Chevalier Centennial Celebrations

October 21st 2007 was the one hundredth anniversary of the death of the Founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Fr Jules Chevalier. You can read about his life and the foundation of the Congregation here.

Writing of the death of the Founder, his contemporary Fr Charles Piperon MSC said, "The clock struck half past five and the evening Angelus was ringing in the Parish. Thus died our venerated and beloved Father, surrounded by his intimates and by some of his religious who had come from various parts to assist at his last hour and to render him their final respects. He had lived eighty-three years, six months and six days, the greater part of which - fifty-three years - had, by a special design of Divine Providence, been spent in the town of Issoudun."

The Death of Fr Chevalier

21st October 1907

"...his strength diminished daily and we saw the end was near. As the doctor had said, he still lived about one month. With full consciousness he received the last Sacraments and died peacefully and calmly.

Though the persecution was at its peak, his burial was a real triumph. All stores and main houses in town were closed as a sign of mourning, and almost all priests of the diocese attended this solemn burial. I never saw the parish church as full as on that day.

Now our Very Reverend Founder rests in a simple tomb, it is true, but in his dear and magnificent basilica that he built himself for the consolation of his sons and daughters."

Bro. Jan van Heugten MSC
Fr Chevalier's personal assistant

At this significant anniversary we recall the tremendous legacy that Fr Chevalier has left to the MSC Congregation and to the Church.

Numerous celebratory events have taken place across the Province, as well as around the entire Congregation.

The commemorations in Ireland took the form of an overnight gathering for all MSC, hosted by the MSC Community on the Western Road in Cork, on the 9th and 10th September. It provided an opportunity to reflect on the person of Fr Chevalier as well as his legacy for us MSC as we minister 100 years after his death.

Cork Celebrations - 9th and 10th September

Over 30 MSCs from across Ireland gathered on the afternoon and evening of Sunday 9th September. Supper was provided in the Western Road and members stayed into the evening to socialise and catch up.

On Monday morning everyone gathered for coffee at 10.30. This was followed by an opening liturgy led by Fr Michael O'Connell, Director of the Mission Support Centre. The first input session of the day was led by Fr Michael Curran MSC, a past Provincial of the Irish Province and from 1993 to 2005 the Superior General of the Congregation. Fr Michael reflected on several significant texts of the Founder.

After lunch in the Sacred Heart Parish Centre an afternoon session entitled "Fr Chevalier for the 21st Century" was led by Fr Michael Screene MSC, Superior of the Croi Nua Community in Galway. This was followed by a concelebrated Eucharist led by Fr Pat Courtney MSC, Provincial.

After Mass an evening meal had been arranged in the Blarney Woolen Mills Hotel.

Fr Michael Curran's Input - A few Significant Texts of our Founder

One of the most striking characteristics of Jules Chevalier is his conviction that he was called to be the Founder of a Society that would have a profound impact on the world of his time. This sense of being a Founder awoke in him at an early age and sustained a remarkably active and fruitful ministry.

Father Chevalier’s starting point was a deeply personal experience of the Incarnate Word of the Father, Jesus Christ, sent into the world to reveal the love of the Trinity and to heal the evils that afflicted the human race. His experience of the Spirit had something very genuine about it, centring as it did on the essence of the Christian message. It was essentially an experience of the God who has loved us first (1 Jn 4:10). For Chevalier, devotion to the Sacred Heart was a way of life inspired by the Gospel.

His purpose being the transformation of society, Chevalier was open to the possibility of various ways of living the counsels and of taking part in the mission. Over many years, he sought through his own reflection and through his discussion with the Jesuits to develop structures that would embody his vision.

In the light of our Founder’s experience of the Spirit, in the light too of our Constitutions and modern Church teaching on the religious life, on the priesthood and on the vocation of the laity, we need to question ourselves. Does God want this work today? Is God calling us, personally and as a group, just as God called our Founder in his time, to share in the mission of his Son to the world as Missionaries of the Sacred Heart? Are we convinced of this? Living as we do in the midst of the world, with its mixture of good and evil, how do we foster and give expression to such conviction?

Some pictures from the Cork Celebrations

Frs Des Farren and Martin McNamara	Fr Gerry Thornton MSC	Frs Allen Browne and Mil Whelan
MSCs arrive for the day	Fr Michael Curran MSC	During one of the sessions
Fr Joe McGee MSC	Fr Pat Courtney MSC	Examining some of the MSC publications

Fr Michael Screene's Input - Fr Chevalier for the 21st Century

CHEVALIER FAMILY- GIFTED FOR THE NEW CENTURY
The blessings which Fr. Chevalier brought into the church are not all past. They invite us to turn into this new century with imagination and hope. The world will belong to those who love it most and such love is our business. We are called to be agents of newness in the gifts we have received.

DYNAMIC GIFTS
Gifts often lie dormant in people. We can be quite unaware of the explosive power hidden in us and miss how vital it is that all our gifts be opened up for the future on behalf of the world we inhabit. Michael Screene invited us reflect on a number of areas he considers particularly significant in view of our own charism in our world today. The Word of God, coming to new fruit in the church, and our own charism are opened to their potential by the very world we live in, by its pain, its gifts, its hungers, hurts and vast human potential always there. The world is not a passive receiver of Gospel but itself evokes from the Gospel “things old and new” as required.

A RADICAL INCARNATIONAL SPIRITUALITY
Michael discussed the need for a radical incarnational spirituality, so we may fruitfully engage with humanity today, with our culture, the city, the earth, the darkness, the creativity of life today. He suggested particular Gospel gifts that we have for secularity today; empathy for our world, compassion, healing, prophetic hope, imagination and the courage to dig deep into the issue of intimacy, for married people, single and celibates. Without intimacy there is no energy. Chevalier people should be experts and frontiers-people in nourishing healthy dimensions of relationships. If we do not, then we are leaving this whole area to the pornographer and the salesman.

CHEVALIER AND EUCHARIST
The emphasis of Fr. Chevalier on the Eucharist was obviously bounded by the culture and practices of his time. Michael suggested that his deep interest should be creatively read now as an integrating energy for our life and ministry, so that it might combine the passion of our call with the pastoral and paschal hearts our century needs.