At the end of February 2019, Prince Charles-Louis and Princess Clotilde de Merode will host a gathering of European prayer breakfast leaders in their new castle in Rixensart. We believe this will be an opportunity to build unity between prayer breakfast leaders and develop a strategy to have prayer groups and prayer breakfasts in every Parliament in Europe.

We first met the Merodes in 2006, through Serve the City. A priest renowned for his work with the poor in Brussels, Abbé Van Der Biest, had been key in opening up opportunities in the city for us. Now he wanted to ask us a favor in return. That autumn, young people from all over Europe were descending on Brussels’ Catholic parishes for an evangelism event called “Come and See,” and he wanted our help organizing service projects for the ones assigned to his parish.

Carlton came home from his appointment with the priest, and told me about meeting the president of the congregation—a real prince! He told me his wife, the princess, was going to serve with us in the first project we had planned, at a youth association for immigrant Muslim teenagers. I was very curious and slightly nervous to meet her. But when the volunteers got together, the only thing that distinguished her from everyone else was that she was not a teenager: Princess Clotilde was wearing jeans and a baseball cap, with her hair in a ponytail. She was warm and approachable, and I was immediately at ease.

Carlton saw that Charles-Louis and Clotilde might like to connect to the European Prayer Breakfast, even though at that time he had no official role with it himself. He got them invitations, and that winter they attended, in turn inviting Queen Fabiola, the Dowager Queen of Belgium. It was the beginning of a close association between the European Prayer Breakfast and the Merodes, and also the beginning of a great friendship between us and them.

Since then, the Merodes have done a great deal to draw other friends into the Prayer Breakfast in Brussels. They have also tried to gather Belgian politicians for their own prayer breakfast—a challenging prospect and a brave action in the current political climate of the country. And they have been increasingly interested in how they could start new prayer breakfasts among politicians and other leaders in other European countries.

schloss-merode-weihnachtsmarkt_resizedWe have also seen them use their castle in Germany—Schloss Merode, not far from Aachen—for God’s glory and the furthering of his kingdom. Their annual Christmas market (pictured above) uses every available opportunity to share the true meaning of Christmas: a live manger scene; an art gallery accompanied by passages from Luke 1-2; a video about Jesus’ birth in the castle chapel; an hourly reading of the Christmas story by an angel who appears at the top window of the castle, followed by carol singing… They see the market as a means of sharing the Gospel in an increasingly secularized society.

Another way in which they have used their castle for God’s kingdom is by allowing it to be used by groups strategizing how to begin/strengthen prayer groups and prayer breakfasts in governments around Europe. Back in 2013, a group of current and former political leaders gathered there to begin a movement toward this. They were also inspired by a visit to a hospitality house supported by the movement in Washington DC, and have worked with us to find the right venue for this in Brussels.

Then, a year or so ago, they heard that a castle that belonged to another member of their family, part of their historical heritage, was being put on the market. This was the Chateau Rixensart, only 30 minutes outside Brussels (as compared with nearly 2 hours to Schloss Merode). They perceived the opportunity not only to keep their patrimoine in the family, but also another site that could be used for God’s glory and the furthering of his kingdom. They asked us to pray with them as they worked through the many hurdles that faced them in acquiring the property, that God’s will would be done.

And now it is theirs! The day they signed, they called us and asked us to come over to the property to pray that God would bless and use it. That opportunity came sooner than expected when a meeting between prayer breakfast leaders planned for Schloss Merode at the end of February could not meet there due to a national event in Germany. Rixensart to the rescue! This meeting will be the first time that all these leaders will gather to consider how to further the movement, and we pray that God will use it greatly. We also pray, with the Prince and Princess of Merode, that God will hallow the halls of Rixensart, and make it into a place that shines light throughout Europe.