A look at the friendly Secours Catholique group in Flers – a French town in the Normandy region where I am involved – which decided to change its activity: instead of ‘reupholstering furniture’, it wanted to do theatre! It took us the whole year…
The group is Eric, Alice, Anne Marie, Jérémy, Elie, Claude, Thérèse, Yannick, accompanied by Sylvie and myself, Danielle. We had to do a lot of listening to their lives, talking with them and reflecting ourselves…
After reflecting, we decided together on the theme that would emerge, expressing it as follows: ”A ballad of words by anonymous people! “ The words we chose: Respect Solitude Friendship Solidarity Sharing Love Together. It was a long road of happiness but also of suffering, which ended in the joy of success!
Following this implementation process, a number of questions arose for me and for many others: how was this group able to surpass itself? How did these very different people make me believe in them and give them the chance to take charge of their lives? They never gave up, despite the ups and downs between them! Sylvie, who is very talented, built the play with their words and we both ‘played the game’ with them. However, sometimes I went home without any hope that it would succeed….
We did two performances: at the first there were about thirty people, and the following Saturday there were 80!
Danielle GUILLOUF, DHS, Flers Community. Published 17 November 2024, the eve of World Day of the Poor, created by Pope Francis in 2017, and the eve of the National Day of Secours catholique Caritas France, which calls on us to broaden the horizons of our hearts through a solidarity of welcome, listening, giving and prayer.
