Angers Day 3

Angers Day 3

 Had a stay at home day today. I wanted to take some time just being here in the house of the Good Shepherd and to make sure I had experienced all there was to see. It was good to go gently and not to rush off anywhere... but I still managed to do a few things...

The day started with Mass at St Jacques (thought of my brother Jim!).Very old Church as they all are.

That's me standing outside the Church.

St Jacques is the local parish Church and was here when St Marie Euphrasie built the convent and the home for girls in distress. It constantly amazes me how old everything is over here in Europe. We are such a young country in Australia (since the European Settlement - ancient before that!) but these buildings are hundreds of years old.

There is a stained glass window in the Church dedicated to St Marie Euphrasie..

Mass was lovely and I managed a bit better this  time as we had some words in the local Bulletin. I find I can read the words a little, but find it very hard to understand the conversation.

After Mass I did what you gotta do - the washing!!! A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do, and this is where you wish you had that extra shirt or socks or whatever. Anyway I thought I would make the most of access to a real laundry. It's all done now and I'm back to scratch with my clothes - I can make choices again!!!

I'm moving on to the Isle de Noirmoutier tomorrow - as one of the Sisters said "to sleep in the house of a Saint". Rose Pelletier (Sr Marie Euphrasie) grew up in Noirmoutier and the Sisters have bought that house and now let it out selectively to people with a connection to Good Shepherd.

Had a lovely midday meal - was offered le canard (duck) or le poisson (fish), so I stuck to the fish. There are certainly different options in the French diet...

This afternoon I went with 2 sisters over to visit the Good Shepherd Contemplative sisters...

They live at the other end of this very big property. There's an interesting story about the origins of these Sisters. Originally, in the time, of Sr Marie Euphraise, the girls who came in as "penitents" were not allowed to join the mainstream Sisters, because of the scandal it would cause, so they formed a different arm of the Congregation and became known as the Magdalen Sisters, and were purely Contemplative. That is not so much true today - the members can make a free choice, but it was true for many years.

I wanted to visit them to ask for some prayers. One of our family  is not travelling too well at the moment so I asked them to especially pray for her, and also for all the girls and staff at St Clare's. And little Levi, my niece's premmie baby. So they're all in the  book of prayers!

Chapel of Contemplative Sisters of Good Shepherd

My 2 sister companions then took me to the big Chapel, here at the house of the Good Shepherd. As I mentioned the other day, I went to Mass and Office in the Chapel, and thought it was lovely...

Small Chapel

But as Crocodile Dundee would say... "That's not a Chapel"..... 

One thing I am discovering more and more about Rose  Pelletier is that even though she was a tiny woman herself she did things big!!!

Here's the real Chapel...

And there's more ... There's a secton for the original Magdalen Sisters off to the side of the nave so they  couldn't be seen.....

 And there's a section for the girls - wait till I show my St Clare's girls this...

I can just see them sitting up in Church like that!!!!  Not....

I'll just add a few pics from the grounds - there's so much to see, but I don't want to overwhelm you with all these images..

One last thing...

On a little side part of the Chapel they have a wax statue of Sr Marie Euphrasie. She was only a petite woman, but she packed a genuine punch...

That's probably enough for one day... I am going to join the Sisters for Prayers and Office this evening before dinner. Then I need to organise my packing... Tomorrow I journey by train to Nantes (about 30 mins) then pick up my car and drive over to the coast. My suitcase will hopefully  be easier to manage once I'm in the car.

Thanks very much to all those are sending through emails - I really love receiving them. I think I will love them even more in the next few weeks as I journey off on my  own again. So please feel free to write a few words every now and then...

I will write more about the House of the Good Shepherd later, but there's a fair bit to add so I might just do it a bit at a time. Have heaps of pics to share.