Dear brothers,
Manahoana? (How is it going?) Salama! (Greetings!)
We want to share our joy in being fraternity, coming from different cultures, welcomed by Felix in Madagascar, and we share our experience of work in Antananarivo and Mahajanga through what we have lived with the Little Sisters of the Gospel in a p
oor neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital, in our visit with the Malagasy priest fraternity in Amborovy, and in our sharing in the closing of the National Assembly of the Spiritual Families of Charles de FOUCAULD. Adoration, celebration, and opening our hearts to be read by others and being able to read the hearts of others– all this has made it possible for us to feel like a fraternity in the Carmel of Amborovy where the Carmelite sisters have treated us as family.
Thanks to Felix we have been able to live these days as “a Nazareth,” close to the people, who each day have gifted us with a smile and a greeting. The message of Pope Francis has been present in our meeting and has helped us value the Word of God as the animator of our fraternity, remembering the 50th anniversary of Dei Verbum in 2015.
We have reviewed the fraternities in 5 continents—the priest fraternity is present in 43 countries– where Br. Charles’ charism and message of universal brotherhood is like the gospel that we breathe. We appreciate the impulse of the fraternity in Asia toward an ever-improving coordination and communication; the Month of Nazareth in France, Brasil, Chile, Cameroon and Ireland this past year, great news that we can’t hide in a box; the call to dialogue with Islam in Europe, Africa and Asia–one Father who desires understanding between his sons and daughters and doesn’t desire to be the cause of separation and conflict; we trust that the upcoming meeting in July 2015 in Viviers, France 
for priests who live and work with Muslims will be a great help in uniting us in mutual respect and not separating us; we observe new problems in communication due to long distances or due to being overworked and we wish that our website www.iesuscaritas.org would be a point of communication for all so that we can communicate in a fast and practical way, and we hope that each document about Charles de FOUCAULD would be known among us; we celebrate all that has been lived in the assemblies of the United States, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, of Africa, in Kribi, Cameroon, and of Europe, in Verona, Italy, receiving from the brothers their impressions and happiness.
The recognition of our priestly fraternity as a Pontifical Right is getting closer and has received a good response and we await good results from the actions that are being taken in the Congregation for the Clergy through brothers close to the Fraternity.
For the 100th anniversary of the Easter of Brother Charles we don’t propose general criteria for the celebration; we know that in each continent, country, diocese, parish or local fraternity the event will be organized as Family. All of these should be celebrations in the style of Nazareth, far from expressions of triumphalism and showiness.
We have reviewed our finances. The balance of our international account is fragile. We remind each country that fraternity is also sharing our financial goods, especially to help develop the Month of Nazareth and assemblies in Asia, Africa and America, to help the international team to be present when requested and also to support our annual council meeting. Misaotra betsaka, thank you very much, for your generosity. We appreciate greatly your efforts for this sharing.
There are three important calls that we perceive in our lives as priestly fraternities: the day in the desert, as a monthly priority, as a time of listening, leaving everything behind; the review of life as a time spent with the brothers, reflecting on their feelings, projects, problems, their interior life, their processes, and how they also would reflect and help us; the promise in each fraternity to make progress in mutual support, as a family helps its own, in the practicalities of life, without becoming spiritually detached, to know how to share in a project, work as a team or take a stand on a social or human issue. We believe that this is part of the dream of Charles de FOUCAULD, seeing the living Jesus, crucified and risen, in each man and woman, the living Jesus who contemplates and loves us as we contemplate and love him in daily adoration of the Eucharist.
We decided that our next meeting will be in Spain, in Aurelio’s home from the 20th to the 29th of October 2015. We are already beginning to prepare our hearts and our backpacks.
A big fraternal embrace from the team, trusting in your help in prayer,
Jean-francois, Emmanuel, Félix, Mark, Mauricio and Aurelio
Amborovy, Madagascar, 11 September 2014, the day of our return
PDF: LETTER FROM AMBOROVY, international team, 2014, english
‘EXPECT A MIRACLE!’ was the message that greeted us from the wall of the reception room as we arrived to begin our retreat – and it soon appeared that we might need one! Three of our members had had to cancel through last minute illnesses and one of them was Jim Murphy, our intended retreat leader who found himself in hospital after collapsing just two days before we were due to begin.
ted biography of Brother Charles (‘Journey to Tamanrasset’ by Antoine Chatelard). The atmosphere of friendship and peace was very tangible and was picked up at one of the masses by Adrian spontaneously quoting: ‘How good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity’. The Lord blessed us in other ways too: the Marist Sisters looked after us like family and the sun shone steadily upon us in a most un-british way.
