Nous avons vu hier que le sens principal de la fête de Pentecôte chez les Juifs, celle que Jésus lui-même célébrait, c'est la reconnaissance. Les fidèles remercient Dieu pour les récoltes de printemps et pour la Loi de Dieu donnée à Moïse.
Les Chrétiens célèbrent à Pentecôte un autre don de Dieu, répandu sur le fidèles après que Jésus ait cessé de vivre en chair et en os parmi eux : l'Esprit Saint de Dieu offert comme soutien et comme guide aux croyants. Voici donc trois thèmes parfaits pour être "mis en fête".

Pour se souvenir que les récoltes et les fruits sont un don de Dieu, on peut faire un pain maison qui sera mis à l'honneur avant d'être mangé. Les Juifs des temps bibliques devaient apporter au temple les premiers fruits récoltés de chaque catégorie. Il les gardaient dans un endroit à l'abri jusqu'au jour de la fête, où il les apportaient. Cette coutume s'est perdue pour nous, mais c'est une bonne idée de réserver pour ce jour-là la consommation d'un fruit ou d'un légume qu'on n'a pas encore servi à table durant le printemps. S'il s'agit de fruits ou de légumes du jardin, le symbole est plus fort, mais rares sont ceux qui ont cette chance en ville. Alors acheter un produit un peu plus onéreux qu'on s'offre rarement est aussi un moyen de "faire la fête avec reconnaissance".

Lorsque Dieu distribua pour la première fois le Saint Esprit aux croyants, ils le virent apparaître sous forme de petites flammèches de feu. C'est pourquoi à la Pentecôte, nous décorons la table de lumignons fabriqués à partir de simples pots de yaourts en verre et recouverts de papier de soie ou de motifs peints à la peinture vitrail.

Parfois avec les enfants nous fabriquons aussi des petits moulins à vent (un carré de papier coupé en diagonale dans les 4 angles et fixé sur un bâton avec une épingle). Pourquoi des moulins à vent ? Parce que le jour de la première Pentecôte chrétienne, les flammèches de feu furent précédées d'un vent violent et bruyant.

Si vous voulez en savoir plus sur la Pentecôte ou raconter cette histoire en famille, vous pouvez cliquer ICI.

Yesterday we saw that the main meaning of the Pentecost festival (Shavuoth) for the Jews  was thankfulness and thanksgiving. Jesus himself celebrated this festival during his life on earth. The believers thank God for the spring harvest and for the Law given by God to Moses so that he teaches it to the Israelites.

At Pentecost Christians thank God for an other gift too. This gift was imparted to the believers when Jesus had left this earth with his human body. Then God gave his own Holy Spirit to the believers to lead them and strengthen them. These 3 topics present in the festival can be joyfully celebrated and displayed at home.

To remember God's provision in the harvest and with fruit, one can make some bread at home and put it on a nice plate or in a basket lined with a white napkin. In the bibical times Jews had to bring the first fruit of each species to the Temple. When they cut them, they put them carefully aside till the day of the festival when they brought them. It may have been hard not to taste them, for children especcially, but this reminded them that God deserved to be thanked for them (the fruit brought to the Temple could be eaten there by those who brought them, and part of them was the food for the priests).

This custom is lost for us now, but it may be a good idea to keep one fresh spring specie of fruit or vegetable till Pentecost to enjoy it. It may seem nicer to do that with something growing in our own garden, but it's a priviledge that few people have in towns. So buying a special fruit or vegetable, that we don't dare to buy usually because it's more expensive than others is another way to enjoy God's gift with thankfulness on that special day.

When God gave his Holy Spirit to the first Christian believers it appeared under the shape of little flames. So at home we put tea candles in little glass jars and with wrap them with thin silk paper of we paint them with glass paints. We light them during Pentecost Sunday lunch.

Sometimes with children we too make wind mills with a square of paper, a wooden stick and a pin. Why windmills? Because before the flames appeared, as a sign of the Holy Spirit, there was a strong and noisy wind in the town.

Maybe these ideas will help you to discover a brand new different idea which will make your Pentecost day very exceptionnal.

C'est un 24 mai, en 1543, que mourait Nicolas Copernic, cet astronome polonais qui le premier émit la théorie selon laquelle le soleil est le centre du système solaire. Il avait 70 ans.

Durant sa vie Copernic aura non seulement obervé le ciel à travers le télescope qu'il fait construire en Allemagne, mais il a aussi fait des études de théologie, de médecine et de mathématiques. Il a sera à la fois professeur et chanoine dans l'Eglise catholique.

Copernic publia le résultat de ses travaux en 1543, l'année même de sa mort,  dans un ouvrage dont il ne recevra les premiers exemplaires que quelques heures avant sa mort. Dans cet ouvrage où il explique que le Soleil occupe le centre du monde et c'est autour de lui que les autres corps tournent. La Terre, qui d'après les Anciens était le centre du monde, se voyait ainsi ramenée au rang de simple planète, en orbite autour du Soleil comme toutes les autres. Il lui aura fallu 36 années pour parvenir à démontrer sa théorie. 

Dans la dédicace qu'il fait au Pape Paul III, il présente son système comme une pure hypothèse, évitant ainsi la vindicte de l'Eglise. Car il ébranle alors la théorie que l'homme est au centre de l'univers. Il provoque ainsi une révolution philosophique immense. Mais son système est finalement adopté un siècle après sa mort.  Le système copernicien a apporté une profonde révolution dans la conception du monde et plus généralement dans la pensée scientifique.

Copernic démontre que si l'homme n'est pas au centre de l'univers, l'univers n'en continue pas moins de tourner! Il démontre aussi dans sa vie que les convictions religieuses ne sont pas contradictoires avec la science.

Louez le souverain Seigneur. Il est l’artiste qui a fait le ciel… Il a fait les grands astres : le soleil pour présider au jour, étoiles et lune pour présider à la nuit. Psaume 136 (135)

Comme la date d'hier était celle choisie pour montrer les cadeaux reçus à l'occasion de l'échange fête des mères, je ne vous ai pas parlé d'une grande dame dont cétait hier le 227ème anniversaire de la naissance: Elisabeth Fry. Sa notoriété qui s'étend encore jusqu'à aujourd'hui est due à son dévouement auprès de personnes les plus rejetées de la société de son temps.

Elisabeth Fry est née à Norwich (Angleterre) de parents qui tous deux appartenaient à des familles aisées qui avaient fait fortune dans la banque et les manufactures. Sa mère était une Quaker pieuse qui très tôt lui apprit le service des plus pauvres. Elle demandait aussi à ses enfants de passer deux heures par jour dans la méditation silencieuse. Peu de temps après avoir donné naissance à son 12^ème enfant, la mère d’Elisabeth mourut. Bien qu’Elisabeth n’ait eu que 12 ans, il lui revenait, de s’occuper de ses frères et sœurs, étant donné qu’elle était parmi les ainés.

As yesterday was the day chosen to show the gifts of the Mother's day exchange, I didn't write for you about a dedicated woman, whose 227th birthday was yesterday : Elisabeth Fry. His fame is due to her dedication to some of the most rejected people of her time.

Elizabeth was born in Norwich () on 21st May, 1780. Her father and mother were both belonging to successful business and banking families, who also owned factories. Elizabeth 's mother was a devout Quaker.  She was very involved in charity work and spent part of each day helping the poor of the district. Catherine also insisted that her children spent two hours a day in silent worship.

Soon after having her twelfth child, Elisabeth’s mother died.   Elizabeth was only twelve years old but as one of the eldest girls, was expected to help bring up her younger brothers and sisters.

As a young woman Elizabeth was friend with well known people of the high society who were involved in social reforms.
When she was eighteen she heard an American Quaker, whose speech deeply moved her.  She wrote: "Today I felt there is a God.”
After meeting him, Elizabeth decided to devote her energies to helping those in need. Over the next few years she collected old clothes for the poor, visited the sick and and set up a Sunday School in her house where she taught local children to read. At that time a Sunday school was not so much a religious meeting than a true school for children who were working all the other 6 days of the week in factories.

In July 1799, Elizabeth was introduced to Joseph Fry, the son of a successful merchant from Essex . Fry was also a Quaker and the two married on 19th August 1800. Between 1800 and 1812 Elizabeth gave birth to eight children. Elizabeth remained committed to her religious beliefs and in March, 1811 became a preacher for the Society of Friends, the other name of the Quakers.

In 1813 a friend of the Fry family visited Newgate prison. He was deeply shocked by what he saw but was informed that the conditions in the women's section was even worse. When he asked to see this part of the prison, he was advised against entering the women's yard as they were so unruly they would probably do him some physical harm. He insisted and was appalled by the suffering that he saw.

When he told Elizabeth Fry about the way women were treated in Newgate, she decided that she must visit the prison. Fry discovered 300 women and their children, huddled together in two wards and two cells. Although some of the women had been found guilty of crimes, others will still waiting to be tried. The female prisoners slept on the floor without nightclothes or bedding. The women had to cook, wash and sleep in the same cell. Afterwards she wrote that the "swearing, gaming, fighting, singing and dancing were too bad to be described".

Elizabeth Fry began to visit the women of Newgate prison on a regular basis. She supplied them with clothes and established a school and a chapel in the prison. Later she introduced a system of supervision that was administered by matrons and monitors. The women now had compulsory sewing duties and Bible reading.

Elizabeth combined prison visiting with her role as wife and mother. Three more children were born over the next few years and she also had to endure the pain of the death of her five year old daughter, Betsy. In 1817 Elizabeth Fry and eleven other Quakers, formed the Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate.

In 1818 her brother in law  was elected as Member of Parliament and was now in a position to promote Fry's work in the House of Common. She was invited to speak to a House of Commons committee.
 
By the 1820s Elizabeth Fry had become a well-known personality in . It was extremely unusual for a woman to be consulted by men for her professional knowledge. Fry was strongly criticised for playing this role and she was attacked in the press for neglecting her home and family.

In 1824 Fry took a holiday in Brighton where she was shocked by the large number of beggars in the street. She investigated the situation and discovered considerable poverty in the town. Fry decided to form the Brighton District Visiting Society. The plan was to establish a team of voluntary visitors who would go into the homes of the poor where they would provide help and comfort. The scheme was a great success and soon there were District Visiting Societies in towns all over Britain.

Fry also became concerned about the quality of nursing staff. In 1840 she started a training school for nurses in Guy's Hospital. Fry nurses wore their own uniform and were expected to tend to their patients spiritual, as well as their physical needs. Florence Nightingale wrote to Fry to explain how she had been influenced by her views on the training of nurses. Later, when Nightingale went to the Crimean war, she took a group of Fry nurses with her to look after the sick and wounded soldiers.

Queen Victoria took a close interest in her work and the two women met several times. Victoria gave her money to help with her charitable work. In her journal, Victoria wrote that she considered Fry a "very superior person". It is claimed that Victoria, who was forty years younger than Elizabeth Fry, might have modelled herself on this woman who successfully combined the roles of mother and public figure.

After a short illness, Elizabeth Fry died on 12th October, 1845. Although Quakers do not have a funeral service, over a thousand people stood in silence as she was buried at the Society of Friend's graveyard at Barking.

 Ce petit village d'Alsace, serré autour de son église me donne l'occasion de préciser un petit point de vocabulaire, approprié en ce dimanche.

Des églises il y en a de toutes sortes. En Angleterre les clochers ont quelque chose d'un donjon, mais carré. Les riches églises gothiques n'ont rien à voir avec les charmantes églises en bois d'Amérique du Nord, et encore moins avec celles en bois debout de Norvège dont la construction rappelle celle des drakkars. Et il y a encore tant d'autres styles d'Eglises.

Mais il y a aussi l'Eglise avec un E majuscule. Ce terme ne s'applique pas à un bâtiment, quel qu'il soit,  mais à une communauté de fidèles. C'est ainsi qu'on peut parler de l'Eglise du Brésil ou de Chine. C'est un groupe de personnes qui dépassent englobe les croyants du passé comme ceux de l'avenir. Cette Eglise réunit avec ceux d'aujourd'hui les fidèles qui furent martyrisés à Lyon il y a plus de 18 siècles, et dont je parlais hier. C'est ainsi l'ensemble des fidèles dont Jésus-Christ est le berger. Alors en ce dimanche peut-être beaucoup de mes visiteurs ne franchiront-ils pas le seuil d'une église, mais ils peuvent se joindre à l'Eglise dans le fond de leur coeur.

This little alsatian village gathered around the village church gives me the opportunity to clear a point of vocabulary appropriate for a Sunday.

Various churches are found everywhere. Their styles are changing, from English churches whose steeples are looking like castle towers, to gothic rich churches, and to little wooden churches in North America, or wooden Norvegian churches builts like old Norvegian boats called drakkars. And there are so many other churches too.

But there is also the Church with a capital C. This word should not be used for buildings but for people who build a congregation. This congregation may gather all the believers of a country, and so we speak of the Church of Brasil or the Church of China. It's a large body of people which gathers the believers of the past together with today believers. The Church enclose the martyrs of Lyon about whom I wrote yesterday. The Church is the whole group of believers whose Jesus is the Sheperd. So even if many of my visitors don't enter a church today, they may belong to the Church by their faith in their heart.