Marist Messenger

Over the closing months of 2006, climate change, global warming. and greenhouse gases were on everyone’s lips – partly because of the success of the Al Gore movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, and the release of the Stern Report in U.K. A consensus seems to have emerged that global warming is a result of human choices, a reversible phenomenon, not a normal fluctuation. Read more »

It’s a November day in 1962 and I’m standing outside a convent chapel door looking at the noticeboard. Pinned to it are instructions for making a novena to St. Joseph. It’s not a straightforward novena. “Make four visits a day to St. Joseph, reflecting on four aspects of his life each day for nine days.” The four aspects were outlined and then came the clincher. “Make sure you really want what you’re asking for as the gift you seek may be given before you get very far into the praying. A Jesuit once gave this novena to a seminarian who returned the next day to ask if he could change the intentions for which he was making the prayer. ‘Too late,’ he was told, ‘ St Joseph has already obtained your request for you.’ ” Read more »

We were on the way to Bethlehem. The bus stopped, but why? We had come to see biblical sites. This was just the wayside – and then we saw it – a small rectangular building with a dome. Once inside, before our very eyes a veritable drama occurred: a young woman came in – hastily, desperation in her every move. She knelt to pray, seemingly oblivious to all around her. Her shoulders shook with silent sobbing. Mumbled prayer fell from her lips. Read more »

I am a Cistercian monk and I have spent most of my life in a monastery. Some readers may wonder what a monastery is. Some will have read history at school and will have some knowledge of monasticism and how it influenced the Church and the world in past centuries. Others may have seen old monastic ruins in different parts of the world and associate monasteries with an age long past. Read more »

It was a clear crisp day in the spring of 1897. A crowd of villagers huddled together in eager anticipation, their eyes fixed on the road, scanning the horizon for the carriage from Queenstown. Suddenly, the silence was broken as it finally came into view. Those that could had ridden out on horses and buggies to greet them. Excitement overflowed in their hearts and they began cheering over and over again – Blessed Mary Mackillop had arrived to Arrowtown. Read more »

I was born in Kempsey at Burnt Bridge. I had a happy but very strict childhood. I was brought up to respect my elders. My parents gave me great self-worth, which I needed later on. I went to the Aboriginal school at Burnt Bridge until Grade 5. The Sisters of Mercy used to come out every week and teach us catechism. Read more »

Looking on the map, you could almost miss it. The tiny island of Iona sits little more than a kilometre off the south-western end of the much larger island of Mull, both of which are part of Scotland’s Inner Hebrides. What Iona lacks in size, it makes up for in history – a rich heritage that existed even before St Columba settled here in 563AD. Tools, pottery and burial plots all relating to Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages have been unearthed; Druid ceremonies were held here and a Christian cemetery also predates the saint’s arrival. Geologically, its stone is so old it’s impossible to date. Read more »