Displaying items by tag: Jules Chevalier Bicentenary

May 15^th, still the Jules Chevalier Bicentenary Year: His gift of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

And we remember that this is the 150^th Anniversary of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

And the gift has reached to countries far and wide: 

To Asia 

To Latin America

Jules Chevalier Bicentenary celebrations, Melbourne.

Our bicentenary celebration took place in the parish church of St Thomas, Blackburn, which the MSC serve.

We celebrated on the day itself, the Friday 10 o’clock mass followed by refreshments. It was a combined celebration for members of the parish, for the MSC in Melbourne,

for Elizabeth Taylor and the OLSH sisters, for Sister Tess Veenker, MSC Sisters Provincial, Laity of the Chevalier Family, Margaret O’Loughlin and Lee Toll.

Mark Hanns MSC presided at the Eucharist.

Lee Toll offered her homily reflection

communicating the experience of the January gathering of the Laity of the Chevalier Family in Cebu, Philippines, memories of Jules Chevalier, the Internationality of the gathering – illustrated with many slides by Lee as were the parts of the mass and the hymns, concluding the celebration with what has become our Chevalier anthem, James Maher’s Woman of the Sacred Heart, illustrated with a wonderful collection of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Heart images.

And, a significant part of the refreshments, a birthday cake – and the cutting of the cake, in the photo above: Sister Relida OLSH, Lee Toll, Michael Sims MSC, Elizabeth Taylor OLSH, Mark Hanns MSC - and glimpsed, Margaret O'Loughlin and Philip Malone MSC.

Appreciation to Trieu and Hoa for photos

And a welcoming greeting from the Bishop of Darwin, Charles Gauci:

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fr Jules Chevalier MSC, the founder of OLSH and MSC.

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart - Australia and Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart congregations have given so much to our Diocese. So many of them have poured blood, sweat, and tears in the service of God and God’s people. The first 3 bishops and most of the priests and sisters in our Diocese have served here for many years because of this man’s inspiration and vision.

We thank God for them all and for him. In what they have given to us, we are forever grateful.

+Charles

Celebrating Jules Chevalier’s 200^th birthday

As we celebrate birthdays, we do so in the light of the achievements of the person we are celebrating. Then, we remember, that on the actual birth day, it was an ordinary day, a child born to loving parents, but no guiding star shining in the heavens.

So today, we celebrate the day of Jules Chevalier’s birth, in central France, Richelieu, to his parents, Louise and Charles, joyful, but not anticipating how their son’s life would turn out, his simple background, his seminary studies, the discovery of the Heart of Jesus, his priestly commitment, his zest for parish life, the inspiration to start a missionary congregation, to name Mary Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, his gathering so many to himself but seeing them scattered by anticlerical laws throughout Europe, then far beyond, especially to the missionary lands of the Pacific, the Sister Congregations, the outreach to the Laity . And, the sadness of his last days, ousted from his Presbytery, yet faithful and, after 83 years of life, almost 53 years in his MSC vocation, he left us his heritage.

Reflection.  Founder

From Charles Piperon:  The foundation of a religious Congregation is not an ordinary work that depends on human will, or that a person may undertake or not just as he may wish, like the construction of a monument, the running of an estate, or any other operation that is left to our free choice in accordance with our natural talents. To think in this way would be to ignore an elementary truth about religion.

Founders receive their mission from on high. They receive the same instructions as Moses, “see that you build according to the model shown you” (Exodus 25:40). The success or not of their enterprise depends on their fidelity in responding to the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. From this fact also arises a religious family’s obligation to preserve a lovingly the spirit it has received from its founder.

Reflection: Social reign of the Sacred Heart.

From his letter to Father Delaporte MSC, 16 February 1891.

No, I am a no means indifferent, as you seem to think, about the establishment of the social reign of the Sacred Heart. Nobody desires it more than I do – be sure of that. If time had permitted me, I would have written long ago a series of articles on that important subject in our Annals, for I consider it one of the principal works of our Congregation.

I have spoken around about many times concerning the matter, but nobody could or would take on the task. Since you were fully engaged in labour questions, in articles for the newspapers and in your periodical…, I refrained from asking you to take in hand this part of the program of our Annals. Since you can do it, I’m not only not opposed to it, but I wholeheartedly urge you to do so.

Honouring Jules Chevalier, media and communications pioneer, 200. Chevcom.

On this bicentenary occasion, a proposal. In fact, it was the fruit of international tri-congregation meetings, 1999-2005, MSC. FDNSC, MSC: that we use the name ‘Chevcom’ for our communications. The inspiration came from Jescom, Jesuit Communications. The proposal was heard favourably in 2005 by our incoming General Council – the emerging era of setting up websites and internet activity. However, a more traditional Latin terminology prevailed, “misacor’.

The exception was Julius Kumar MSC in India who has persevered for many years with ‘Chevcom’ on site and Facebook. The main illustration here is a screen shot from one of his videos.

In almost 20 years, the social media face of the world has changed, developed. We text, we abbreviate, we use key phrases. What if we were able to adopt Chevcom, Chevalier Communications, for many (all?) of our media and communications, promoting MSC life, the life of the whole Chevalier Family in the name of media and communications pioneer, Jules Chevalier himself.

Jules Chevalier Bicentenary   -   15^th of each month reminder. MSC Mission Office 25 years’ celebration a fulfilment of Jules’ vision.

Each 15^th, an alert to the Bicentenary of Jules Chevalier’s birth, March 15^th 2024.

This week’s celebrations, Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral with Cardinal John Ribat MSC and the international visitors from Africa, Asia and the Pacific remind us of Jules Chevalier’s missionary dream and what it led to.