Every summer in Arès, France (33740, Gironde), 46 avenue de la Liberation,
from June 21 to July 4, from July 12 to 25 and from August 2 to 15.
Opening of the Theophanic place (where the Maker manifested in 1977):
– on Friday, 08:30 am to 11:30 am,
– on Saturday, on Sunday, on July 14 and August 15 (except when they fall on a Friday) 05:30 pm to 09:00 pm,
– on other days, 06:00 pm to 09:00 pm.
Every pilgrim prays and/or meditates freely without disturbing the others.

© Christiane et Nina Potay

Who goes in pilgrimage to Arès?
First of all people at the age of free (Sign 10/10) conscience,
who have welcomed the Word (Bible, Quran),
who know their recalcitrance, that is, who know good from evil, love from indifference and hatred, forgiveness from the spirit of judgement, (36/16), peace from conflict, spiritual intelligence (32/5) from intellectual intelligence,
who have heard the Father’s request and converted to The Sign, the light that dispels the darkness of religious interpretations,
who have decided to stop sinning and enter upon penitence, that is, practice good and not act evil,
in short, men of the time to come (Sign 30/13).
But also anybody else, even a nonbeliever, provided that he does not come just out of curiosity, and that his visit makes sense, if he states his respect for The Sign, the Bible and the Quran, and states that love of all men and forgiveness of offenses form the key to happiness.

What does a pilgrim come for?
For taking the Fire from the very Hand of the Maker, who manifested and spoke The Sign on that very place in 1977, and who has never left it (I am here… Sign XLI/1-8, XLVIII/9).
How to take the Fire? Every pilgrim goes about it in whatever way he conceives or feels deep down, provided it is a dignified and discreet one. In general, a pilgrim strikes with his forehead (XLI/4) and kisses (his lip takes… XLVIII/9) the spot, marked with a plain elliptic wooden frame, where the central Light rose and stood on the 1977 theophany days, and then he goes and sits down anywhere in the hall to kindle or rekindle, by praying and/or pondering, every reason he has and his willpower to bring humanity, first of all his own humanity, to recover its spiritual source (Sign 24/4).
Why is every pilgrim advised to take off his or her shoes and put on a tunic (which anybody has no personal tunic can borrow)? One takes one’s shoes off just as Moses did where the Maker was to speak to him (Exodus 3/5). The tunic blots out the sexes, the clothes of beautiful or poor quality and the fear of the judgement of others (fear of what makes people giggle or be impatient), which divides and breaks up society (Sign 10/13-14)? The tunic, which becomes the coot or kitoneth when used as a shroud, is also a reminder that one has to die as long as a small remnant have not defeated sin (28/12).

The pilgrim’s thought:
The Abrahamic religion: judaism, christianity and islam, has changed into noise substituting for God’s Word in Jerusalem (Sign XLVII/2). Hence the Father’s moving house to France. The loving Father (Sign 12/7), however, does not doom religion to hell (For all that don’t gather that those men have met perdition… 16/2), but he is harshly critical of it. Notably, religion has distorted the concept of salvation. Religion has preached personal salvation, while in fact it is inseparable from global salvation. Religion has preached salvation as if it was dependent on Heaven’s judgment, while in fact it depends only and existentially on man’s behavior. Only penitence (practice of Good and refusal to sin) saves and, just as the Father cannot live without his human creature, his son, no penitent gets saved if he or she does not strive (as far as his or her circumstances permit) to save other men, his brothers (Save! Do not judge! Sign 27/3). Every penitent is a harvester of penitents, The Sign states. The pilgrim deep down undertakes or re-undertakes to awaken spiritual life, that is, Good, in himself as well as in others.
A man does not go to Arès to beg for a miracle. Quite the contrary, he goes there to give himself as a miracle, the miracle of his faith in the self-redeeming effort (penitence), which The Sign calls on man to make. Any man can be made a God, just as Jesus was, only by setting his steps in the Steps of the Father (Sign 2/12-13). This spiritual rerooting is turning most necessary in the early 21th century. Problems, which man recently still thought had been left behind after the struggles, wars and hardships of the 20th century, are re-emerging ahead of him, social, political, economical and even only human. The Father came back to speak to men by the end of the 20th century, because he was well aware that perils: rivalry, deception, hatred, violence and war, would be experienced again. The Father came back to remind man that he is the Creator’s image (Genesis 1/27) and therefore can generate his own grace, his own miracle, if he wants to. The pilgrim asserts that he wants to.

If I had not seen the Pilgrimage to Arès re-open every year, on June 21st, a feeling of failure would have eventually overcome me. For 32 years, ever since 1974, I have seen thousands and thousands of believers come to Arès filled with hope, and then never come again, because they were disappointed, reluctant to admit that is is too easy to lose faith and that the situation was bound to get worse, if they failed to understand that not God but man is the cause of evil. I can see numerous men elsewhere, jews, christians, muslims, humanists, who expected Good to establish on earth at last, now giving up hope that the world could draw lessons from the horrendous 20th century, ever. I can see a lot of silly and unfair actions taken by the men that claim they are capable of ruling the world, in short, I can see so many things likely to bring crowds to think that evil is to remain strongest. Yes, I would suffer from a terrible feeling of failure, if there was not Arès, the place where I go on pilgrimage to reaffirm my hope. I know that the world of tomorrow has already been born into the square foot where the stick of light rose and stood in 1977.
No, evil will not forever be stronger than Good. No, violence, injustice, domination and despoliation will not stay perpetual. Yes, man will gain perpetual happiness. This is the profound meaning of the Arès Pilgrimage.