Participants at « Bridges and Confluences » are on their third day. During the first meetings, everyone shared on his vocation and his life as a missionary. The various gestures involved in the sharing enabled each of us to be in deeper touch with his body and his spirit.
We belong to a long human history. This is illustrated by an infinite pyramid whereby we stand on the shoulders of our predecessors and we in turn are carrying our successors on our own shoulders.
On Wednesday afternoon, we went to the discovery of the new musée des “Confluences” which introduced us the source of life, beginning from the origin of human beings up to present and the way life is interpreted by different peoples of the world. From the top of the museum, we saw the confluence between the Rhône and the Saône, image of the meeting of SMA missionaries coming from diverse orisons to put their experiences together, to enrich each other…We latter navigated on both rivers, sailing the Saône upwards to the island of Barbe. This night visit of the city on water revealed the magnificent city of lumières (lights), the city from where the SMA went to Africa,
Sharing continued on Thursday. We became more conscious of our common vocation that made us belong to the same family, even though we live the details differently. Father Gilles Babinet (Lyon Province) presented Mgr Paul Pellet, an important historical figure in the development of the SMA. He is sadly not well known. Fr. Babinet highlighted that Mgr Pellet was strongly influenced Père Antoine Chevrier, founder of Prado Fathers at the service of the poor. The conference of Father Babinet was followed by a guided visit to Prado and the celebration of the Eucharistic in the chapel of Prado.
Tomorrow, we shall go up to the hill of Fourvière on the path of our pioneers to celebrate the Eucharist in the chapel where the SMA was born
Gérard Sagnol, sma
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