Wednesday, August 9
Awesome Religious Order
A few weeks ago, in the midst of studying for the summer French exam, I came across the website of a fairly new religious community in France, the Communaute Saint Martin. As you'll be able to tell quickly if you click on the link this is a young order, with probably the most advanced website I've seen for a religious community.
As far as the community itself goes, they combine very well the charism of good, traditional liturgy and evangelization. The liturgy celebrated above is a well-done Missa Normativa, and they combine this with evangelization efforts centered around pilgrimages on foot through the countryside - a good way, I'd say of fostering prayer and community for young people. They function by putting themselves at the service of the bishops and thus lightening the load for taking over diocesan priests by taking over clusters of parishes - such as Font Romeu. They have also been entrusted with the World Center of Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory, which I hadn't previously realized existed. Basically, I think these guys give a good sense of how to proceed in evangelizing youth, which they seem to be doing effectively in a French Church climate so often embittered by much fiercer battles between more fringe liberal and conservative Church groups than we even find here in the U.S. - and that's just the people that go to church, with the added struggle of combating European religious apathy.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
