By the lay Assumptionists of Quebec

In Québec, the Assumptionists and their lay friends work at the Montmartre, a center for faith and culture. They have taken as their mission reaching out in a special way to those want to deepen their faith or those returning to the Catholic faith, by constituting a Christian community where one can experience celebration, fellowship, adult education and the exchange of ideas.

The group was created in 2005 at the invitation of two religious: Christian Blanc et Benoît Bigard. The reasons were varied. The first 2½ years were spent just getting to know each other, to understand Fr. d’Alzon and the Assumptionists better, to discover their charism, and to get a better idea of our own expectations. Along the way we came to realize that our primary goal is to work for our own spiritual conversion, with the help of a particular charism.

Since 2008, there have been nine of us making our way in this process. We continue our monthly meetings. Prayer and faith sharing find their place more and more. We make juse of a tool developed by Fr. Benoît Bigard, the Kingdom Awareness Exercise, which places an emphasis on our spiritual life. The aim of this Exercise is to discern the action of the Spirit who hastens the coming of God’s Kingdom and to give thanks for that grace. We ask ourselves, « What, during the past week or today, has contributed to or impeded the coming of God’s Kingdom in me…….in us……around us? » Moreover, we have begun to compose our « Charter of Life »; this long process is a good exercise for reflecting, discussing, integrating and understanding together the Rule of Life.

The principal apostolic activity of our group is, in partnership with religious, to assure te smooth operation of the Center for Faith and Culture and to respond to the needs of the Christian community by providing different services. Over the course of the past few years, our outreach to the materially poor has included financial contributions to an orphanage in the Congo, a house for students in Haiti, and compensation for teachers involved in a literacy program in Madagascar.

We continue to make our way and to pursue our commitment now under the leadership of another religious,  Fr. Edward Shatov. We would like to complete our Charter of Life, continue our formation, including a session on spiritual direction, and live more and more in conformity with the Gospel.