Yannick Imbert, Dean; Pierre Berthoud, President of Faculté Jean Calvin
Dear friends,
Dear partners, engaged alongside us in this spiritual combat which represents prayer, I would like to thank you for your loyalty and your perseverance for so many years. Indeed, the deployment, vitality and influence of our ministry are the consequence of your support in intercession. Together the Lord calls us to be a living community and to enter into dialogue with our Heavenly Father whatever the circumstances of the moment. As it exists, he hears our gratitude and our joys, our complaints and our cries of pain, our requests and our calls for help! Yes, thanks to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and by means of the Holy Spirit, the communion that we have with our Father is inhabited by personal and intimate communication with him. What a privilege and even more what a grace! That is why we do not doubt His answers! We also do not fear them even when they do not meet our expectations!
In this period so uncertain, so dramatic and so painful for some, it is precisely the moment to approach our ultimate one-on-one, the one who presides over our destinies, the one who is our refuge and who gives us strength and the courage to live, no doubt otherwise, our vocation fully, a vocation which consists in listening to divine wisdom in order to be witnesses to the Word. That which challenges, reassures, comforts and renews life, and allows us to better serve our loved ones and our neighbors, especially the most fragile!
Yet it is precisely in prayer that the Spirit arouses the creative imagination that allows us to be present and engaged in the turmoil that accompanies this scourge! Let us pray for God to give wisdom and discernment to the authorities of this world and of our nation, let us pray for all those in hospitals or at home caring for the sick, let us pray for the Churches and Christians dispersed in civil society so that they take up the challenges before them, speak a prophetic word, pray for Christian works and institutions so that they find the resources to pursue each their specific ministry within the city and this to the glory of our God and for the advancement of his reign! Finally let us pray for the Jean Calvin Faculty which is currently pursuing its ministry differently so that the Lord continues to accompany all the team members and students according to the needs of each one, but above all according to his generous grace.
The wisdom and strength of divine benevolence circulate faster and better than the coronavirus!
We remain united in prayer and in Jesus Christ, our peace, our consolation and our hope,
Pierre Berthoud
President
Professor Emeritus
(translated)