On January 12, the Teresian Association in Belgium celebrated the closing of the centenary of the pontifical approval in the church of St. Susanna located in Schaerbeek (Brussels capital) with a Mass and a convivial gathering.
On January 12, 2025, the members of the Teresian Association in Belgium gathered in the parish of St. Susanna, Brussels, during the Sunday Mass to celebrate the end of the Centenary of the Pontifical Approval in the presence of close friends of the TA. A year earlier, on January 11, 2024, the celebration of the Centenary was inaugurated in the same temple, near the TA headquarters.
Charism
On this occasion, the priest who presided over the celebration asked a member of the Association to share aspects of the charism, echoing the texts of the liturgy of the day, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus.
Catherine Chevalier, Doctor of Pastoral Theology and Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, did so with mastery. She began by recalling that the Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism, an event that “culminates at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descends on the whole community of disciples,” making the Church “the people of those whom God has made reborn and renewed in the Holy Spirit through the washing of baptism” (Second Reading).
Catherine Chevalier then recalled three elements of the TA charism:
Pedro Poveda's call to live by the Spirit, Spirit “that unites our Association.” To live in the Spirit, she said, “is to always put God before our projects, our commitments and our choices, thus detaching ourselves from them in order to give them to someone greater than ourselves. A first key reference for us, the first Christian communities of which it was said: ‘See how they love one another’.”
Another call is to “constantly look to Christ as the inspiration for all our actions, believing that if we trust in Him, we will receive all the support we need, until Christ is formed in us,” as Pedro Poveda said. She also chose another key reference for the TA, St. Teresa of Avila, whose “great friendship with Christ is a source of inspiration for us.”
The third call is to be salt of the earth. Quoting Pedro Poveda, she emphasized: “To work in such a way, to express oneself in such a way, to always act in such a way, to treat one's neighbor with such kindness, to give him such consolation, to bring to his spirit a conviction that will season his whole life. Poveda invites us to adopt the same attitude of kindness that he had toward the world: to study and understand it, to commit ourselves to offer solutions, however modest, to inspire and witness the love with which we are loved.”
Time to socialize and dialogue
A moment of conviviality with a snack followed the celebration. During this time, it was possible to learn more about the Association thanks to the panels prepared for the day, the presentation brochures and the Letter of the Year. It was also possible to purchase the book published in French on the occasion of the centenary: Chrétiens dans une société laïque. It is the translation of the introduction by María Dolores Gómez Molleda to the critical edition of the writings of Pedro Poveda.
Those who wished could prolong the moment with coffee and sweets, during which the aforementioned work was presented. Afterwards, the results of the program that the members of the Teresian Association and close friends had done during the year were discussed.
Isabelle de Sazilly. Brussels.
Original text in French, translated into English with an AI tool.
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