Opening of Bi-centenary celebration in provincial house, London

PROVINCIAL HOUSE, LONDON

On Sunday, 5^th February, the five members of the community in Aberdare Gardens met together with lay associate Rose Chee, to celebrate the opening of the bicentenary celebrations

We began by spending time in silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, thanking God for the immeasurable blessing our Family received on 3^rd February 1822 when our Lord appeared in the Eucharist to the first community in Bordeaux. 

After 20 minutes of silent prayer, we reflected on the meaning of jubilee.

The custom of Jubilees began in the Old Testament and continues today in the Church.  Throughout the years there have been numerous jubilee celebrations in the Church, the last one being the Jubilee of Mercy, declared by Pope Francis.

Jesus referred to the custom of Jubilee when he went back to Nazareth to begin his public ministry.

 “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read.   The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
   because he has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
 and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4: 16-30)

Here, Jesus was proclaiming Jubilee to the people at Nazareth.  And he reminds his listeners about the meaning of Jubilee - forgiveness, restoring liberty to all those who were enslaved and restoring a truly equitable and just society – a new society was the term used by our Founder. 

Jesus whole ministry subsequently was a realization of Jubilee.  He went about proclaiming good news to the poor, healing the sick and restoring sight to the blind.  We, his disciples are called to follow in his mission, to live and proclaim jubilee wherever we are.  Jubilee is not a one-time event but a way of life.

Now we are at the beginning of an important time in the story of our Family.  We are declaring jubilee for the next three years in preparation for the bicentenary.   We begin a period of reflection leading up to the celebration of the 200 anniversary of our foundation.  This will be a time of reflection, remembering who we are, where we have come from and where we are going.  We commented on the two-fold meaning of the word “re-member” – calling to mind and coming together again.   We call to mind our past story and, in the re-telling of that story, we come together as members of the one Family.  This is what we aspire to during this time – to draw more closely together as one Family of five vocations as we retell the story of our Family in preparation for the bicentenary in 2020.

After our prayer and reflection we congregated in the dining room to enjoy a celebratory tea and later in the afternoon we received a visit from Bishop Nicholas Hudson who was making a pastoral visit to our parish

It was a very pleasant friendly meeting with the Bishop. He was interested in learning about our Founder and the international Family he founded and he inquired about the ministry of each one of us.

The day ended with a visit to the chapel.  There, the Bishop joined us in praising and thanking God for all God’s favours to us and imploring God’s blessing as we embark on this three year reflection in preparation for the celebration of 200 years of our life as Holy Family.