that the blood tests showed that the preg nancy hor mones were in - creas ing nor mally, How ever, an ob stet ri cal ul tra sound did not show the pres ence of a foe tus in the uterus, which some times hap pens at the very be gin ning of a preg nancy. In the days that fol lowed, the preg nancy hor mones con tin ued to in crease nor - mally, which falsely re as sured the doc tor con sulted. A week went by be fore the ab dom i nal pain got worse. One Sat ur day eve ning, we went rap idly to emer gency, think ing that this might be an ectopic preg nancy, that is to say, a preg - nancy that had not at tached it self in the proper place in the uterus, some thing which can be very dan ger ous for a preg - nant woman. That preg nancy which is thus in a fal lo pian tube can rup ture and some times cause a fa tal hem or rhage. I was aware of this di ag no sis since I my self am a doc tor, but, not be - ing a gy ne col o gist, I was try ing to trust my med i cal col leagues who were all quite re as sur ing. But I was be com ing in creas ingly wor ried be fore the symp - toms that were show ing up, and al though they all tried to re as - sure me, I begged Guy to take me quickly to an other hos pi tal emer gency. I must say that Guy was also wor ried, for he seemed to have been warned through a very spe cial grace that this preg nancy would not go well. So he quickly drove me to the Jew ish Gen eral Hos pi tal in Mon treal, where, once again, the doc tor on call at Emer gency wanted to be re as sur - ing. Guy: It was only the fol low ing morn ing that an other ob stet ri cal ul tra sound showed the pres ence of a eight-week-old em bryo im planted in the right fal lo pian tube. So Celine was im me di - ately rushed to the op er at ing room where it was re al ized that this ectopic preg nancy was about to rup ture. It was only when she awoke that she re al ized heaven s pro tec tion, for it would not have taken much more for a hem or rhage to oc cur. In spite of ev ery thing, we thanked God and we wrote to Ma - rie-paule to men tion the grace of pro tec tion re ceived in spite of the de lay in di ag no sis. In fact Celine was in bed 555 which made us smile in wardly. Fur ther more, she was op er ated on Holy Sat ur day, dur ing the Pas chal Vigil of the year 2001, as her brother, Fa ther Gilles, was, for the first time, the main cel e - brant of Mass here at Spiri-Maria, and with out his know ing what we were go ing through in that same night. MA RIE-PAULE S IN TER VEN TION ÉLODIE S BIRTH More than a year then went by and we were await ing in vain the next preg nancy, know ing that dur ing the emer gency sur - gery, the left fal lo pian tube had been de scribed as be ing nor - mal. Céline: In July 2002, we saw Ma rie-paule af ter Mass in her apart ment at the Res i dence of the Lady. I wanted to ask her to pray and to touch my ab do men for our in ten tion, but I was too shy to do so. How ever, Guy took the ini tia tive and made the re quest. To my great as ton ish ment, Ma rie-paule touched my ab do men in a warm and kind ges ture and it even seemed to me that she was happy to re quest this grace for us. She even warned us, teas ingly, not to re gret it if af ter wards the fam ily be came rather nu mer ous, in ref er ence to the fam ily of Mr. and Mrs. Arsenault who had sev eral chil dren af ter she had done the same thing for them. In an al most in cred i ble man ner, I be came preg nant within that same month and on April 11, 2003, I gave birth to our first daugh ter, called Elodie. We are still giv ing thanks for this sub - lime gift from heaven. Af ter six months of breast feed ing, I had the feel ing that we should not wait be fore try ing for an other preg nancy. My de sire to have an other child was al ready pres ent, but to no avail, for the months went by and there was still no baby in sight. So I went to an in fer til ity clinic and I first be gan by fol low ing a treat - ment per mit ted by the Church for the overstimulation of the ova ries, but it was un suc cess ful. Acu punc ture ses sions were also tried. Fi nally, af ter hav ing un der gone a whole bat tery of tests, in - clud ing mi nor sur gery (lap a ros copy), the spe cial ists re al ized that the two fal lo pian tubes were ab nor mal. On the right, be - cause of the pre vi ous emer gency sur gery, there was no lon - ger any tube, but only scar tis sue. On the left, the fal lo pian tube ap peared to be al most nor mal from the out side, but there was an in ter nal ob struc tion which they had been un able to by - pass dur ing the di ag nos tic in ter ven tion. The di ag no sis was de fin i tive; I suf fered from a sec ond ary in fer til ity, and I left the hos pi tal in tears ac com pa nied by my good mother who, I must say, never be lieved that Heaven would not hear our prayers. How had Elodie been con ceived? I have no idea if the ob - struc tion of the left tube was al ready pres ent then, for I had not un der gone all the tests. How ever, I sin cerely be lieve in an ex - traor di nary grace from Heaven by rea son of how all the events un folded. The two years that fol lowed were filled with a search for treat ments and be seech ing prayers. I even asked Ma rie- Paule to touch my ab do men once again. Al though she did so with kind ness, I felt a bit of hes i ta tion on her part; I think she knew that it was not nec es sary to re peat this ges ture and that God s hour had not yet come. She ex horted us to aban don - ment and the of fer ing of our suf fer ing. In my sad ness and in a mo ment of dis cour age ment, we were also tempted, un for tu nately, to take steps for an in-vi tro fer til iza tion (test tube ba bies), and it was in writ ing to Ma rie- Paule and Sis ter Micheline that, with the grace of God, we aban doned that ini tia tive. It is ob vi ous that we fi nally opted for life rather than the death of sev eral em bryos through this tech - nique. Af ter that weak ness, God s mercy flowed over us. I must ad mit that my con fi dence was of ten shaky in spite of the graces al ready re ceived, but Guy never once lost hope. Guy: So, in 2005, we took steps to adopt a lit tle Ko rean girl and as the adop tion pro ce dures were go ing well, we were ex - pect ing her dur ing the sum mer of FALSE JOYS In the mean time, Céline con tin ued to search for a med i cal treat ment. She un der went two di la tions of the fal lo pian tubes by means of ra di ol ogy tech nol ogy. The first had worked at the time but for only a short pe riod of time; dur ing the sec ond in ter - ven tion, an other block age was dis cov ered at an other level which was once again ren dered per me able, but for an un de - ter mined pe riod of time. Af ter a few months, she still was not preg nant. Fi nally, in the spring of 2006, a last spe cial ist of fered the pos si bil ity of at tempt ing a last-re sort sur gi cal tech nique, and Céline wanted to take that chance. The date for the pro ce dure was set for June 13, 2006, on the beau ti ful feast of Saint An - thony who is her fa vor ite saint. So we were ex tremely con fi - dent. In a dis con cert ing fash ion, on June 12, 2006, the day prior to the sched uled sur gery and af ter three years of in fer til - ity, a preg nancy test turned out pos i tive. We were al most eu - phoric with joy, but our joy quickly turned to sad ness, for a few days later, there was a mis car riage. So the doc tor re sched -

5 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october uled sur gery for the fol low ing month, and once again, to our great as ton ish ment, Celine was preg nant the day be fore sur - gery. It seemed im pos si ble but true. So what was the di vine plan? It took a few days to re al ize that, once again, it was a false joy. There had well and truly been con cep tion and im - plant ing in the uter ine cav ity, but the em bryo had not sur vived. In its place, the pla cen tal sac was grow ing but with out a foe tus in side. This fourth preg nancy turned out to be an empty egg. THE ADOP TION OF MIN JEE ANNE The spon ta ne ous abor tion (or mis car riage) oc curred af ter ten weeks of preg nancy and, at that very same time, our lit tle Ko rean girl, Min Jee Anne ar rived. We saw in this a sym bolic ex pla na tion, al though not sci en tific. Min Jee was sym bol i cally fill ing the empty pla centa which had been grow ing for sev eral weeks. The spon ta ne ous evac u a tion of the preg nancy at the time of her ar rival could rep re sent her birth within our fam ily. So it was amid joy and tears that Min Jee Anne ar rived in our home. We wel comed her with all our heart and she quickly be - came our dear lit tle Elodie s lit tle sis ter. Céline: You will have guessed that, in spite of all this, I was still hop ing for an other preg nancy. And af ter all these events, it was ob vi ous that heaven did not want any other sur gi cal in - ter ven tion, and this could not have been made any clearer. So I had to aban don my self to tally, which was some times dif fi cult for me be cause of my med i cal back ground. We shared all of this with Ma rie-paule and Sis ter Micheline and their cor re spon dence was a great bless ing for us. We al - ways re ceived an at ten tive and quick re ply to our s, as though it were a mat ter of prime im por tance, even though we knew how much they work with out count ing their hours and that they also must en cour age peo ple who are ex pe ri enc ing keener suf fer ings than ours. Thank you once again for the valu able time given to us, de spite all the other pre oc cu pa tions and di vine de mands hav ing to do with the Work. In one of our last ex changes, we were urged to of fer our suf fer ing and to aban don our selves to the will of God. We tried to do just that. This trial has al lowed me to un der stand aban - don ment a lit tle better, even though my own was not per fect. It al lowed me to better un der stand the suf fer ings of pa tients with in cur able dis eases with whom I work on a daily ba sis, since I work with can cer pa tients. I un der stood a lit tle better the prayer of the se ri ously ill, which some times seems to re main un an swered, and yet I know that this is never the case. I knew that our trial was in com pa ra bly small com pared to other hu - man suf fer ings, but that it was part of our pro gres sion. THE BIRTH OF CLARA This story has a good end ing, for our in tense prayers, as well as those of my fam ily and the mem bers of the Work, were granted thanks to God s mercy. On De cem ber 30, 2006, I had the joy of be ing preg nant for the fifth time. You can well un der - stand that our en thu si asm was some what tem pered, for we wanted to make sure that this was truly a vi a ble and intra-uter - ine preg nancy be fore re joic ing. I also think we were ready to ac cept any out come, that is, from the best to the worst. But, with out hav ing forced any thing, God s hour had come and af - ter three and a half years of wait ing, I had the joy of be ing truly preg nant for the fifth time. With our lit tle Clara, we now form a quin tet. What joy, and how good God was to us in spite of all our weak nesses! Elodie is grow ing in wis dom, Min Jee Anne who will be two years old in Feb ru ary is the gift from heaven we would never have had the joy of know ing with out the pe riod of in fer til - ity ex pe ri enced. We re main open and more aban doned to the di vine plan for the fu ture. And if God so wishes, there is still room in our home for more chil dren. Guy: Now we ask God and Mary for the grace of be ing able to guide these souls en trusted to us and to see them grow in love and the re spect of God s laws, and to be united to gether, af ter a holy life, in a blessed fe lic ity. That is the most im por tant prayer we now make to God and to Ma rie-paule; may it be granted! Guy and Céline hav ing man i fested the de sire that Clara be bap tized dur ing this cer e mony, Fa ther Gilles, Céline s brother, pro ceeded to bap tize the child. Two other chil dren, born quite re - cently, were also bap tized by Fa thers Da vid Lorange and Carl Beaupré: Thomas, the son of Ma rie and Si mon Aubin and Matthieu, the son of Brigitte and Marc Héon. The bap tism was fol lowed by the re cep tion of these chil - dren into the Fam ily of the Sons and Daugh ters of Mary, by the Mother, Christiane Brass ard, from Chicoutimi, del e gated for this pur pose by the In ter na tional Mother, Char lotte Bélanger. Testimonial of Mary- Hélène Cou ture The morn ing pro gram ended with the tes ti mo nial of Ma rie-hélène Cou ture, a member of the Army of Mary from child hood. Ma rie-hélène and her hus band had four chil - dren, the last two be ing twins, one of whom, Ga bri elle, died shortly af ter birth. The story of her short life has caused many a tear to be shed. Bap tism of Clara Cham ber - land by Father Gilles De vaux, Thomas Aubin by Fa ther Da - vid Lorange, and Mat thieu Héon by Father Carl Beaupré. Marie-Hélène Couture and her three daughters: Anne- Ma rie (6 yrs.), Emmanuelle (3 yrs.) and Ma rie-jeanne (1 yr.). The Of fer ing of Life or the Unfathomable Mystery of Love The great est ho li ness es of the world will never be equal to the un wrin kled lips, the souls with out a mem ory, the bod ies with out any wounds of those great saints and those great mar - tyrs who never left their mother s womb ex cept to en ter into the king dom of heaven. They who knew noth ing of life and did not re ceive a wound from this life ex cept the wound that made them en ter into the king dom of heaven. (Charles Péguy, Les Saints Innocents) At the be gin ning of this ac count, I would like to in tro duce my self. I have been a mem ber of the Army of Mary since early child hood. I grew up in it in no cently, in the free dom of child - hood, and then, once I had reached adult hood, through the read ing of Life of Love, the meet ings rich with fruit ful teach ing by the Work s priests, I com mit ted my self to it with my heart and soul. I met the man who would be come my hus band in 1994, and we were mar ried in Our fam ily grew lit tle by lit tle with the ar rival of four chil dren, the pain of a mis car riage and then of a death. The el dest, Anne-Ma rie is now 6 years old, Emmanuelle, 3 years old and Ma rie-jeanne, 1 year old. Our fam ily life, well rooted in the move ment of pro fes sional ac tiv i ties and the ed u ca tion of the chil dren, is lulled to the rhythm of prayer, spir i tual read ing, the daily Eu cha rist, and we are evolv ing within the Church, in the light of this time of mercy be ing given to the world. THE PRIV I LEGE OF GIV ING LIFE We were mar ried with the hope of be ing able to es tab lish a fam ily. That grace of love, that grace of fe cun dity, we re ceived it and we thanked God for the life He was giv ing us. With each preg nancy and be fore con ceiv ing a child, we prayed God to give us the priv i lege of giv ing life; we went to con fes sion in or - der to pu rify our thoughts and our hearts; we re ceived the Eu - cha rist which divinizes the soul and a Mass was cel e brated in honor of the Lady of All Peo ples to whom I was al ready en - trust ing these preg nan cies. In Au gust 2005, at the dawn of all these ever new be gin - nings, the hope of a new preg nancy was born in my heart. I spoke of this with my hus band and we prayed as a fam ily so that our de sire might be in ac cor dance with God s will. From that mo ment, I asked God for the fa vor of giv ing birth to twins and, on No vem ber 11, 2005, a new life was con ceived, a dou - ble life. A preg nancy test at the be gin ning of De cem ber con - firmed the good news. On De cem ber 19, feel ing un well, I went to the hos pi tal where I learned, af ter an ul tra sound, that I was

6 10 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october 2007 ex pect ing twins. My heart ex ulted in an in ex press ible joy and a lu mi nous peal of laugh ter sprang from my en tire be ing. My joy was a re sponse of thanksgiving to God who had heard my prayer. I was in sev enth heaven, I was ju bi lant and I was so anx ious to go home to tell this to my hus band. The be gin ning of the preg nancy went on nor mally with the risks and the in sta bil ity of a di ges tive sys tem that had be come frag ile. On March 21, 2006, joy fully, we went to the hos pi tal for the ul tra sound of the twen ti eth week which would re veal our ba bies faces to us. Un con cerned, like young par ents, we never feared the worst since nei ther of our fam i lies had any his tory of ge netic ab nor mal ity or in tel lec tual or phys i cal hand i - cap. It was a ra di ant morn ing in which the ar dor of life bore us along in an up surge of love. The ex am i na tion be gan with the first baby and the ul tra - sound con firmed that ev ery thing ap peared nor mal. It told us that it would be a girl. Al ready, we had given her a name. She would be called Ma rie-jeanne which means God gives grace. The ex am i na tion con tin ued with the other baby and this time, the ul tra sound tech ni cian s face changed. Im me di - ately alarmed, I ques tioned her to know what she was see ing. With out re ply ing, she left the room to con sult the gy ne col o gist. At that mo ment, ev ery thing turned up side down; ev ery thing be came cold, un fath om able, the joy dis si pated and my heart was filled with an guish, that bit ter taste of fear grip ping my heart. The gy ne col o gist ar rived, took my hand and said to me that he could see an ab nor mal ity at the level of the cer e bel lum which meant we could en vis age all kinds of di ag no ses. The ge net i cist joined him. These doc tors were af fir ma tive with re - gard to the se ri ous ness of the child s con di tion. At birth, this child would have mul ti ple and se vere mo tor and in tel lec tual hand i caps. What pain upon hear ing this im pla ca ble verdict. We were taken into an other room in or der to dis cuss this state of af fairs. Ob vi ously, a very in va sive treat ment was au to - mat i cally sug gested to us: first of all, am nio cen te sis, and then the med i cal in ter rup tion of the preg nancy. We were so shaken by all this dis or der. I was preg nant with twin girls, one of them was sick, and the only com fort I re ceived was to of fer to re lieve me of her hand i cap by kill ing her. That is med i cine, cold. But has any one given any thought to the fact that love can pro vide as sis tance? We wanted to ac com pany this child, we loved her. She needed our love, our strength, our prayers, our faith, our hope and we needed her pres ence. From that mo ment, we straight away re jected all in ter ven tions, with the ex cep tion of the blood tests re quired for the study of the chro mo somes. I could feel my lit tle twin girls mov ing in my womb. I could see them on the ul tra sound screen mov ing about in a mar vel ous bal let and I wanted them for eter nal life. A mir a cle was pos si - ble! Med i cine al ways brings us back to this fa tal ism, that harsh re al ity of sci ence lim ited to what we can see. Those who prac - tice it must be in vested with a spir i tual life for it to be hu man and re spect ful of life. ABAN DON MENT AL WAYS AND NOTH ING BUT ABAN DON MENT We went home, at loose ends, shat tered. In the night that fol lowed, in tears, I cried out to my mother, Mother Paul-Ma rie. Who could better un der stand the heart of a mother than an - other mother, and what a mother! Thus be gan an ex change of let ters rich in teach ings and the bearer of so much con so la - tion. She wrote to me: When I read those lines of suf fer ing, I im me di ately sent her my heart in her ab do men with my hand on it. I un der stand her suf fer ing. What tri als! Let us wait with cour age and hope. My prayer will ac com pany them ev ery day and so will my love. And so the med i cal ap point ments fol lowed one an other ev - ery two weeks, and we needed so much cour age to face up to the sit u a tion. I wrote to Sis ter Micheline: Whereas my life of prayer and my sac ra men tal life are such bear ers of hope, these meet ings with the doc tors nail me to the ground, an ni hi - lat ing me, crush ing me. Of course, our be liefs are not shaken, that is not the point, but the suf fer ing of con stantly hav ing to lis ten to this ra tio nal dis course is quite keen. My re venge on those sad days is my in ces sant ap peal to di vine mercy... And: God asks of me acts of love, acts of aban don ment, a life of love in which He is guid ing ev ery thing. I am re al iz ing within the ca pac ity of my be ing, in my fini tude, the value of the gift of self in the mys ti cal life in which the soul, in a deep hu mil - ity that is ac cepted, ac knowl edges its lit tle ness, its so very lim - ited and em bry onic un der stand ing of the su per nat u ral life. Heaven is so im mense, so bound less to the hu man in tel li - gence. In our earthly con di tion so alien at ing, it is easy to scorn the flesh that leads to sin. We are tossed up be tween good and evil, our state of im pu rity makes us fall and, at the same time, this flesh, mag ni fied by di vine grace, can, in to tal aban - don ment, be the fruit of so many mer its. We are all in fi nitely bound in the To tal Christ s Mys ti cal Body and we par tic i pate as Church in the Re demp tion and the Co-Re demp tion. How beau ti ful it is that our suf fer ings of fered up can serve to re - deem hu man ity. Thus, they ac quire the no blest pos si ble sig - nif i cance, that of be ing able to share in the in fi nite mer its of our Sav ior s suf fer ings. Dur ing this week of mercy, I asked that my spirit open more and more to mys ti cal re al i ties and that this grace of hope spread fully in my soul... Aban don ment al ways and noth ing but aban don ment, that is what our Mother asked of us so that we would im merse our - selves in the Fa ther s love. I wrote to her: I know what is left to me, and that is aban don ment to God s will. The great est sac ri - fice for us is to ac cept that will, for if He wants to, God can change this de vi a tion of na ture into a vic tory over life. That is our hope. We have the wis dom of the hum ble, the wis dom of those who live in a pure, in de struc ti ble faith be fore the Ab so lute; we pray and are open to grace. We are at tend ing the Lady s school, ac cept ing this grace of hope, for it is in us. We know that God is guid ing events and we must ac cept this. Sis ter Micheline said: You have a great trust and you must con tinue to be lieve to the very end. In mo ments of an guish, re mem ber that what God per mits is wis dom. If He tries some one, He can also give con so la tion in the worst tor ments. A BIRTH TO THIS WORLD AND A BIRTH TO HEAVEN Dur ing that time, Ga bri elle and Ma rie-jeanne con tin ued to grow in the heaven of my womb. And we had to con cen trate on the pres ent, for my two other daugh ters could not un der - stand their mother s sad ness. Liv ing with the un cer tainty of a pos si ble er ror in di ag no sis, given that we had re fused all the tests, we did not know with what ill ness our child was af flicted. We did not know if she would see the light of day. An atro cious suf fer ing crushed our hearts as we awaited an an nounced death. Dur ing that time of great un cer tainty, weak ened and ex hausted, only the Eu cha rist sus tained me and the faith ful and calm pres ence of good Fa ther Yvon, a mys ti cal priest, a real man of God, so sen si tive to grace and con vinced of the value of his priest hood. Those chil dren were blessed so many times! In all this jour ney, I ac knowl edge his ded i ca tion, for I was not left one sin gle day with out re ceiv ing Com mu nion. When life and death are so close to each other, we al ways have in the depths of our hearts the hope of a mir a cle and I wanted to see life be vic to ri ous over death. I had given them and they had re ceived the bap tism of de sire; God alone knew their des tiny. I in vited all the re li gious Com mu ni ties I knew to join in our prayers, and a trental of Masses was cel e brated. Gen tle Ga bri elle, so frail, so del i cate, your name none the less means strength of God, your pres ence was so pre cious that God wanted you next to Him. And Ma rie-jeanne, strong and cou ra geous, ac com pa nied you. The gift of life is in valu - able. In our mod ern lives, over taxed with ac tiv i ties, tossed about, is there any - thing grander than life it - self? A cae sar ean was planned for July 19, 2006, be cause Ma rie-jeanne was ap pear ing in a breech po si tion. It was a de liv ery: Ma rie-jeanne would be born to this world and Ga - bri elle would be born to Heaven. Ma rie-jeanne was Marie-Hélène Couture after the birth of her twins. Her el - dest daugh ter Anne-Ma rie is hold ing Ma rie-jeanne in her arms, while Ma rie-hélène is holding little Gabrielle. born at 10:25 a.m. and Ga bri elle at 10:26 a.m. We were all to - tally aban doned, calm, but very vig i lant. The team of care - givers, doc tors and nurses, were on the look out. Fa ther Yvon im me di ately bap tized the two new borns and he gave them the sac ra ment of the sick be fore they were rushed to the neo na tal unit. Af ter nu mer ous tests, Ga bri elle was di ag nosed as hav - ing trisomy 13. A long ag ony was be gin ning for her, for her heart con di tion was un sta ble. Trisomy 13 is a pa thol ogy that de vel ops as a re sult of the pres ence of an ex tra chro mo some 13. It is the most rare of trisomies and it gives rise in the foe tus to a com plete met a - bolic dis or der. Be tween 80% and 90% of foe tuses af fected by trisomy 13 die dur ing preg nancy. Half of the chil dren who are born at full term will die within the first three months of life. In the op er at ing room, we were only able to kiss the twins.

7 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october They had been im me di ately rushed away in or der to be placed un der ox y gen. I was drunk with pain, drunk with love be fore the beauty of these lit tle girls, and Ga bri elle was alive. It would not be long be fore I could breast feed them, rock them, kiss them. The next day, July 20, I was able to breast feed and rock Ma rie-jeanne. Her con di tion had im proved and in the days that fol lowed, she was dis charged. As for Ga bri elle who had ex pe ri enced the sweet ness of intra-uter ine life, she now had to fight like a salmon swim ming back up to its orig i nal wa - ters. The cases of trisomy 13 be ing rather rare, all the spe cial ists saw this child. A very try ing first week! Ga bri elle could not eat; she was force-fed with my milk. What pa tience the nurses had to have in or der to ma nip u late and feed that child! One of them, so gen tle, so steady, so in stinc tive, will have left her mark in our mem o ries. Like an art ist, she knew how to take care of this del i cate flower and we es tab lished a very spir i tual bond with this nurse, with out ever touch ing upon the re al i ties of our per sonal lives. Of all these care givers, we will al ways re mem ber their love and their de vot ed ness. We thank them and we are deeply grate ful to them. The days that fol lowed had a value of eter nity be cause ev - ery sec ond of life was so pre cious. Ga bri elle s clin i cal con di - tion was de te ri o rat ing day af ter day and the med i cal team was con stantly keep ing us in formed of her con di tion. We had had to es tab lish with them a pro to col of in ter ven tion in the event she would stop breath ing or there would be heart fail ure. The nurses, al ways so sen si tive to our wishes, gave us per mis sion to bring Anne-Ma rie and Emmanuelle to visit their lit tle sis ters. Those beau ti ful Sun days were the only times when we were all to gether as a fam ily. To day, all those mo ments of hap pi - ness are with us on film. GA BRI ELLE THE PU RITY OF AN AN GEL All the hours of her short life dur ing which we rocked her and loved her are in valu able. On the morn ing of Au gust 4, my heart sensed the end. It tor tured us to see her suf fer, she was a mar tyr. I prayed to the Vir gin Mary with the ar dor of the saints that she would come and get her. And yet, that was the most beau ti ful day, the most peace ful. She had the beauty and pu - rity of an an gel. I asked Fa ther Yvon to come and con firm her. At about 7:00 p.m., Fa ther Yvon ar rived for this short cer e - mony. With a ten der and purely spir i tual love, in a pro found dig nity, he anointed our lit tle girl and said the tra di tional prayers. Ga bri elle s face ra di ated with an as ton ish ing beauty; it was no lon ger taut with pain. We had the fleet ing im pres sion that she was al ready liv ing of ce les tial joys. Fa ther left us. Sud denly, Ga bri elle fell into re spi ra tory dis tress and the med i cal team had dif fi culty re viv ing her. The doc tor asked us to ac cept that she be given mor phine, some thing we had al - ways re fused, know ing full well what that meant. We had just lived her good bye in a ce les tial be at i tude. We now had to en - ter into death; we had to live through a wrench ing of the heart with out fall ing into a state of moral sol i tude. The doc tor asked us to go and get our older daugh ters be fore giv ing her the first dose of mor phine. So my hus band went home to get the chil - dren. They were able to rock, kiss and say good bye to their lit - tle sis ter who would now live for ever in the heaven of their soul. I brought them back home. Hav ing re turned to her bed side, we spent the en tire night with our lit tle one who was fight ing to live. At about 6:10 a.m, ex hausted, she passed away; her crys tal soul took flight, for ev ery thing was ac com plished. She have re ceived all, she had given us all. Now we had to learn to live with her in an other way. At about 6:50 a.m. I called Fa ther Yvon. He came im me - di ately. Full of af flic tion, he sup ported us in our tre men dous grief. We prayed to gether for sev eral hours; we washed and changed Ga bri elle. We dressed her in a white gar ment, a bap - tis mal robe. We ac com pa nied her in life and in death. So the Vir gin heard my pe ti tion. Ga bri elle died on Sat ur day, Au gust 5, We have had to learn de tach ment. We are made of flesh; we love with our heart and death hurts. We cried for a long time and we will long for our lit tle one for a long time. Our con - so la tion is heaven. She is holy; her name is Saint Ga bri elle and she lives among the elect in the glory of God. The face of an an gel, the joy of hav ing loved, so loved this child as though she were Je sus Him self; of hav ing cher ished, kissed, ca joled her with all the force of our heart, and to give her to God in the fulness of love for His greater glory. Heaven is her home land... love is her lot. SATURDAY AFTERNOON The Com mu nity of the Sons and Daugh ters of Mary The af ter noon pro gram be gan with the an nounce - ment of a cer e mony for the tak ing of the habit with the Sons of Mary. Fa ther Eric, the Com mu nity s Su pe rior Gen eral, pre sented the two new nov ices to us: Gérard Boisvert and Ber nard Le - Blanc, two young nov ices who al ready have more than 80 years of life be hind them... For the Com mu - nity, Fa ther Eric added, this will cer tainly be an ac quired wealth, for it is cer tain that in ex change for a few prin ci ples of the re li gious life we will be able to give them dur ing their for ma tion in the no vi tiate, they in re turn will be for us a gust of ma tu rity ac quired dur - ing a whole life en riched by mul ti ple ex pe ri ences, that will be prof it able so that we may al ways be more of an au then tic fam ily. The path they fol lowed is not a fre quent one. But God slowly pre pared them. Al - ready, each in his own way lived, to a cer tain ex tent, amid the world with a re li - gious spirit. Hav ing each lost his wife sev eral years ago, and their chil dren hav ing in turn es tab lished their own fa - m i lies, they were now free to re spond to the par tic u lar call God had re served for them. Be fore the cer e mony of the tak ing of the habit, Fa ther Roland Marcoux pre sented the char is matic per son al ity of the holy Curé of Ars who was nick named the saint of the con fes sional where he spent fif teen hours a day. He was never stingy with his time or ef fort and would al ways go to the end of his strength in the ser vice of souls, liv ing a very aus tere life. Im pressed by his wis dom in re solv ing a very dif fi cult case, a neigh bor ing par ish priest asked him: Fa ther, where did you study the ol ogy? In re ply, the Curé of Ars pointed to his prie-dieu. What mas ter did you have in the ol ogy? The same one as Saint Pe ter, the holy cu rate re plied. Deeply con vinced of his un wor thi ness, the Curé of Ars begged his bishop to al - low him to leave his par ish in or der to mourn over his poor life. The bishop re plied: I, let you leave, Fa ther? That would be such a great sin that no one would want to give me ab so lu tion for it. Fa ther Roland imag ined that the Curé of Ars must The tak ing of the habit by Gérard Bois vert and Ber nard LeBlanc from Montreal have thought to him self: To re ceive ab so lu tion for such a great sin, Your Ex cel lency, you would only have had to come to my con fes sional! The holy cu rate drew his strength and his love from the Eu cha rist and from the Heart of Mary, of whom he said: I loved her even be fore know ing her; that was my old est af fec tion. And Fa ther Roland ended his pre sen ta - tion by ask ing the holy Curé of Ars to give rise to day to priests filled with the mercy of Je sus. This was fol lowed by the cer e mony of the tak ing of the habit by Gérard Boisvert and Ber nard LeBlanc from Mon t - real. They en tered in pro ces - sion, each ac com pa nied by one of their sons who of fered them to the Lord. Then, Sis ter Andrée-Anne Caron from St-Ulric in the Matane re gion, made her first vows in the Com mu nity of the Daugh ters of Mary. First vows of Sis ter Andrée- Anne Caron Eucharistic Concelebration Our day of prayer ended with the Mass pre sided over by Fa ther Eric and con - celebrated by 30 priests. In his hom ily, Fa ther Serge Lépine urged us to at - tend the school of that love that is giv ing, for giv ing and aban don ment af ter the ex - am ple of Mary. At the foot of the cross, Mary s love was ex pressed to the high est de gree through that love that is giv ing, for giv - ing and aban don ment, the three el e ments of this love form ing a per fect har mony ca pa ble of ex press ing love in all its truth and beauty. Just as the three ba sic col ors can pro duce the many col ors found in the rain bow, so too this tri nomial of love al lows the soul to cause to grow fully within it the di vine seed de - pos ited in its heart. To want to am pu tate from it one or other form of this love, is like not

8 12 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october 2007 want ing to ir ri gate a part of the gar den with its tre men - dous pos si bil i ties. Fa ther Serge ex plained that those three di men sions of love are nec es sary in the life of a fam ily be tween the spouses first of all and in re - gard to the chil dren, and be - tween the chil dren them - selves. Those three di men - sions of love are also nec es - sary in the re li gious life in or - der to give one self to God in aban don ment to His will and to live fra ter nally with one an - other. Fa ther Serge ex plained that these fruits of love which we can see in the Work are also the fruit of the love of the Lady, of her life of love. The Lady, hav ing re sponded to the di vine will by her Fiat and who, just like her Mother, ac - cepted that her heart be pierced, re mained faith ful at the foot of the cross, ac cept - ing even to be nailed to it for the re demp tion of the world, and she was able, above all, to for give, and in ces santly mul ti ply the acts of aban don - ment to the di vine will. Thus the love founded on the cross, on an au then tic love, blos somed, giv ing the lit tle roses that we are and that have be gun to open their pet - als. The Lady, the Rose of roses, wants to see us open up, pos sess a bright color, a strong stem, a pleas ant and at trac tive scent. In short, she wants to see us live an au - then tic love. The Church of John to which we be long, is, as we know, the Church of Love. There fore, love must be its main char ac ter is tic, a love that gives it self en tirely for the sal va tion of souls and the re al iza tion of the King dom of love in our world. In this way, our world will be come il lu - mined by the fires of the new Pen te cost and the King dom of peace and love which we all de sire will be es tab lished. As they had done the pre - vi ous eve ning, Pa dre Jean- Pi erre and Fa ther Eric pre - sented, at the end of this sec - ond day of the triduum, their mes sage re gard ing the ex - com mu ni ca tion of the mem - bers of the Mar ian Work by the Church of Pe ter, and then ev ery one went home un til the fol low ing day, filled with joy and thanksgiving to God who called us to be a part of such a won der ful Work. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 The Call of Mystery On this Sunday morn ing, the mas ter of cer e mo nies, Rich ard Latulippe, be gan by thank ing Sis ter Micheline Hupé to whom Mother Paul- Ma rie had en trusted the task of pre par ing the pro gram for this triduum and who bril - liantly car ried it out. At the same time, he thanked all those who con trib uted to the proper func tion ing of these days of prayer, such as the Ser vice and Or der Unit, the mem bers of the Choir of the Im mac u late un der the di rec - tion of Fa ther Hervé Lemay and ac com pa nied at the or - gan by Sis ters Jac que line Vermette and Andrée-Anne Caron, along with the in stru - men tal ists who helped us rec ol lect our selves in our beau ti ful cha pel, with out for - get ting as well our priests, so very ded i cated. Mother Paul-Ma rie s word of wel come was read to us by Fa ther Vic tor Rizzi who pre - sented the day s pro gram in these words: Go and pro - claim the Good News to the en tire world! That is the theme that will be de vel oped to day, as the winds of a new Pen te cost are blow ing to en - kin dle the uni verse. May the True Spirit, the Spirit of the Lady come! The flag of the Ob late-pa - tri ots was borne in pro ces - sion by Michel Lévêque, and the con fer ences began with a text on ho li ness to which all are called, a text read by Chantal Labrie. From the mo ment of our Bap tism we par tic i pate in Christ s royal priest hood. Be we priests, re li gious or la ity, we must bear wit ness to Christ and live by love in the giv ing of our selves. And that is the way of in te rior re form which the Army of Mary has pro posed to its mem bers from its found ing. A per sonal re form, that is to say, ac cept - ing to work on one self first of all, for, as Elis a beth LeSeur said: A soul that raises it self raises the world.... A re turn to the pure sour ces is im per a tive, Mother Paul- Ma rie said, and the spirit of the Gos pel must come alive again in all its force and gran - deur, while pre serv ing its great sim plic ity, thus re - spond ing to the call of mys - tery. We must lift up all that has fallen, for we are the heirs to the eter nal King - dom... We must have the spirit of the King dom, that is to say, pre pare our selves to live in close con tact with the Eter nal Fa ther as it was long ago, for He will be close to this happy peo ple that will form the re newed Church. Graces from On-High Dur ing the cer e mo nies last June at Spiri-Maria, Mother Paul-Ma rie in formed us of a grace in which she had seen Raoul Auclair in - struct ing the souls On-High, and Heaven had re quested that Marc Bosquart com ment on this grace, which he did at the time. (Grace re lated in the Livre Blanc, no. 2, Rayonnement de l Église de Jean, chap. 23 and 30) This grace was re counted to us anew by Sis ter Jeanne d Arc, who then went on to tell of other graces re ceived af ter the cer e mony of June 3, graces which are al ways re - lated to the world On-High. Here is a sum mary of the grace of last June 6. The Souls of the On-High On Wednes day, June 6, 2007, in a spe cial grace re ceived dur ing Mass, Ma rie-paule saw, on three dif fer ent lev els, the soul of Fa ther Philippe Roy, that of Brother Raoul Auclair (both of whom have left us for heaven) and the two con cele - brants (Pa dre Jean-Pi erre and Fa ther Vic tor). Then, in front of the al tar, the floor had dis ap peared and she saw on a lower floor hun dreds of heads of souls in a large well lit area. In this grace, Fa ther Philippe, af ter hav ing in tro duced him - self, pre sented Raoul Auclair to the souls. Now, in the course of the pre sen ta tion of the events of their life, it was pos si ble, in side these two souls, to see them as they were dressed on earth at that par tic u lar time of the ac count: black suit and ro man col lar, fol lowed by the white cas sock and blue cinc ture of the Mar ian Fa ther for Fa ther Philippe; suit as a lay per son and then the habit of the Sons of Mary for Raoul Auclair. Fr. Philippe Roy Fr. Philippe Roy - Mar ian Fa ther Marc com mented this grace as he had done for the pre ced ing one. Now, what can these earthly gar ments sig nify for souls evolv ing in a Here af ter that has noth ing ter res trial or phys i cal about it? It is ob vi - ous, first of all, that they must in fact sig nify some thing, oth er wise there would be no rea son for hav ing shown them. What ad van tage would there be to hav ing these souls see Fa ther Philippe s ro man col lar or Raoul s suit and tie, if they do not re call some thing to them? Ah yes, but...! They are the at tire through which they gained heaven. And this at tire cor re - sponds to their state of life on earth, and which, as such, is im por tant in heaven. Marc re minded us that Christ, af ter His Res ur rec - tion, had the power, very im - por tant but still not un der - stood, of com mu ni cat ing His su pe rior con di tion to the cloth ing with which He cov - ered Him self to show Him self on earth. Yes, but this gar - ment or cloth ing He wore on the morn ing of the Res ur rec - tion, then in the Up per Room and on the road to Emmaus, where did it come from? Who made it? From what kind of ma te rial? Raoul Auclair Br. Raoul Auclair, Son of Mary And yet, even though that may ap pear to be quite sur - pris ing, the same is true for the other ce les tial en ti ties. Thus Saint Mi chael the Arch - an gel ap peared nu mer ous times through out the Chris - tian Mid dle Ages, but with out ever wear ing the same at - tire... Just as re veal ing is the ap pear ance of Mary Im mac - u late who, in each one of her man i fes ta tions on earth, chose dif fer ent cloth ing, that al ways cor re sponded, how - ever, to the par tic u lar sig nif i - cance of each of her ap pa ri - tions. But where did all these clothes come from? How were they made? By whom? So many ques tions which will re ceive an an swer at the time cho sen by God. An Astonishing Con fir ma tion Mother Paul-Ma rie had just handed the text of this last grace from On-High to her col lab o ra tors so that it could be in serted in the pro - gram of the triduum when Pa - dre Jean-Pi erre showed her a mes sage he had re ceived: pri vate rev e la tions which Fa - ther Stéphane Boisvert had dis cov ered by chance in his read ings and which con - firmed the Work of the Co- Re demp tion. Here is this

9 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october mes sage from the Lord to one of His mes sen gers, which Fa ther Stéphane com - mu ni cated to us. Place your heart in Mine and lis ten to Me speak to you. To day I ac cept to go fur ther with you, but do not stray from My path. We are walk - ing to gether in a land in which ev ery thing is beau ti ful. This is the new King dom of God on earth... This Gar den re sem bles the Gar den of Eden in which Adam and Eve lived be fore orig i nal sin. Never for get that sin enor mously dis pleases God who wishes to cor rect you of it. In or der to be long fully to the Lord, your heart must be pure of all stain, and then I will give you back the Earth that was prom ised to the man who lives in God... Raise your head, look up to Heaven, My Heaven of Glory above your Earth which has been ren dered wor thy to look at the King dom of God through the light veil that sep a rates you from it. I have the power to unite you to those who have al ready left for the Fa ther s house, yes, to see to it that you can meet. That is the com mu nion of saints be tween Heaven and Earth. But to achieve this, you will have to work hard to ac quire great Ho li - ness. I, Je sus, will fa vor you with that grace when you will have reached that de gree of good ness, chas tity and love. The pu rity of your bod ies must be equal to the pu rity of your souls en tirely given to God... The Blessed Vir gin Mother s vo ca tion is to bless, through the in ter ces sion of the Holy Spirit, all the na tions of the earth in or der to pre - serve them from all the evils which the spirit of Evil is in - ces santly spread ing upon each child of God. My Mother be came your Mother at the foot of my Cross. I ask you to rec og nize, in your holy Mother, your Ad - vo cate and Mediatrix, to ven - er ate in her her vo ca tion of Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Ad vo cate for the whole hu man race. The power of the an gel of dark ness will be an ni hi lated be fore She who once was Mary of Naz a reth..., She who gave us the Re deemer. In the Most Holy Trin ity of Love lives the Co-Redemptrix. The Lord uses here the ex pres sion that has been so con tested in the prayer of the Lady of All Peo ples ( who once was Mary ). An as ton - ish ing con fir ma tion of the mis sion of the Co- Redemptrix who lives in the heart of the Di vine Trin ity! Ro sa ries Re quested by Heaven In Life of Love we see that the Lord of ten de manded that Ma rie-paule say ro sa - ries, some thing she most of - ten car ried out with her arms out in a cross. The re quests would be made, and one night up to seven times, and our Found ress al ways ac - cepted gen er ously. These de mands are still made on oc ca sion. Re cently, fa tigue got the better of Ma rie- Paule s good will. Here is what she wrote, which was re counted to us by Sis ter Chantal. WHAT A BLUN DER!... A TREMENDOUS EMPTINESS June 9, What a long ex haust ing day! There was no lack of phys i cal pain; if only it would let up a lit tle... That night, in my room, I heard : Say a ro sary. For the first time in my life, I said: Oh, no, my Je sus; I would like to rest, not have to talk or think, but live in the Fa ther s love. What an un grate ful an - swer! To feel the Fa ther s love is not some thing that can be com manded, de - manded. It is a grace the Fa - ther grants when it suits Him. All our ef forts would be fruit - less if they were made with an ego tis ti cal hope in that re - gard. At noon the next day, I no lon ger felt any pain, and the day af ter that nei ther. For the first while, I felt re lieved, but then what emp ti ness! A tre - men dous emp ti ness, in the sense that ev ery phys i cal or moral pain ori ents the soul to - wards Je sus in an act of love and of fer ing for souls, and when there is no lon ger any - thing to of fer, then there is emp ti ness. On the other hand, when we love and suf - fer for souls, the Fa ther s love sweeps through us al ways more and more. He be comes our life of love and fills the emp ti ness. What a blun der I made! It is even a se ri ous fault on my part, af ter my hav - ing been ful filled to such an ex tent. I im me di ately put my will back along the track of ac cep tance, of the spon ta ne - ous fiat, and ev ery thing be - came nor mal again in the ab - nor mal of my life. We must con tinue to of fer and to love. On June 12, I con fessed my fault forth rightly and re - quested a se vere pen ance. Af ter an en light ened ex hor ta - tion, Fa ther Vic tor sug gested that I say a ro sary, which made me smile and think of the beat ing of the Holy Spirit s wing. So, I will have to pray the ro sary I re fused to say that eve ning. As soon as I had a free mo ment, I car ried out my pen ance. It was Tues - day, the day for the sor row ful mys ter ies which I al ways find pain ful. The re minder of Je - sus Pas sion and His climb to Cal vary al ways makes me weep: Not Him, Je sus, but me. Let them strike me in - stead of Him... Must I write the rest?... Yes, for I must tell it all. Dur - ing the rec i ta tion of the act of con tri tion af ter con fes sion, an as sault of the Fa ther s love it passed in a flash elec tri fied my soul. What a bless ing, but above all, what Power and what Pres ence of Love in tox i cate the soul at the time of con fes sion. Af ter this ac count, the as - sem bly re cited a de cade of the ro sary in un ion with Mother Paul-Ma rie s prayer to give thanks for the open - ing up onto the On-High, which would never have been re vealed to us with out her life of love. Our Guard ian An gels Dur ing the sing ing of Ange gardien, ami fidèle [Guardian angel, faithful friend], Joanna Santos and Brother Marc Boulanger en tered in pro ces sion, each car ry - ing a statue of a guard - ian an gel ac - com pa ny ing the soul it is pro tect ing. Joanna s statue, being the smaller one, was placed on the al tar while the one car ried by Brother Marc was placed be - fore the al tar of the re pos i - tory. Brother Em man uel Gau - dreault Ray mond re minded us of the mis sion of an gels and of cer tain mis sions en - trusted to them in the course of his tory: the arch an gel Ra - phael who ac com pa nied Tobias, the arch an gel Ga - briel who made the an - nounce ment to Mary... Then, closer to our time, the an gels played a spe cial role in Pa dre Pio s life, for he could see his guard ian an gel and he would ask his vis i tors to send him their guard ian an gel. Brother Em man uel read an ex cerpt of a let ter from Pa dre Pio to a lady with whom he cor re - sponded and whom he ex - horted to al ways think of [her guard ian an gel], be ing con - scious that, from the cra dle to the grave, there is al ways a ce les tial spirit by our side that does not leave our side for an in stant, that guides us, pro - tects us like a friend, a brother, that must con sole us al ways es pe cially in those times which are the sad dest for us. Our Found ress, for her part, de clared: A par tic u lar charism is not re quired to re - ceive the in spi ra tion of a kind thought, to per ceive an in te - rior light. Ev ery bap tized soul, bound to God by the state of grace, is called to as - cend to Him and all kinds of sup port are given it to achieve this, in clud ing the pres ence of its guard ian an - gel con stantly at its side. A sim ple co op er a tion on our part is re quired and our soul soars to wards true love, pure joy, in short, a last ing hap pi - ness. The Ob late-pa tri ots and the Marialys In sti tute Jean Têtu re called for us the found ing and the mis sion of the Ob late-pa tri ots who, im bued with the teach ings of the Sov er eign Pon tiffs, will be bent on un der stand ing clearly and liv ing truly the so - cial doc trine of the Church, while work ing on the civil, so - cial, po lit i cal and pa tri otic planes. Mr. Paul Schulte from Hol - land was re ceived as Grand Of fi cer (na tional of fi cer) of the Ob late-pa tri ots for Hol - land by Don ald Aubin, the Gen eral in Chief. Paul Schulte be ing re ceived as Grand Knight of the Ob late- Pa tri ots for Hol land. Dominique Ruel re called the found ing of the Marialys In sti tute whose ob jec tives are to bring to gether the priests faith ful to the Church of Christ and to work to wards the up lift ing of the young peo - ple. She re minded us of the grace re ceived by Ma rie- Paule on Au gust 16, 1972: I see a con cen tra tion of light from which em a nate crys tal rays. These rays con - verge to pass through a point of crys tal. From this lit tle point emerge some rays that de - scend to wards a white silhouette. THIS RE LAY POINT IS YOU, says the Lord. THE RAYS ARE THE MES SAGES THAT YOU PASS ON TO FA - THER PHILIPPE. Then, this im age was re - placed by an other. I see a point of crys tal from which emerge a great num ber of rays that de scend to the earth. Through the rays I can see many white sil hou - ettes. Fa ther Philippe ex plained

10 14 THE KING DOM, No. 187, Sep tem ber-october 2007 to her why there were more rays go ing from the point of crys tal to wards the earth. That was be cause this point of crys tal is like a prism that re ceives the light and emits it in a mass of rays, which pro - duces seven times more. Is not this im age a rep re - sen ta tion of the sit u a tion we are liv ing in the Mar ian Work? And these rays of divine Light are be ing spread solely over the souls that rec og nize the Lady of All Peo ples and ac - cept this Light. By fol low ing the Lady we re ceive knowl - edge re served to souls faith - ful to the di vine and Mar ian plan for our time. Ten lay peo ple com mit ted them selves within the Maria - lys Institute: Éveline Beau - din, Lucie and Serge Laprise, Mar gue rite and Pi erre Lo - range, Henriette and Ray - mond Michaud, Céline Rivest, Ma rie and Alain Têtu. The new Marialys members Marc Bosquart re peated his text We Are Ex com mu ni - cated!, and the morn ing pro - gram closed with a mes sage from Mother Paul-Ma rie, writ - ten that very morn ing af ter Mass when a pas sage from the Apoc a lypse came to her mind, a pas sage which is be - ing ful filled in this time when the Church is strik ing the di - vine Work. Sis ter Chantal read this mes sage to us. THE DEC LA RA TION FROM ROME More than ever, we are see ing what is writ ten in the Book of Rev e la tion be ing ful - filled. In fact, let us re call this very el o quent pas sage in which the dragon can not reach the Woman who is car - ried off into the desert. The ser pent, Saint John tells us, spewed a tor rent of wa ter out of his mouth to search out the woman and sweep her away. The earth then came to the woman s res cue by open ing its mouth and swal low ing the flood which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. En raged at her es cape, the dragon went off to make war on the rest of her off spring, on those who keep God s com mand ments and give wit ness to Je sus. (Apoc 12:15-17) Is that not what we are see ing be ing re al ized at this time with the Dec la ra tion from the Holy See? In fact, no where in that doc u ment is there a men tion of Ma rie- Paule, not her name or her role as the Found ress of the di vine Works it is con demn - ing. Only a very vague ref er - ence is made through the word her esy, but we know that this has never been proven. Thus, the Church is con demn ing the di vine in ter - ven tion in our time as be ing an he ret i cal act! That is re ally very se ri ous! The only ar gu ment which, for so many years, has ac com pa nied the ac cu - sa tion of her esy is a flood of cal um nies spewed from the dragon s mouth to en gulf the woman. How ever, un able to at tain her, her ad ver sar ies, en raged, are mak ing war on the rest of her off spring, which we are. So it is that, this time, it is the mem bers of the five Works of the Lady or the Woman who are at tacked, that is to say, those who want to obey God. And not con tent with strik - ing the Works and the Woman s off spring, the ad ver - sar ies are mak ing Pope Ben - e dict XVI bear all the weight of this se ri ous re spon si bil ity. And yet, we have al ways re spected the per son of the Holy Fa ther and his role as Pe ter s suc ces sor, ap pre ci - at ing his think ing and his writings which touch our faith and are published, on oc ca - sion, in our pa per Le Royaume Let us not be afraid. Re - gard less of the cal um nies, the filth of all kinds, the earth will swal low them up. Heaven is pro tect ing its Army and its sol diers against the bites of the en raged ser pent. Let us hope to be com - pan ions of the im mo lated Lamb. A mys tery of love that is be ing ac com plished be fore our eyes. A di vine Work, the gran di ose re al iza tions of which it will now be im pos si - ble to si lence. SEPTEMBER 16, 2007 Christian Initiation Dur ing the af ter noon Mass, 85 young peo ple and 3 adults were con firmed and 5 young sters made their First Com mu nion. But first, Fa ther Denis Thivierge re minded us of some of the teach ings of Popes John Paul II and Ben - e dict XVI to young peo ple on the role of the Holy Spirit: How can we al low our - selves to be re newed by the Holy Spirit, His Ho li ness Pope John Paul II asked them, and to grow in our spir - i tual lives? The an swer, as you know, is this: we can do so by means of the Sac ra - ments, be cause faith is born and is strength ened within us through the Sac ra ments, par tic u larly those of Chris tian ini ti a tion: Bap tism, Con fir ma - tion and the Eu cha rist, which are com ple men tary and in - sep a ra ble... It is through the sac ra ments of Bap tism, Con - fir ma tion and then, in an on - go ing way, the Eu cha rist, that the Holy Spirit makes us chil dren of the Fa ther, broth - ers and sis ters of Je sus, mem bers of his Church, ca - pa ble of a true wit ness to the Gos pel, and able to sa vour the joy of faith. The Holy Spirit is the high est gift God made to hu - man kind, and there fore the su preme tes ti mony of his love for us. As for Pope Ben e dict XVI, he stated: In or der to grow in our Chris tian life, we need to be nour ished by the Body and Blood of Christ. In fact, we are bap tized and con - firmed with a view to the Eu - cha rist. Source and sum mit of the Church s life, the Eu - cha rist is a per pet ual Pen te - cost since ev ery time we cel - e brate Mass we re ceive the Holy Spirit who unites us more deeply with Christ and trans forms us into Him. We are of ten amazed to see just to what ex tent the mes sages of the Sov er eign Pon tiffs are ap pro pri ate within the con text of the Mar - ian Work that is be ing de - ployed in our time, guided by Heaven. Thus, last July 25, Pope Ben e dict XVI en cour - aged priests to to live with their feet on the ground but their eyes in heaven, re - mind ing them that the es - sen tial el e ment of Chris tian - ity can not be a sim ple col lec - tion of dog mas... A life of love is still the best way of spread - ing the Gos pel mes sage. Liv ing with one s feet on the ground and one s eyes in heaven, is truly the ex am ple our Found ress has given us, she whose life of love cuts for our time fur rows of light for all peo ples. It is by fol low ing in her wake that we will con trib - ute to the spread ing of the King dom of God on earth and that we will bring the Good News to all na tions. Mass and Con fir ma tion The Mass was concele - brated by 31 priests and pre - sided over by Fa ther Luc Beaudette. Fa ther Carl Beaupré de liv ered the hom - ily in which he re minded us of the sanc ti fy ing ac tion of the Holy Spirit, urg ing those who would be con firmed to open their souls and their hearts to His com ing: Never re sist Him. The more you will be pure, the more you will un - der stand His lan guage which, like a light breeze, will whis per to your heart what you ought to do to please Him. The Holy Spirit is also charged with lead ing hu - man ity to the whole truth... Thus, the more a soul thirsts for truth, the more the Holy Spirit can in struct it. Ac cord ing to what Saint Louis Ma rie Grignion de Montfort said: The Holy Spirit was the mas ter of [Mary s] soul and of the pow - ers of her soul to such an ex - tent that He be came her own spirit, and that is the mar vel of grace which the Im mac u - late wishes to work in each one of us and in the hearts of all peo ples so that, in all truth, the Spirit of God may fill the uni verse in the King dom where the love of God will en - kin dle all hearts. Yes, God our Fa ther does not want a sin gle one of His chil dren to be lost. More than that, He wants all of us in His Heart so that we may meld with His in - fi nite love. Af ter the hom ily, the rit ual of Con fir ma tion took place, 85 young peo ple and 3 adults received the sacrament of Con fir ma tion. which was fol lowed by the lit - urgy of the Mass, at the end of which Pa dre Jean-Pi erre and Fa ther Eric read again their mes sage on the ex com - mu ni ca tion of the mem bers of the Work for the ben e fit of those who were not pres ent the two pre vi ous days. This brought to an end this triduum in honor of the Tri - umph of the Cross, in the wake of the ex com mu ni ca - tion of God s Work. How ever, it is al ready pos si ble to con - tem plate the rays of glory beam ing from this ul ti mate cross which will bear so much fruit for the re newal of hu man ity. Sep tem ber 16, 2007 Sylvie Payeur Raynauld Le Royaume is so im por tant to our spir i tual sur vival and to help us un der stand how grand and beau ti ful what we are liv - ing is that we can not go with - out it. Paulette Maheux Thank you for your Life of Love which snatched me from the devil s grip. Love, with all my heart. Lou ise