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| Eglise de Saint Pierre, Berrien, Brittany |
Four Ordinariate priests from the Southwest spent a week in France this last week. It was a welcome break for us during Eastertide. We were staying in Berrien and were very privileged to be able to celebrate mass each day in the village church with the blessing of the Parish Priest (who seemed to have six or seven churches!).
The Church is a sixteenth century Church under the patronage of Saint Peter. So we were overjoyed to begin our days with the Offices and then Mass in the Church. In the photo you can see Fr John, pastor of the Cornwall Mission, with Fr David of the Torbay Mission and myself. Fr Simon took the photo. Each day after Mass we popped into the boulangerie for croissant and bread. During the days we toured various churches viewing beautiful architecture, statuary, vestments and church plate.
One Church named after the relic they housed, St John's finger, also possessed an incredible acoustic and we were moved to sing the Regina Caeli before the statue of Our Lady. Some tourists who came in during our singing were quite surprised - whether that was due to our singing, due to singing English, or having a group of men voicing a devotion to Our Lady, we were not sure.
One of the objects of our quasi retreat/break was to pray together but to also take stock of where we are as an Ordinariate in the Southwest and to share some of our thoughts about the future and the way we might develop. We had a very good time discussing and share our thoughts.
May Our Lady of Walsingham, Saint Pierre, Saint Jean de doight, Blessed John Henry Newman and all the saints intercede for us.
