Farewell letter from Mgr François Maupu

            In 2013, the president of LAI, Bernadette Cantenot, asked me to become the movement's international spiritual advisor. I was succeeding Bishop Lucien Daloz, whom I had known well, who died suddenly afterwards have served in this ministry for 9 years. So, I've been working with LAI for a little over ten years. It seemed good to me to relinquish this office, because of the fatigue due to age (I am 84 years old) and to allow a renewal in the way of being a "spiritual advisor". I would add that in May 2019, when he renewed the confirmation of my appointment as "ecclesiastical assistant" of LAI (this is the expression used by the Roman curia), Cardinal Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, specified that it was for a period of four years.

I had thought of saying goodbye to the LAI leaders at the end of the international meeting in Madrid during the closing Mass. But we did not yet have the answer from the one who was asked to succeed me. My term was still likely to be extended.

            Since this was not the case and Bishop Nourrichard accepted this ministry, the moment of farewell has arrived. I won't see most of you again. So, I salute you, you with whom I have worked during these ten years (or part of these ten years), as well as you whom I was happy to meet recently during the meeting in Madrid in September.

I give thanks for the people I met in the course of this ministry, three presidents (Bernadette, Marta, Monique), the members of the executive committee, including the new president, Monika, and the leaders and spiritual advisers of the different countries and continents.

I give thanks for this function that has brought me into contact with countries all over the world, which has allowed me to visit some of them and to forge fraternal bonds across borders and oceans.

LAI is struggling in some countries and full of vitality in others: contacts with the whole world make it possible not to be sorry in the face of the difficulties of some, they encourage us to rejoice in the face of what is born or reborn in other regions: the intuition of those who founded Life Ascending remains fruitful!

During these ten years, I have tried to be an active and faithful member of the Executive Committee, attentive to the spiritual dimension of the issues discussed; But I was not the only spiritual specialist, whose concern is shared by all the members of the Executive Committee! nor was I confined to spiritual matters alone: with all of them, I made sure that LAI was a living movement, that LAI was of the Church and held its place in the Church.

What is not over is my link with the movement: remains the spiritual advisor of a core team of the MCR, the French branch of LAI; I will remain attentive to what is happening in the world, carrying in my heart and in my prayer, as long as God gives me to live, the movements and countries that the Lord has called me to serve for ten years.

Sorry for my shortcomings.

Thank you for what you have given me.

+ François Maupu

Bishop Emeritus of Verdun (France)

St. Augustine's Prayer

My God, my Lord,

Grant me to love You.

With all my strength, the strength You have given me,

I've been looking for You,

desiring to see what I believed.

And I struggled, I suffered.

My God, my Lord,

my only hope,

grant that I may never be weary of seeking You.

May I search for Your face without passion,

You who gave me to find You,

give me the courage to seek You

and to hope to find You more and more.

Before You my steadfastness: keep it;

before You my frailty: heal it.

Before You all that I know, all that I do not know.

Through which You have opened me, I enter: welcome me.

From where You have closed me, I call out: Open me.

Grant me not to forget You,

grant me to understand You,

My God, my Lord,

grant me to love You.