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The Meaning of Mary’s words at La Salette – the Arm of My Son
Mother and Child, Louvre Museum, ParisWhat the Virgin does at La Salette is a reading of the events of 1846 from the perspective of faith... we realize how Mary's message is deeply rooted in the events of this period. The Virgin does not offer a political, economic or cultural analysis of events, as a journalist could have done, as indeed historians do today. Her diagnosis is done in the light of faith, after the manner of the prophets who strove to discover in events signs of God's call to conversion, both personal and collective.
The life of faith is not a life set apart, any more in the message of La Salette and that of the Bible. The dialogue with God, indeed, has to take into account of all events, including those of everyday life, in which God desires to bestow on us the grace of his self-revelation.
God revealed in Jesus Christ, God’s own Son
As we said, not once does the Virgin speak of God. On the other hand, six times she uses the expression “my Son”, and that is significant. She well knows that it is the visage of Jesus, her Son, who has allowed people to know God decisively. The entire Old Testament was only a long preparation on the part of God and a long search on the part of his creatures of this decisive revelation.Read more The Meaning of Mary’s words at La Salette – the Arm of My Son
Probing La Salette Spirituality
Editor: This article was originally published in the La Salette publication, Reconciliare, vol. II, no. 4, pgs.36-38, December, 1967 (published just two years after Vatican II).“La Salette is more relevant today than ever before.”
Aug. 15, 1946 visit of Bp. Roncalli on Holy Mountain; from left: Presiding at Pontifical Mass; leading prayer processionPope John XXIII (then-Bishop Roncalli) made this remark on the occasion of his visit to the Holy Mountain of La Salette on August 15, 1946 while still Apostolic Nuncio in Paris. Naturally, this thought is a rather comfortable one for us to recall and it is fine to quote it now and again. But to raise an oratorical statement of this sort to the rank of guiding principle is to my mind indicative of religious chauvinism.Actually, if we were to take these words literally, we would find that, theologically speaking, such a statement is absurd. After all, what is an apparition if not a divine calling in a particular situation, a command given within a determined historical context (1). So the relevancy of an apparition, by definition, will be strongest at precisely the time when it takes place, and it can only lessen with the passing of time and changing situations.
How are La Salettes adjusting
our ministry to the present-day world?
The Realism of La Salette
The policy often invoked by totalitarian leaders to achieve their initial victories is that of ruthless realism. This is their candid rationale for any unwarranted attacks and invasions. One by one they seize their unsuspecting victims and sternly warn them to be ‘realists’ and bow down before their new order of the jungle code.
People sometimes need to be shocked into a state of righteous realism. The savage raid on Pearl Harbor shattered our dream of ideal isolation. We learned a cruel lesson in realism and are determined to teach the world about realism with a vengeance.
God teaches us a higher form of realism
In God's dealings with humanity, there is evidence of a higher form of realism. The Incarnation and the Redemption are the supreme manifestation of divine realism in the history of humankind. It took the death of the Son of God on the Cross to teach us the value of his immortal soul. On the Holy Mountain of La Salette, Sept. 19th, 1846, Mary herself, the Mother of God, deigned to appear to two little shepherds of the Alps, in order to inculcate anew the tragic lesson of Calvary. This she did with dramatic appeal and symbolic realism so that her people could not fail to be stirred by her message and to derive benefit from the grace of her visitation.Called to Be A Reconciled People
A voice at the bottom of our hearts murmurs unceasingly: “I want to live.” But it is often drowned out by the discordant noises of what people call life – its agitations and struggles among people, its fears and hopes, aspirations and mediocrities, jealousies and vanities, all things destined for death.
How, then, is one to live in this complex and sometimes oppressive world in which opinions swirl around us at such a pace that people are driven to distraction? We no longer take time to assimilate and reflect, unaware of the danger that our hearts, lacking conviction and love, may simply burst at no longer being able to give of ourselves.
How is Reconciliation Possible?
As devotees, as followers of Our Lady of La Salette, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. The La Salettes – laity and religious alike – have made it a special ministry of their own within the Church.
Now we have to ask: How is reconciliation possible? It is a grand ministry and a wonderful goal for any person or group to practice.
Reconcilers for the World
Emblem in Latin: Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette...Every year, September is a welcome invitation for La Salette Missionaries and all those devoted to her merciful Apparition. Her feast on September 19th challenges us to reflect on our personal history and call, as well as on our religious and apostolic identity in the light of the La Salette event (La Salette Rule, 1).
This is a grace we share in particular with the La Salette Sisters and with the growing movement of La Salette Laity. They work by our side in proclaiming the Gospel in so many apostolic contexts throughout the world, and with numerous friends and benefactors, ever present to us, humanly and spiritually, in prayer and solidarity...
This year's celebration comes a few months after our 32nd General Chapter, which took place in Las Termas de Rio Hondo (Argentina) and traced the path that the Congregation is called to walk over the next six years...
Every Province and Region is called in the coming years to adapt its own formation program to the... one approved by the recent General Chapter. I hope this collective effort will allow the Congregation to grow as a whole chiefly as a community seeking an identity in harmony with the spirit and charism rooted in the La Salette event.
Furthermore, the Chapter insistently asks us all to "revisit" our manner of being religious and priests in today's world and Church, in order to respond ever better to the Lord's urgent call to be "salt of the earth and light of the world."
We La Salettes Are Uniquely Ourselves
Editor: This is Part Two (of two parts) of the concluding chapter based on “A Search into the Origins and Evolution of the Charism of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette”, a thesis submitted in 1975 by Fr. Gene Barrette, M.S., our eventual Superior General (1982-1988). His entire thesis is available here.
To be different, to be distinct – therein lies the fidelity of a Congregation. The point is worth pursuing and clarifying for it is one of the theological gift-insights of the Council. In Lumen Gentium, we get intimations that differences are to be cherished:
“Thus it has come about that various forms of …community life, as well as different religious families, have grown up. Advancing the progress of their members and the welfare of the whole body of Christ, these groups have been like branches sprouting out wondrously and abundantly from a tree growing in the field of the Lord from a seed divinely planted (#43).
Perfectae Caritatis begins with a tribute to the variety of religious institutes and in so doing carries even further the observations of Lumen Gentium.
The Prayer Life of Jesus
"Do you say your prayers well, my children?” the Beautiful Lady of La Salette asked the two shepherds. Both answered with complete candor: “Not very well, Madam”.
How we resemble them! Do we really know what prayer is?
The Holy Family
A man lived in our midst: a man who was upright, just, fraternal, an enemy of all hypocrisy, sensitive to the demands of friendship, a truly free man who knew how to meet the challenges of life and the anguish of death. Where did he find the meaning of his life and of his struggles? The Gospel tells us: in prayer.What are Ten Things You May Not Know About the Message of La Salette?
In listening to the message of Our Lady of La Salette for the first time, the directness of her words, her biblical references, her rural sensitivities, and her expressions of compassion and mercy can get lost in the our attempt to understand her overall message. Here are ten insights into Mary’s message at La Salette.
First: Mary could only come to La Salette not to share her own message because the only message she could share was that of her Son, Jesus. When she speaks about “my” people, she is well aware that they are her Son’s people as well. The center of her message can only be the message of her Son, Jesus.
Read more What are Ten Things You May Not Know About the Message of La Salette?
A La Salette Panorama Painting
Our previous La Salette Seminary High School in Cheshire, ConnecticutI was just a Senior in High School in the Fall of 1961 in our brand new La Salette Seminary complex – a 144,000 square feet of building with two athletic fields along the main driveway – in Cheshire, Connecticut. Since my employment was as Sacristan and head of the Main Chapel upkeep, I soon noticed a very large panorama painting of the history and content of the La Salette Apparition – if I remember correctly – by the architect. To the left of the beautiful statue of the Weeping Mother was very large grey-scale painting literally affixed permanently to a wall in the Foyer area, and titled, “The Prophetic Message of La Salette”. I remember my first response as a teenager was a mixture of surprise and interest in this crowded panoply of images. Today, however, having discovered a visual of this painting, and considering my now nearly 50-year history as a La Salette Missionary, I am perhaps better able to analyze and appreciate this work of art.
