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sn a day of the Ile-de-France Fraternity of the Cor Unum Family, on 5 February 2022, Pierre-Baptiste Cordier Simonneau pronounced his definitive commitment to the SVECJ. He committed himself to follow Christ more closely in the world.
This commitment was received by Nuno Fernandès, Director General of the SVECJ Hubert Louvet, priest of the diocese of Paris and member of his team, presided the Eucharist. Hubert also gave the homily. He was accompanied by Pierre Salmon, a priest of the diocese of Saint-Denis and Francis Corbière, priest of the diocese of diocese of Paris.
The more I read and meditate on our Life Project, the more I am convinced that our way of seeking Christ in the world is prophetic. I listen to these words of Pope Francis spoken in Morocco in 2019:
Our mission as baptised persons, as priests, as consecrated persons, is not determined particularly by the number or by the space we occupy, but by the capacity we have to bring about and provoke change, wonder and compassion; by the way we live as disciples of Jesus, in the midst of those whose daily life, joys, sorrows, sufferings and hopes we share (GS 1).
Becoming witnesses to the nearness of Christ
It is this call to be in the midst of the world, witnessing to the closeness of Christ, that made me join SVECJ. For many years, I have been looking for a way to reach out, as a Christian, to those women and men who live without knowing the tenderness of Christ. I have found it in SVECJ. I am not trying to convert them, to tell them that we are better – sometimes we are worse – but that in my life there is a need for companionship. I have to let myself be invited to walk the path of the covenant and the mercy of God in order to be more of a companion of Jesus.
Letting myself be converted by Christ
This is a dynamism that I try to incarnate more and more every day in the heart of my family and professional life. Like Pope Francis, I need the prayers of others to endure and to allow myself to be converted by Christ, in this mission of closeness to the world. This is where the team, the informal exchanges with other SVECJ and Cor Unum Family colleagues are a help to me.
Being at the crossroads of the world
In the fraternal sharing of life, of my vision of the world and of the Church, I find the necessary impulse to be “at the crossroads of the world” as our prayer of commitment invites us. Together, we receive each other in order to go out into the world better, filled with the hope of God’s love. It is also a place where I hear the call to an intimate conversion. It allows me to accept the difference of the other. It is a place of unification of my life. In my life, in the midst of the world, I discover more and more the tenderness of Christ’s heart. The contemplation of his heart makes me discover more and more the Father in the dynamism of the Spirit.
Découvrir le Projet de Vie de la SVECJ
Following Christ more closely
On this path that leads me today to ask for a perpetual commitment to the SVECJ, I entrust myself entirely to the grace of God. May it be granted to me, by loving this world, the women and men of this time, to love it more. I draw this love, the strength of the fragile, from prayer and the Eucharist. It is the contemplation of Christ’s heart, the seat of his love and mercy, that irrigates my life. This heart of Christ, which beats for the life of the world, is also found in my mission within the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. In this attachment to God’s tenderness, I receive enthusiasm, dynamism and joy in the love I give to my wife and children.
It is this love received from God, manifested to my family and to those I try to serve every day, that I come, humbly, to witness, to ask for and to receive today.
Pierre-Baptiste Cordier Simonneau
