Homélie pour le 8 mai 2026 – Fête des bienheureux martyrs Christian de Chergé et ses compagnons.

          Nous célébrons aujourd’hui la mémoire de nos frères de Tibhirine, morts martyrs en Algérie, en 1996.

          Dans leur lettre circulaire envoyée à leurs familles et à leurs amis, à l’occasion de Noël 1995, donc quelques mois seulement avant leur mort, ils expliquaient comment, deux ans auparavant, compte tenu de la situation sécuritaire qui se détériorait, ils avaient discuté sur l’opportunité de partir et comment ils avaient finalement décidé de rester sur place, ensemble. Ils expliquaient, dans ce très beau texte comment ce choix avait été préparé par tous leurs renoncements antérieurs (à leurs familles, à leurs communautés monastiques d’origine, à leurs pays. Et ils ajoutaient que l´éventuelle mort de l’un d’entre eux ou d’eux tous ensemble ne serait qu’une conséquence de leur choix de vivre à la suite du Christ.

Homily for 8 May 2026 – Feast of the Blessed Martyrs Christian de Chergé and his companions.

               Today we commemorate our brothers of Tibhirine, who died as martyrs in Algeria in 1995.

               In their circular letter sent to their families and friends at Christmas 1994 – just a few months before their death – they explained how, two years earlier, given the deteriorating security situation, they had discussed whether to leave and how they had finally decided to remain in Tibhirine, together. In this beautiful text, they explained how this choice had been shaped by all their previous renunciations (of their families, their original monastic communities, their countries). And they added that the possible death of one of them or all of them together would be merely a consequence of their choice to follow Christ.

Thursday, 7 May 2026 – 5^th week of Easter

Acts 15:7–21; John 15:9–11

H O M I L Y

Jesus’ final instruction to His apostles, during the Last Supper He shared with them, is a call to brotherly love. Similarly, the accounts in the Acts of the Apostles that we read during this Easter season show us how this brotherly love is lived out in practice, within a community, through relationships that are not always necessarily easy. Indeed, this love is sometimes lived out through the resolution of conflicts.

6 May 2026 – Wednesday of the 5^th week of Easter

Acts 15:1–6; John 15:1–8

Homily

Having read almost the whole of chapter 14 of St John, we begin chapter 15 today and find the theme of ‘abiding’—so often mentioned in the previous chapter—once again at the forefront. “Abide in me, as I abide in you… Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit.”