How to bring spirituality back to the countryside, where God seems to have left?
“By reopening our churches”; that was the answer of Catherine de Maistre, who lives with her husband, Alain, in a small village in the center of the Somme. This couple, with a strong faith, tried to bring Jesus back to the center of the village. Since 2016, the Eucharist is placed daily in their small chapel. It is the story of a spiritual adventure.
Located along a road that crosses a small village of thirty people, the small chapel of Longuet (Somme), built in the eighteenth century, is unremarkable in appearance. Inside, however, a small red light indicates that the Eucharist is placed daily. A rare presence in an area where many churches and chapels are closed, due to a lack of priests and faithful who regularly attend Mass.
A chapel closed for decades
Catherine de Maistre and her husband had a house opposite the church, across the street. A native of Paris, in retirement, they have decided to go to Longuet more often. As practitioners and very active in the parish in Paris, the couple hesitated to settle in this village longer because of a lack of spiritual help. For decades, the church housed under the patronage of Saint Giuliano was closed and opened only once a year, on Easter Monday, the feast day of the patron saint. The tradition of opening the doors on the feast of the patron saint has existed for a long time despite the difficulty of finding a priest to celebrate Mass.
But the idea of settling in Longuet was always on their mind. Catherine recounts with enthusiasm: “One day we were going for a walk and suddenly I had an intuition. I heard bells ringing in the distance and I said to myself: 'It is necessary to put Jesus back in our land; we have to open churches and chapels, there is no other solution!'” The idea had not left her mind. A few weeks later, she asked for an appointment with the vicar general of the diocese of Amiens. “I told him everything I thought,” she continued, “I said we have to reopen the churches to bring Jesus back to our country.” Ambitious, Catherine went even further and requested that the Blessed Sacrament be placed in Longuet's small chapel for daily Eucharistic adoration. A great wrought iron gate, erected in front of the choir, to protect the Eucharist; With this Catherine hoped that the vicar general would accept. But the vicar general was cautious, not responding immediately, but asked her to join the others in praying for the intention.
When the Eucharist gathers the faithful
Undeterred, aided by the new parish priest, Catherine invited several people to join her in prayer in the chapel. One day a surprise happened. Catherine said: “It was a December morning, it was cold, the church was freezing, and we were fifteen people! Fifteen people came to pray in the hope of seeing Jesus back in our little country. We were satisfied.” Then from one thing to another, the spiritual adventure continued and the small group decided to meet once a month to pray and attend Mass according to agreement with the priest. After five months, a miracle happened. That priest told the vicar general about this small group. One day, the vicar general called them and said, "Tomorrow, I will give you the Blessed Sacrament." Everyone was filled with feelings of joy. Fortunately, everything is ready to receive Holy Communion. “My husband prepared everything without knowing if we would ever have Communion. But we have faith! Therefore, he repaired the makeshift house, installed electricity, put red lights ...".
Today, two and a half years, the Eucharist is present day and night in the chapel and a Mass is celebrated there once a month, with Eucharistic adoration. Every day, Mr. Alain came to open and close the chapel door. An adventure bore fruit as more and more people entered this normally closed chapel. Catherine did not hesitate to speak of a miracle: “While we were away, one of the neighbors who lived near the church opened and closed the door. However, it was an anti-clerical person. He never went to church and never wanted to go to church. But moved to see his village's legacy revived, he agreed to help. Now, he opens and closes doors as needed and has even agreed to make a candlestick. One day, without saying a word, he placed a candlestick in the chapel. One afternoon we saw it, illuminated by two candles. It was incredibly moving.”
A real sign of hope for the countryside
Catherine has a lot of testimonies. Just opening the prayer intention notebook and looking at the candles that have been lit is enough to understand that there is genuine concern from the faithful as well as from the villagers. Believers or not, many are moved by the idea of seeing their tiny church, a tender memory of childhood, now open daily. Others reconcile with faith or discover Eucharistic adoration for the first time. “One day, a young woman came out of the church and said to me, 'I don't know what happened but I'm completely changed,'” Catherine said. Today, other small groups are formed, such as women praying to Our Lady of Children, as illustrated in a stained-glass frame, to ask her to protect their children and grandchildren.
With the success that has provided a real sign of hope, Catherine hopes that the initiative will be followed by other parishes. With her small group on Fridays, she prays with this intention and likes to repeat her priest's beautiful quote: “We pray for the people of the parish. We pray that Jesus will return to our village.” This is a beautiful message of hope, it proves that closing churches is not inevitable!