Sainte-Croix of Riaumont
” a religious life in the spirit of scouting with the service of the young people. “
Thus the Sevin Father defined it his vision of a religious command founded on Scouting.
The idea which will lead to the starting of Sainte-Croix of Riaumont was born from a dream if one can say, ” its desire and thunderbolt ” of a monk for scouting splendid ” to baptize it ” and to raise it until a ” command “:
” I dream of the team of missionnaires scouts who under the dress or the tunic kaki would be inserted in the African bush… to make with the tribes as with the little boys of France the sumptuous gift of an always young scouting, alive herald of the Gospel, really yours, my dear sons, and really them ”
However the fast death of the Sevin Father, of the questions of men and situation brought a long search which the Revet Father could make lead with the assistance of Mgr. Jean Rupp.
The first volunteers scouts had met around him and worked already with the service of the youth most disadvantaged, according to the wish of the Sevin Father. But the crisis shaking the Church and the very whole company, as well as the new orientations of French scouting, made them feel in a very sharp way the imperative need for a help and a formation given by a religious community.
It seems obvious to me, wrote then the Father Revet, that one cannot think of carrying out a ” command ” or a ” institute ” without putting itself at the school of an existing spirituality or a command… holy Jean Bosco took for marten saint François de Sales, holy Ignace himself was after its conversion in the Benedictines of Montserrat.
The first members of Sainte-Croix decided to become oblats abbey of Fontgombault. The father-abbot accepted the load of spiritual assistant of the new institute (tries that it delegated firs to Dom Duverne) : study of the vocations, training of the beginners and studies ecclesiastical.
November 1, 1971, in the festival of all the saints, the Revet Father devoted himself completely to God by pronouncing his vows. He received the scapular, so expensive with Benoît saint and the white coat of Bernard saint struck of the scout potent cross.
Attached to the traditional rules of the religious life, Sainte-Croix of Riaumont is thus presented in the form of an apostolic company of life. According to its statutes approved in 1971 by Dom Jean Roy (father-abbot of Fontgombault) and Mgr Rupp (bishop of Monaco and first general prior) and set up canonically by Saint-Siège and the bishop of Arras in 1991:
1) It has as a general end to promote the glory of God and the sanctification of his members by the practice of three religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, according to the spirit of the rule of Benoît saint. It wants to offer all to its members, who are regulate oblats about saint Benoît, the means of being useful more closely, until the cross and resurrection, the Christ who said herself: ” the Road, the Truth and Life “.
2) Its remote goal is to act on the current world to diffuse there the spirit of the Gospel and especially a really effective charity between its members and towards the others, the worship without compromising of the truth, the direction of the honor, of justice and the beauty, the service of all, with a preference for smallest and poorest, in the joy scoute and peace bénédictine.
3) It has as a special end the education of youth in this same spirit, and, initially of the youth handicapped by serious deficiencies of the company and the families (private children of the normal family medium, delinquents, handicapped people, persecuted,
etc…).
À feuilleter ci-dessous, un sermon du Père Prieur,“Retrouver la Croix”
Lire aussi : “Spiritualité de la Sainte Croix de Riaumont“
