Monday, June 04, 2007

The Traditional Communities of France

I received in the mail today a copy of the book put out recently by French publisher La Nef, and which I reported on here in April, Les communautés traditionnelles en France or The Traditional Communities in France.

The book is a smaller coffee-table sized casewrap hardcover book, and as the title suggests, it goes through the various traditional communities in France (in communion with Rome) -- it also touches into the Institute of Christ the King and their seminary in Italy.

The book is in French of course, but I must say, even if you don't speak French, I think many would find this book interesting and worthwhile. The reason for that is the book will first of all introduce you to a number of French monasteries and orders attached to the classical Roman liturgy that you may have less familiarity with. In the book, they include any relevant contact information, or website addrssses as well, where they have them.

But in addition to that, what will also make the book interesting (perhaps most interesting to non-French speakers) are the great number of colour photographs of these communities, their day to day activities, and of course various liturgical shots as well.

I was impressed by the fact that the book is up to date enough that they include the Institute of the Good Shepherd. In fact, it made me think that I haven't really looked around their sites much, and so I wandered over to their main church, Eglise Saint-Eloi.

I'd like to find or receive more updates and images of them and their work. If any have such, please keep me informed.

Here are some pictures from their website however:







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