International Marian Festival starts in France

(August 16, 2010) "Mary, Queen of Hearts" will be the theme of a 4-day International Marian Festival that kicks off on Wednesday in Paray-le-Monial, France. The August 18 to 22 festival being organized for the third year in a row by the International Marian Alliance and the Emmanuel Community, includes reflection, prayer and witness. Timed especially during Europe’s holiday season, the festival particularly invites young people and their families to an experience of true holiday in the presence of God. A statement by the organizers said that reflecting with Mary on the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious mysteries of the rosary will be central to the festival. The meditative and contemplative prayer of the rosary leads us to mission and action, renewing our hearts and our lives, the statement said. The 4-day International Marian festival will also focus on the Church in Haiti that was hit hard by the violent earthquake of January 12, and the Church in the Middle East especially in view of the upcoming Synod of Bishops in the Vatican on the Middle East, October 10 to 24.