TILBURG, Netherlands - Father Ben Verberne, MSC and Sister Lies Alkemade, FDNSC initiate what they call the "Spirituality Project". The project aims to "offer society and the church of today and tomorrow a contribution that matches our life," says their letter to the worldwide Chevalier family.

Fr Verberne is the Provincial Superior of the Dutch MSC province while Sr Alkemade is the Provicial Superior of the Dutch FDNSC community. Their letter is as follows:

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Dear Sisters, Confreres and Associates,

Closing the Chevalier Year is a special moment for us. During these past months we commemorated that our founder died a hundred years ago and many among us considered the actuality of his message. In 2008 we will look up at the person and the significance of Mother Mary Louise Hartzer. She died only four months later than Father Chevalier. Together they gave a new impulse to the spirituality of the Heart.

For this reason, in the name of our two administrations, we joyfully and proudly present at this occasion a new common initiative, the 'Spirituality Project'.

With this project we want to offer society and the church of today and tomorrow a contribution that matches our life. From various sides society asks for greater depth, for more spirituality. We hear this request also from those nearby, especially from the Chevalier associates, from those related to the Sittard basilica, from those who go the way of the heart via the MST and from the men and women who offer care or work with us in other ways. By their involvement and personal closeness they are in fact already our associates and we are convinced that with our spirituality we have something to offer them.

The administration of our two provinces found Fons Meijers msc and Jacqueline van Marion willing to investigate the viability of this initiative. Jacqueline is known by many of us because since many years with Fons she formed  the Chesed community. It will now become their common task  to bring together the groups mentioned above, groups that are already in some ways associated with us, to help them to become aware how far our spirituality is already alive in them, to deepen it and make them more acquainted with it. Together, Fons and Jacqueline will try to unite these groups with deeper links. The idea is that these groups should become spiritually selfsupporting, so that the spirituality of the Heart can find its own way.

To make all this possible both administrations will take care to make this initiative also financially possible. Shortly we will also appoint a group of five to seven  persons  who will accompany Fons and Jacqueline. The project will start on January 1, 2008, initially for a period of three years. The provincial chapters of the FDNSC and MSC that will take place after three years (respectively in the years 2010 and 2011), will be important moments of evaluation.

Around twenty years ago our two provinces  initiated together the Missionary Service Centre Tilburg (MST) as an expression of the social dimension of the spirituality of the Heart. Our two provinces created the situation to make this possible. Dedicated and expert laypeople joined, and in an original and independent way they  succeeded in giving this engagement the form it has today. Gradually the MST acquired a place in and around Tilburg. We now present a similar initiative, hoping that people, especially groups of people, via our spirituality will go the Way of the Heart towards the future.

We gladly take this opportunity to thank those who until now as a group have collaborated creatively to arrive at this initiative. We must thank especially those who helped us as 'project group' ,  as well as the commission that studied the contribution we can give to the Basilica in Sittard. A special word of thanks to Jacqueline van Marion and Fons Meijers, who are willing to make themselves available and to dedicate themselves to this new task.
     

Sister Lies Alkemade, fdnsc                                              Father Ben Verberne, msc
      Provincial Superior                                                            Provincial Superior
   FDNSC Dutch Province                                                    MSC Dutch Province