September 29, 2016
MESSAGES - Dear Marists of Champagnat,
The table preserved in the house of our origins at La Valla, has become a symbol of the community that gathered around it. Like all objects connected to real experiences of our own history, this table connects us to stories that have come down to us, and awakens in us a variety of emotions. There could be no better image to remind us of that day on the 2nd January 1817, when Fr. Champagnat gathered his first followers, and invited them to live as a family of brothers. From that moment on, they shared bread and conversation, joys and sadness, dreams and frustrations around that table. The testimony of Bro. Laurent (Jean Claude Audras) is particularly touching:
