Why this title?
A comment of a friend:
The phrase “Fleur de Farine” appears many times in the Bible. Here are a few examples:
• In the book of Genesis, God appears to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre (Gn 18: 6):
“He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him.” Abraham hastens to greet them and asks his wife Sarah: “Knead three bushels of flour and make loaves.”
« Fleur de farine » is this purest flour chosen by God to feed His people.
In this beautiful fragment of the Genesis it seems as if the man came back to the Paradise: God speaks to Abraham in a familiar way and accepts to sit at his table with a gentle and modest simplicity. By the hospitability of Abraham, God comes again to live on earth. No other paragraph of the Old Testament tells us of the messianic era as of a feast on which God and a man are seated at the same table. And when God becomes a man, He also uses the image of a feast to reveal the tenderness of His Sacred Heart. At the end of the meal offered by Abraham who had prepared the best, the finest flour, an exchange of gifts takes place. God makes a promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah. In this fragment of the Genesis, it is not God that prepares the feast… God was willing to accept a little gift from Abraham in order to offer that of His: the promised son.
• In the book of Ezekiel, in chapter 15 verse 19, there is an allusion to this attention of God toward His people of Israel:
“Finest flour, oil and honey with which I was feeding you.”
• Psalm 81 expresses the complaint of God who can see that His people hardens and doesn’t listen to Him. His wish was to feed them: “with finest wheat and fill them with honey from the rock.”
In return for such delicacy of their nourishing Father, Israel offers the best part of their harvest to God, especially the finest wheat.
• The first book of Chronicles mentions this event: certain Levites were in charge of objects of cult and others of finest flour, wine, oil, incense and perfume (1 Ch 9: 29). In chapter 23 of this book, verse 29, “fleur de farine” is mentioned as destined for sacrifice.
• In the second book of Maccabees, at the time when Israel suffered persecution and was desolate to see the great door of the temple burned down, the people prayed to God and offered a sacrifice and the finest flour to Him.
We would like this little bulletin to be such finest flour: an offering to the Father that is consecrated by Him and shared with all His children, like at the moment of the multiplication of bread.
The Eucharistic Host is this finest flour that has become the presence of the Son. The Host is still neither known nor loved enough. May this little bulletin contribute to change it.
« Fleur de Farine » contains:
• A commentary on the Eucharist
• A commented Eucharistic adoration
• A prayer for priests with reference to the words of popes
• The news from the life of the community
Surely the sisters don’t lack creativity!
