Vacances & Spi from the Chemin Neuf Community offers a balanced vacation experience, combining spiritual moments with family and tourist activities. The proposal includes times of prayer, worship, and Eucharist, while fostering family intimacy and interpersonal relationships.
Going on vacation with family, alone, as a couple, with grandchildren, or with friends, everyone aspires to it. Going on vacation and enjoying spiritual time in the morning, having picnics ready for the day’s excursion, participating in an evening where young and old play, laugh, pray, with adoration and the Eucharist offered every day, is even better.
“Vacances & Spi” is a proposal from the Chemin Neuf Community that combines vacation time with a spiritual offering, including individual or family time and group activities. All of this takes place in beautiful, inspiring, and relaxing locations such as the Abbey of Sablonceaux in Charente-Maritime, between land and sea, close to beaches, near the little Venice of Saujon, and a stone’s throw from a marsh rich in fauna where you can taste oysters. There’s also the Hermitage of Chamalières on the foothills of Puy de Dôme, with a breathtaking view of the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand and the Limagne plain. There are walks for all levels, from experts to young families, and places rich in history and architecture. Gourmets will appreciate the Auvergne cheeses and truffade.
We are committed to adapting the proposal to the group, considering its diversity and the plurality of realities. The richness lies in accompanying a week like this, being led by the needs of each individual or the group, adapting each moment to the possibilities of each to preserve the unity of the group. It is the Holy Spirit who constantly precedes us on this journey. Every morning, we place ourselves under the gaze of the Lord to let Him guide every moment of the day.
The day starts gently with a family breakfast. To do this, we set up “family spaces” that provide each family unit with a place of intimacy, calm, and reunion. Then the “spi time” brings everyone together in praise, listening to the word of God through small games/workshops, a talk to grow, discover, and deepen the parent/child, grandparent/grandchild, and friend relationships, especially with the Lord. To allow the older ones to have a time of personal prayer/introspection, the children are taken care of during the 30-45 minutes of morning silence.
Then comes the time to prepare everyone’s picnic with what the servants in the kitchen have so delicately prepared. Each family sets out with what it takes to tackle the tourist attractions of the region. Every other day, we go together, and participants just follow the day’s proposal. This alternation is also valid for evenings, either spent as a family (dinner, games, ice cream outing, restful sleep, …) or all together, starting with a good summer aperitif and then an evening gathering.
We are committed to living this “Vacances & Spi” week together and individually, for a closer connection with the Lord. The spiritual offering aims to be a path of growth, day by day, with a theme that runs through the week. Some sometimes describe the week as a “retreat,” proving that the Lord meets us in all realities, even in summer, even in the midst of children.
Therefore, starting from a proposal that is half vacation, half spiritual, I dare say it’s 100% vacation + 100% spiritual!
