Mission to Lorient and Port-Louis
Discovery and surprise
From 17 to 19 March 2023
A whole school discovers
Eight years after their canonization, Saints Louis and Zélie Martin remain unknown to the general public, except to know that they are the parents of Saint Thérèse. This is even truer for children. The choice of the Sainte-Thérèse school in Lorient to bring the whole school, some 150 children, guided by all the teachers, the director, during the passage of the relics of Thérèse's holy parents was a great opportunity to discover them. For almost an hour, through a very participative educational approach, the dialogue with Guy Fournier, deacon of the sanctuary, made it possible to discover what holiness is, how loving is the success of a life and what represents the fact of pray in the presence of relics. The musical support on the guitar and the songs, animated by Jean-Noël, volunteer at the sanctuary, from the poems of Thérèse participated in the meditation.
Every age is concerned
If this approach of all the children of the primary school was globally a time of catechesis, the whole of the mission allowed a deepening of the faith from the concrete example of the Martin spouses. Yes it is possible to become a saint in the midst of the vagaries of life with its joys and sorrows. The parish of Port Louis/Locmiquélic had sensitized the parishioners, during the three preceding Sundays of Lent, to the visit of the relics. Father Le Pivain, the local parish priest, wanted all the parishioners, as diverse as they are and of all generations, to benefit from this time with multiple points of entry: time for personal veneration, time for children, rosaries, lauds, vespers, homilies during masses… making the link between the texts and a way of living the faith today by watching the saints evolve in their time, conference. The latter brought together a particularly motivated audience with a dialogue time practically as long as the initial presentation. On leaving, a parishioner said: "Our environment is not very conducive for faith, knowing that Christians have gone through the same realities before us while keeping a faith and a hope that has always been the driving force of their lives, helps us to continue the journey with enthusiasm" . The bookstore corner run by Marie-Madeleine and Marie-Odile, volunteers at the sanctuary, proves to be valuable as a place of exchange when choosing a book, a comic strip, etc.
And as Father Le Pivain said, a few days after the mission : "I have a lot of excellent feedback".
