My Folleville • A Video From Fr. Tomaz Mavrič

by | Mar 30, 2017 | Formation, Reflections

The second video of this series takes us to the small church of Folleville. Father Tomaž Mavrič recalls to us Saint Vincent entering that place to encounter a reality of spiritual poverty. Today, after 400 years, we see that the charism inherited from Saint Vincent remains current and challenging in the Vincentian Family’s dedication to evangelization.

You can see the first video of this third series in this link.

Let us recall that two series have already been published:

These new videos were filmed on January 2, in Folleville.  We wanted to communicate the feelings that Vincent experienced in January 1617 when he traveled to Gannes.  Vincent was alone when he arrived at the de Gondi estate; no one was waiting for him.  Today, that is different … today there is a community of brothers and sisters there.  Folleville is much larger and today Saint Vincent is waiting for us!!

Fr. Tomaz Mavrič, CM tells us:

And here we are, after 400 years, called to go to Folleville again, to our own Folleville. Vincent was not really enthusiastic, at the beginning, really joyful, but did go at the end, passing through different obstacles to get the experience that was a gift from heaven. And we are now called to go through obstacles, not to be stopped, not for long roads, not for bad weather, snow, rain, or any other obstacles that we can find on the road. We are called to get to our own Folleville.

Folleville is waiting for us. It is waiting for us in so many parts of the world, in cities, villages: small, medium-size, big. In all the continents, there are Follevilles: the experience of spiritual poverty that Vincent experienced in Folleville so much, now in today’s world, as well, in all the continents.

Video link in other languages:

Questions for dialogue:

After watching this video together, we can discuss with these suggestions:

  1. What are — or have been — our personal “Follevilles,” those places where it is hard for us to arrive and, in the end, turn out to be a “gift from heaven”?
  2. What other “Follevilles” await us, as members of the Vincentian Family?
  3. How are we going to give “inventive to infinity” answers to the material and spiritual poverty we encounter, day by day?

General presentation of this video series

For us, 2017 is the anniversary year of the charism. Unlike other founders, Vincent de Paul did not have visions or receive messages from on high.  At two key moments in his life the Holy Spirit surprised Vincent and made him question himself with regard to two different forms of poverty: people are dying of hunger and… people are condemned because they do not know the truths necessary for salvation.  Thus, there was a hunger for the Word and a hunger for food … both of which result in a twofold death: death of the body and death of the soul.  After the failures that occurred during the first decade of his priestly ministry (failures that were revealed in the letter that he wrote to his mother and spoke about an honorable retirement which would allow him to spend the rest of his life with her [cf. CCD:I:15-16]), Vincent began to discover a new meaning in his life as a result of his charitable activity on behalf of the poor.  Folleville and Châtillon were the crossroads where Vincent encountered God.  After those events, Vincent became involved in a mission that gave meaning and direction to his life … and, as members of the Vincentian Family, gives meaning to our lives.

At the beginning of this Holy Year, this Charismatic Year … or perhaps it is better to say at the beginning of this Jubilee Year, Father Tomaž Mavrič, CM, superior general, mindful of the suggestion of an individual confrere (namely, Father Luiggi Mezzadri), decided to continue to communicate with all the members of the Vincentian Family through short video messages that are easily accessible in the various social media. He began with some reflections on Vincent’s cape, hat and shoes which from the time of the French Revolution have been preserved in the Mission House in Turin (Italy). And he now continues with this new series of three videos, inviting us to deepen in the Vincentian charism:

    • Go to Folleville
    • My Folleville
    • Return to Spirit

Initially these messages were available in eight languages: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Slovenian and Slovak … Now add three more: Ukrainian, Russian and Hungarian. We are open to make these messages available in other languages and dialects.

This work has been entrusted to Piotr Dziubak, a film-maker who has produced various important documentaries, for example, De Gasperi-mio padre; Santo subito.  Alle perferie del mondo con Giovanni Paolo II; Liszt; Das Fenster zur Welt – 50 Jahre Zweites Vatikanisches Konzil.

Video courtesy of CMglobal YouTube Channel, based on an idea by Fr. Luigi Mezzadri, CM, and directed by Piotr Dziubak.

Tags: famvin400, Tomaž Mavrič

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