Emerging from mourning

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(c)Sanctuaire-N-D-de-Montligeon

One day or another, we’ll all be confronted to the death of a loved one, young or old, whether due to a natural end of one’s life, or to illness, a tragic accident, suicide, etc. No matter what, death is always sorrowful, and mourning seems impossible at times. What Christian approach and what hope can be offered when faced with the harsh trial of separation ? Can one really get through mourning?


The shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon, world unique center of prayer for the deceased, presents mourning related sessions throughout the year. Affording bereaved people a welcoming comforting break, they allow for counselling, guiding and consolation in light of Christian hope.

At the shrine, we specifically pray for all departed. However, we also tender to bereaved people. Listening and counselling are the core ministry.

All mourning sessions are facilitated by the chaplains of the shrine, priests of the Community of St Martin, communauté Saint-Martin and by the nuns of the New Convenant, soeurs de la Nouvelle Alliance, serving the shrine. 

Why come to Montligeon?

Presenting Montligeon mourning sessions: Sr. Cecilia of the Community of the New Convenant

The demise of a loved one triggered off an inner seism affecting your whole life. Why not come and stay at the shrine of Montligeon. It provides respite for body and soul, and will support you on the way to recovery.

Types of mourning related sessions provided at the shrine:

The “Comforting Halts”: 2 days

The “Comforting Halts” take place over 2 days (2 overnight stays at the shrine). They afford tuitions and guidance on the various phases of the mourning process and on Christian hope. The program schedules individual counselling, partaking in divine office, Mass, and casual exchanges. In relation with the shrine agenda some of these sessions might present a more specific theme, such as mourning a beloved who committed suicide, or subsequently to the demise of a child (in case of unborn children, special dates are regularly programmed at the shrine).

Rev. Fr. Don Bertrand Lesoing speaking on “What hope following the demise of a loved one?” The mourning sessions rely on 4 sections: counselling and expression, prayer times for your deceased, tuitions, and experiencing the prevailing brotherly spirit at the shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon, in order to resume hope.

Pilgrims witnessing

Yves Loiseleur, visited the shrine after the demise of his wife Anne-Marie (July 2020)
Sylvie on pilgrimage further to her daughters’, Anna & Marion, demise (Nov. 2020).

2021 Comforting Halts

Following the demise of a loved one. What hope?

Online registration is open: click on the date of your choice and follow instructions.

The “Mourning Consolation Weeks”: 5 days

  • The “Mourning Consolation Week” sessions are scheduled over 5 days. They afford tuitions and guidance on the various phases of the mourning process and on Christian hope. The program schedules individual counselling, partaking in divine office, Mass, and casual exchanges. They are meant for people who have experienced bereavement at least nine months previously.

2021 Consolation Weeks

Online registration is open: click on the date of your choice and follow instructions.

About Our Lady of Deliverance &
the nuns of the shrine

Sr. Cecilia, nun of the Community of the New Convenant

Who do these sessions address?

Adults or young people aged 16 and above.

In the midst of utter suffering,
joy is possible

Sr. Cecilia, nun of the Community of the New Convenant

How is the Mourning Consolation Week organized?

by Marie-Aimée, Community of the New Convenant.

Such a session is earmarked by participants. It is indeed a unique moment devoted to reading over their personal mourning experience, receiving guidelines on such a devastating period of their life, together with tuitions on death and the afterlife.
The prayer environment prevailing at the shrine, together with the support afforded by both religious communities in charge of facilitating the shrine spiritual activities significantly help alleviate this critical time.

Do participants easily speak of their bereavement?

It differs from one person to another, for each mourning experience is unique. For some, relating a special demise will generate recalling others from the past, and a need to share about them. Communicating leads to a tangible inner liberation in view of the locked-in emotions and guilt that associate with this ordeal.

Emerging from mourning ?

Suffering causes many inner tensions. Even though the absence of the loved one remains painful, when they weaken and our spiritual heart opens up to divine light, owing to experiencing relevant counselling and the help of the sacraments, peace from above, alike rising sunlight, comes and irradiates our gloom. 

Heartbreaking mourning

Can one really “get through” mourning? Rev. Fr. Don Bertrand Lesoing, priest of the Community of Saint-Martin

How do you get to the spiritual meaning of such an ordeal?

By reading the Scriptures. Indeed they relate numerous mourning situations. The very life of Christ and the Gospel unfold teachings to ponder upon, for one: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11,25) .

Describe a typical day shedule

The day starts with participating in the Lauds sung by the nuns. Late afternoon, before Vespers, a quiet time before the exposed Eucharist allows for a break to abandon in silence all that cannot be expressed by words, such as the sheer weight of pain.
Every evening the nuns of the New Convenant then propose participants to partake in a prayer vigile purposely initiated to help participants give sense to their mourning.
In addition, throughout the week, they have free time for prayer, two tuitions a day (on the various phases of mourning, and on death and the afterlife), an individual counselling exchange with a priest or a nun; not forgetting breaks and meals afford them casual exchanges with their session peers.


It is never too late to do good to our departed ones

On top of all the spiritual retreats and the November Heaven’s Pilgrimages (taking place every year and devoted to praying for the deceased), the shrine proposes a variety of approaches to help you enter the mystery of the communion of Saints.

Enroll your beloved in the Fraternity of Montligeon (Perpetual Mass)

Montligeon is not a mere pilgrimage destination but a vast spiritual fraternity as well, bringing living and deceased people together. People enrolled in the spiritual Montligeon Fraternity benefit from the daily perpetual Mass celebrated to their intent at the Shrine and in various places worldwide by means of its associate members. Funded by Fr. Buguet at the beginning of his charitable endeavours, its members amount nowadays to millions.

Enrolling in the Fraternity of Montligeon witnesses to our belief that bonds of love unite us all, even beyond death. It represents a tangible way of expressing our faith and hope, that we can do good to others, even when death do us part.

Say “Thank you”
or “Forgive me”
to a deceased

We hope to meet again with all our loved ones! Death is separation. Bonds seem severed, once and for all. Yet, by faith, we enter into a new type of relation with our deceased, that of a deep spiritual communion, nurtured by our prayer and anchored in our faith of being one day reunited together. In Montligeon, the proposed practical gesture to say “Thank you” or “Sorry” to one’s deceased seeks to tangibly manifest our faith in the effective communion of Saints.

The cards are freely available at the shrine, or for downloading here under. Fill it in, and return it to the shrine, we will deposit it in the “Petitions box” beneath the statue of Our Lady of Deliverance, at the shrine basilica.


Praying with Montligeon,
whilst in mourning

Join the sanctuary prayer while remaining at home 

To help you accompany a loved one dying without the opportunity of your being present, or to support you through with experiencing bereavement and having to remain away from the funerals, the shrine of Montligeon proposes two booklets of prayers, for private individual, or family use.
To download our special prayer booklets, click on button below and choose from our (free) downloads page:

4 podcasts on eternal life

Throughout the year, the shrine chaplains try and answer questions on death and the afterlife, by diffusing free short and accessible audio podcasts to be found on playlist Youtube.

Peut-on communiquer avec les morts ?

Communicating with the dead?

Paradis = ennui ?

Heaven = boredom?

Les morts nous voient-ils ?

Can dead people see us?

Faut-il oublier ses défunts pour
continuer à vivre ?

Forget your deceased & be happy?


Articles & Testimonies

Parler de la mort et du deuil à ses enfants (Speaking to one’s children )

Parents d’un enfant qui n’a pas vu le jour : le deuil impossible ? (Parents of an unborn child: forever bereaved?

Une chapelle pour les tout-petits défunts (At the shrine, the chapel devoted to the unborn babies and children deceased at an early age)

Mourning session calendar for the coming months

mars 2023

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