Everything has become simple again

In 2018, then press correspondent for a local newspaper, I am sent to the Beguinage of Saint-Martin-du-Lac* (Saône-et-Loire), a hamlet where two women lead a life of prayer and reception. At that time, in research, I practiced “meditation of full presence”, walking. My report must account for an “agape”: one Sunday a month, around twenty people meet around the sisters to read the Gospel, exchange, sing, pray, before lunch. Several days are going on before I can write my article, I have so much confused.

The warm, simple, free atmosphere, in which I listen to resonate the word jostled me deeply. She sends me back to my very practicing childhood, which left me mixed memories. Long a choir child, I loved reading the church, and more, singing. But the constraint of mass every Sunday, the rites and the homilies of which I did not perceive relation to life distant me from this religion sometimes so “enclosing” in my eyes.

A few weeks pass. The Beguinage remains in my head. One day, a work meeting leads me, as if by chance, on the narrow path of the Croix-au-Bœuf. A huge tractor arrives opposite, forcing me to park … in front of the crush gate! While the machine passes, Sister Marie-Emmanuelle appears and toque to my window: “I saw you … Here, here is the program of the Beguinage. Troubled, I put the leaflet on the passenger seat. When I got out of my appointment, I grab it and read. Meditation, prayer of praise in the morning, clothes in the evening, conferences, animated pensions … All this speaks to me loud! I have to go back.

For seven years, my interior life has taken off to a new development. I found this other that I had lost. The gospels of the Sundays of feasts live in me all week, shed light on everyday situations, help me to be better in my relationship with others. The word descends from the intellect to the heart, and everything becomes so simple. “It’s as if you had found your joy,” appreciates my husband.

* From May 31 to June 1, seminar at the Beguinage with Rémy Valléjo, Dominican: “Hold when everything collapses. “Abandonment” according to Maître Eckhart “.