Trip to France
I am blessed that most years I'm able to visit France with my wife--my wife is French. This year we spent about three weeks in France returning on July 3rd.
We spend only a short time in the Paris area with my niece who with her family lives in a beautiful town outside Paris (Celle St. Cloud), we spend most of our visit in central France where my wife's home is located. It is always an enjoyable visit. We usually rent a car and take short trips. Among the many trips two places we visited were extremely interesting and both are within a 30 minute drive from my wife's home; i.e., "The Abbey of Our Lady of Fontgombault" (a Benedictine abbey of the Solesmes congregation--the official maintainers/producers of Gregorian Chant for Catholic Church) and the Chateau de Valencay--the beautiful castle whose most famous owner was Prince Talleyrand.
We had a surprising and pleasant experience. We attended Mass at two different Church's. The first Sunday in France at my wife's old village church--St. Maur, France. There was a special festival going on and surprisingly the little church was filled. More surprisingly the next two Sundays we attended Mass at a large church
in the neighboring town of Chateauroux, France--once again this large church was full. We found this as an extremely hopeful sign. The part of France my wife is from was a hotbed during the war of religion and is extremely anti-clerical--as matter of fact the mayor of Chateauroux in the 1960s was a communist. In the past when we attended Mass in my wife's region there would be very few people attending and mostly older women. Those attending Mass this past summer were of all ages, men and women, families with young children and most surprisingly even small groups of young men in their late teens early twenties. (I have to admit that over the past few years we've noticed more and more people attending Mass.) What can I account this to? I can't say for sure--but more and more Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is being practiced; even my wife's little village church which is more like a mission church has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament once a week.
Till next time--Praise The Lord!
Paul
We spend only a short time in the Paris area with my niece who with her family lives in a beautiful town outside Paris (Celle St. Cloud), we spend most of our visit in central France where my wife's home is located. It is always an enjoyable visit. We usually rent a car and take short trips. Among the many trips two places we visited were extremely interesting and both are within a 30 minute drive from my wife's home; i.e., "The Abbey of Our Lady of Fontgombault" (a Benedictine abbey of the Solesmes congregation--the official maintainers/producers of Gregorian Chant for Catholic Church) and the Chateau de Valencay--the beautiful castle whose most famous owner was Prince Talleyrand.
We had a surprising and pleasant experience. We attended Mass at two different Church's. The first Sunday in France at my wife's old village church--St. Maur, France. There was a special festival going on and surprisingly the little church was filled. More surprisingly the next two Sundays we attended Mass at a large church
in the neighboring town of Chateauroux, France--once again this large church was full. We found this as an extremely hopeful sign. The part of France my wife is from was a hotbed during the war of religion and is extremely anti-clerical--as matter of fact the mayor of Chateauroux in the 1960s was a communist. In the past when we attended Mass in my wife's region there would be very few people attending and mostly older women. Those attending Mass this past summer were of all ages, men and women, families with young children and most surprisingly even small groups of young men in their late teens early twenties. (I have to admit that over the past few years we've noticed more and more people attending Mass.) What can I account this to? I can't say for sure--but more and more Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is being practiced; even my wife's little village church which is more like a mission church has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament once a week.
Till next time--Praise The Lord!
Paul
Labels: Vacation
posted by Paul Amrhein | 10:12 AM
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