 The first Foyer retreat was preached in September 1936, and following that retreat the first community was formed. From
the first the Foyer retreat was five full days, basically lived in
silence. The length of the retreat and the quality of the silence
favour a true interior growth and a deeper joy in God, to which
retreatants constantly bear witness.
Pope
Paul VI put it this way: "The Foyers give an authentic doctrinal and
spiritual teaching in a climate of silence, charity, and devotion to
Mary, which opens souls to conversion, deepens their life with God and
leads them to the apostolate." As with the preaching of Jesus and the
apostles, all are welcomed at the same time: men and women, young and
old, single and married, religious and lay, believers and those seeking
the truth.
The Foyer itself is made up of
the Father of the Foyer, a priest who has the task of absolving,
teaching, and nourishing, and the lay members of the Foyer, men and
women who commit their entire lives to God in the Foyers. Together they
share a life of prayer and work, keeping a warm home to welcome the
retreatants, and undertaking other apostolic and social works. Some
Foyers have schools, others clinics, catechetical centres, child care
centres, etc.
Perhaps
the most distinctive note of the work Jesus entrusted to Marthe, and
she to Father Finet, is this innovative and challenging relationship
between the priest and the lay members in the family of the Foyer. The
Father and the lay members are called to live their complimentary
vocations together, and each has the common vocation of charity: the
gift of self to each and to all in a total gift to God.
The
Foyer cannot achieve its mission without a growing circle of
retreatants and friends - the larger or extended Foyer - who give a
good witness to Jesus in their families, parishes, and work.
There are now more than sixty Foyers in thirty eight countries around the world, with more than eight hundred committed members.
From the writings of Marthe Robin in 1930:
"I
would like to be everywhere at once to tell the world again and again
how good God is, how much he loves men and women, and shows himself
compassionate and tender for all. To what extent he is Father, and
Father full of goodness and mercy. That nothing is easier than to
delight and satisfy him. That nothing is more pleasant than to love
him, and that nothing is easier either, because even our smallest
actions done through love are enough to charm his heart."
From a conference of Father Georges Finet in 1971:
"The
Foyers of Charity spring from the heart of Jesus in the midst of a
Church and a world which is rediscovering the Father. God never repeats
himself in the Fathers any more than in the members. In the Foyers
there is no collective 'mould' to form each member in a certain style,
a certain spirituality Our spirituality is from the Church, without any
specific form, and open to the laity. We have no other spiritual
specialization than that of the Church. And this allows us to welcome
people from every direction who find themselves at home among us."
For further information contact:
foyers@foyers.org.uk
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