Introduction:

Greetings from Mgr. Louis Rutten and Bro. Bernardus Hoecken. I had a great pleasure of reflecting, praying, and living six days (in a retreat) in the Rooden Leeuw (Maastricht) the original house and place where the history of our congregation all started. Please allow me to have a special conversation with you on the above theme. The conversation is inspired by a part of the reflection in the recent IGC which says; “Show me a community that cherishes the founder's memory, talks about him, reads about him, invokes him, and I will show you a community that has a promising future. Show me the opposite and I can tell you, that community's days are numbered”. I have divided the con- versation into three points (a) how Mgrs. Louis Rutten lived “the culture of closeness and encounter” (b) inspiration from the Sacred Scriptures, and (c) an invitation of Pope Francis.

I hope this conversation will prod us to hear anew (today) our call to be men (brothers) of closeness and encounter.

The closeness and encounter in the spirit of our Founders:

According to our Constitutions (Article No. 9), “Our Founders were committed people, filled with the Spirit of Jesus. They were seized by his person and his message. They sensed a vocation and a mission to spread his Good News”. In the Essential Re- flections of our Constitutions, we read, “In faithful communion with Jesus Christ, with one another and with all humankind, we commit ourselves to the continuous growth of the Kingdom of God, in ourselves, in our community, in the Church and in the world in which we live”.