The beginning…
spiritual retreats

In the 1930’s a few women in the Reformed Church in French-speaking Switzerland were rediscovering the importance of silence for their life of faith and for letting the Word of God to resonate within themselves to allow it to bear fruit in their daily life. They prepared spiritual retreats, at first once a year, in a house at Grandchamp. In the course of time, retreats became more frequent and opened up to other people.

Such is the nourishing earth in which the Community is to be born. It was not long before the need was clearly felt to keep the house open throughout the year, to provide for a continual presence of prayer.