For the second consecutive year, the chapel on Rue des Martelots hosted and shared the Parish Week of Accompanied Prayer: a spiritual retreat experienced in daily life, typically lasting seven days.
It involves praying for 20-30 minutes a day with a biblical text, benefiting from daily individual guidance (lay or religious) to help with meditation. It is a tool for spiritual deepening, often inspired by Ignatian spirituality.
Sister Claude-Marie shares her experience during Lent 2026:
On 7 March, in the chapel on Rue des Martelots, little notes appeared before the altar!“I give you thanks, Lord, for this time of guidance and, like Micah, I wish to continue on my path, humbly, with you, in trust and surrender! ”
“O Lord, give me everything that can lead me to you! O Lord, take from me everything that might turn me away from you!”
“This journey I have walked this week, I offer it to you! And with my eyes raised to heaven, I open myself to you! I am not afraid. Yes, I am your servant so that I may take the better part. You have allowed me to receive so that, with you, I may in turn give. What do you expect of me? Give me your strength and show me the way!”
“Jesus, you are the reason for my joy! You have come to seek me out.
You pass close to me, you heal me and restore my dignity! ”
Here are some words of thanksgiving gathered at the Eucharist on the morning of 14 March.
It brought to a close the Week of Accompanied Personal Prayer, which had begun the previous Sunday in the same place. In an atmosphere of contemplation, for the second year running we welcomed 10 retreatants with their seven male and female companions and two supervisors for a form of retreat in daily life. Organised by the Ignatian Paths, this week can be experienced within a parish (it is the Parish Week of Accompanied Prayer) or within an extended parish, as in Besançon, where it becomes Personal.
During this week, the aim is to experience a spiritual time, a time that infinitely transcends us.“To be accompanied in deepening my understanding of the Gospel texts that speak to me today. ”To learn to pray ‘as a friend speaks to a friend’, to pray each day so that the Word of God may resonate within us, and to be accompanied daily in a suitable parish setting to reflect on what the Lord is saying to me and allow Him to transform my life.
To discover or rediscover how the Word of God can nourish my prayer and my life.
Relationships are formed between us that will nourish Life in our personal relationships and in our parish communities.
“Isaiah’s ‘I will not forget you’ sums it all up!”
“The encounters with the participants; finding myself within myself, listening to myself; connecting these moments with daily life; the feeling of ‘letting go’, knowing that the other members are experiencing similar moments…”
“Naming the gifts received during the day… becoming at ease with silence… ”
Reason enough to give thanks to the Lord who makes us witnesses to his wonders!
Sr Claude-Marie
