Reflections on Annecy 2012

Basilica of the Visitation, Annecy

Spending July and August in Annecy, for some Salesian days with Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal and my Salesian sisters… well this was something that I had looked forward to for months, and when we were arrived in old Annecy, I found the experience exhilarating.

This has not been my first visit to Annecy. The first time I had gone I had been in my 20s, and went with my theology classmates from Torino. I had since returned three other times, for days of reflections, or on pilgrimage, or on retreat. This Summer 2012 pilgrimage, then, has been my fifth time visiting the places of Francis de Sales, but this has seems so much richer after 18 years of teaching courses on the life and spirit of the saint.

Sr Anne-Marie Baud plays with the door knocker at Chateau de Sales, Thorens

It was exciting to me to have one of my former students, Sr Anne-Marie Baud do so much of the footwork and bring our group to visit the Holy Source of the Visitation, and many of the places where Francis and Jane lived and worked. I have been to these places with scholars who knew of them through meticulous study, but Anne-Marie is a native of Savoy. As she told me the first time I met her, “My family was converted by Saint François de Sales!” To travel with her to these wonderful places was to have an insider’s view. This made all the difference, as far as I was concerned, for she gave a sense of joy, adventure, intimacy and enthusiasm to every corner of Annecy.

It was also a great treat for me to spend 12 days with the Sisters of the GBR province, for many of the sisters I have known in different places over the years (Torino, Bollington, Chertsey, Battersea, London, Berkeley, Melbourne), so it was fantastic for me to renew our friendship and to do so in the company of Francis and Jane – the saints of Christian friendship. The prayer moments, prepared by the sisters each morning and evening, were fresh and always seemed to hit the mark for my own spirit in these days, and the sisters made each day’s liturgy prayerful and profound. The companionship at table was another treat, enjoying the wonderful meals, the beautiful sunshine, hearing of the sisters’ work and apostolic experiences – all of this fed my heart and soul. How privileged I felt to participate in the renewal of vows of the junior professed, and the golden jubilee of three sisters who came from the same parish so many years ago and who have worked in very different places but who could gave the whole pilgrimage/retreat a wonderful, youthful tone.

Any help that I might have provided in the way of the conferences and the homilies was amply repaid by the great warmth of family spirit that I experienced in return. I cannot thank you enough – collectively and individually – for these wonderful days of prayer and refreshment, of spirituality and family spirit too.

Abundant blessings on all!