Alabaster wedding for the Notre

“The testimonies of couples are numerous. They share how much the Équipes Notre-Dame (END) have nurtured their married life and how much without the movement their life as a couple would be completely different! Hence the importance of celebrating the anniversary of our movement and of a charter that gives us life”says Christophe Bernard, head with Catherine his wife, of the Notre-Dame teams for the France-Luxembourg-Switzerland region. Each year, team members are invited to celebrate the Virgin Mary, under whose protection they place themselves. because “There is no better guide, to go to God, than the Mother of God” (END Charter), on the feast of 8 December. This meeting takes on a particular color this year since the celebration of theImmaculate Conception marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the charter which truly founded the post-war movement.

Since November 29, a novena has been offered to all members of the END to prepare for this anniversary and pray together based on extracts from the charter. This December 8 in Paris, 500 people, members of the Teams and friends, are expected at the mass, which will be celebrated in the Saint-Augustin church at 8 p.m. and presided over by Mgr Thibault Verny, auxiliary bishop of Paris. A time of conviviality around a snack will allow everyone to meet and continue this moment happily. Note: the presence of the international team in charge of the END, made up of seven couples from four continents.

Live fully the sacrament marriage

If the first team launched in 1939 accompanied by Fr. Henri Caffarel, it was in 1947 that the latter proposed the charter for team life, in response to the need for unity and structure that arose with the growing number of teams. Updated in 1977, it is still a pillar of the movement today and allows you to grow personally, as a couple and as a team. “The purpose of the charter, like the rule of life of a monastery, is to help everyone to live their vocation. Helping couples live life to the full the sacrament of marriage and live as a team a spiritual and human mutual aid. It is a rule to progress on our path of holiness, it is thought of as a graduality. It is still a guide with six points of attention which sometimes require a lifetime to implement. Don’t get discouraged!” launches Catherine Bernard. Christophe to punctuate: “This demand in spiritual matters is the same that Christ calls us to live: we know that it leads to joy!” Among these concrete points of effort, the duty to sit (DSA) is the privileged and regular meeting place for the couple for a time of dialogue under the gaze of the Lord. This is one of the great intuitions of END pedagogy. Many other movements have been inspired by it.

The Notre-Dame Teams currently have 2,247 teams in France-Switzerland-Luxembourg, or 20,353 team members. The movement is present in 70 countries, with 14,531 teams, or 162,861 team members (figures at the end of 2021). It developed particularly in Brazil following the travels of Fr. Caffarel in the 1950s and currently brings together 4,624 teams and 27,363 team members (2020 data). Their common point? The charter of course! “The international dimension of the movement touches us a lot. When we meet each year with the other couples in charge and the priests to work, pray and share together, we truly become aware of the universality of the Church, of the universality of sacrament of marriage and its graces”, confides Christophe Bernard. An experience, between movement unity and mutual enrichment, that each member of the END has the opportunity to live during international gatherings organized every 6 years. In 2018, 42,500 couples and 500 spiritual advisors from all over the world met in Fatima in this way. The next major international highlight is planned for Turin in 2024. In the meantime, but also every six years, a national gathering for team leaders is proposed. Last year, 1,500 team members renewed their sacrament of marriage under the gaze of Maryin Lourdes.

A figure of holiness

Prophet for our time, he showed the dignity and the beauty of each person’s vocation according to the word that Jesus addresses to all: “Come, follow me. He thrilled the spouses for the greatness of the sacrament of marriage which means the mystery of unity and fruitful love between Christ and the Church. He showed that priests and couples are called to live the vocation of love (excerpt from the prayer for the canonization of the Servant of God Henri Caffarel). In June, Positioa long text of nearly 800 pages which presents the life, the thought, the virtues and the reputation of holiness of Fr. Caffarel, was sent to Rome at Dicastery for the causes of the saints. Within three years, the founder of Equipes Notre-Dame should be declared Venerable. From now on, a miracle and its recognition will be able to advance the cause of canonization of Father Caffarel, promoted by the END, to make his intuitions more widely known: conjugal spirituality, the good news of Christian marriage, and his thoughts on prayer. . “We keep all his extremely rich writings. And we realize through their reading of the very thorough knowledge that Fr. Caffarel had of the couple, long before theencyclical Humanae Vitae. His conference at Chantilly on May 3, 1987 is still one of the founding texts of the movement. It is a treasure to refer to when you ask yourself questions”notes Catherine.

The movement is also preparing to celebrate another anniversary: ​​the hundred years of the decisive appeal of Father Caffarel, “that day when I knew that I was loved and that I loved”, in March 2023. From one party to the next, it is a question of revitalizing the teams very affected by the pandemic, of reclaiming the fundamentals of the movement to better radiate the light of Christ. During the first quarter of 2023, meetings of mixed teams will allow exchanges around spiritual growth. Next March, the teams will be invited to share on the theme of spiritual accompaniment, before a time of assessment and thanksgiving in the sector or diocese during the second half of 2023.

The fruits of movement

Under the impetus of Fr. Caffarel, the END movement is at the origin of many other proposals for the Church. In 1943, the movement supported the creation of the Fraternité Notre-Dame de la Resurrection for widows. In 1956, he participated in the creation of marriage preparation centers (CPM). Four years later, Fr. Caffarel initiated the process of the Intercessors to support the END movement through prayer. “Night and day there is a great chain of people from all walks of life praying for us for the intentions entrusted to them. In the same spirit, the weeks of prayer offered since 1966 at Troussures have been transformed into schools of prayer. There are about thirty that have emerged in the dioceses”, specifies Christophe. Another anchor point for the teams: the Massabielle house. In Saint-Prix, in the Val d’Oise, it is a place of retreat and rejuvenation for all members of the movement and beyond. In alliance with the diocese of Pontoise, since March 2019, the Massabielle house is an implementation of the encyclical Amoris Laetitia at the service of couples and families, especially those going through hardship. “In September 2015, Pope Francis invited the Notre-Dame team members to take an interest in young couples and broken homes. A text that continues to mark the teams”emphasizes Christophe.

For more than seventy-five years, the END have been aimed at couples united by sacrament marriage, but over the years other proposals have emerged. Thus the Reliance teams have been joining couples in second union for 20 years. The two-year course, Tandem couple, is part of parish for young couples, married or not. Finally, launched last year, the Parcours Ensemble brings together couples after 10 years together, regardless of their history or life situation, accompanied by a couple from END. The only prerequisite: to accept the Christian view of the couple. Already fifteen teams have set off in parish, a dozen are in preparation. An approach that responds well to the expectations and diversity of today’s couples. “How often the love of spouses, the affection between parents declines, precisely because we neglect to maintain and deepen them. Our human loves require encounters, exchanges, heart-to-heart moments. It is vital. Likewise, for the love of God, the soul of the Christian withers away, who does not spare himself every day moments of encounter with his Lord, moments of exchange, of intimacy, that is to say of prayer. . It is no less vital” (Father Henri Caffarel).