Marist Messenger

On my trip around the top of the South Island, one of the joys was attending Mass at parishes where I was promoting the magazine. I especially remember Communion time, when nearly everyone rises and approaches the Sanctuary to receive their Lord under the form of the host. It is like a flower unfolding, as most parishioners approach up the middle aisle, and circle round back to the pews. Read more »

“When I spoke at Regensberg in 2006 I spoke as Pope but, above all, as a former professor of what used to be my own university. However, I was invited to ‘La Sapienza’, the ancient university of Rome, as Bishop of Rome, and as such I must speak. Of course, “’La Sapienza’ was once the university of the Pope, but today it is a lay university enjoying that autonomy which, on the basis of the principles on which they were founded, has always been part of the nature of universities, which must be exclusively bound by the authority of the truth. Read more »

by Sister Josephine Caulton dolc

John Main (1926-1982) became a Benedictine monk after serving in the Far East with the British Colonial Service and lecturing in International Law at Trinity College Dublin. He founded the Benedictine Priory at Montreal and established a worldwide spiritual family linked through the daily practice of meditation. Read more »

If a week is a long time in politics, consider Kevin Rudd’s meteoric year. The day after he was sworn in as Australia’s new Labour Prime Minister (Mon Dec 3) was a year exactly since Rudd had been elected federal leader of the Australian Labour Party (ALP). Read more »

The first of a new series of stories of heroic witnesses to Christian Faith and practice.

by John Allen Read more »

John of God was born in Portugal, into a once prominent family, impoverished but full of faith. His mother died when he was young and his father became a monk. Read more »

These soldiers were victims of the persecutions of Licinius, who, after the year 316, persecuted the Christians of the East. Read more »

St Rafqa was born in 1832 in Himlaya, Lebanon. Her parents raised their only child in the love of God and prayer. When she was seven, her mother died and two years later her father remarried. Read more »

2nd Edition 2007, by Frederick M. Bliss, S.M. [Sheed and Ward Books. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham 2007]. Price $19.95 Amazon.com

Reviewed by Msgr John V. Broadbent

This well-written and documented book by Father Fred Bliss, a NZ Marist teaching at the Angelicum in Rome provides an up- to-date account of Ecumenism today which many see lagging behind. Read more »

By Fr John Kelly ocso

In the last article on the cross I stressed the point that taking up our cross and following Jesus is an essential dimension of the Christian life. Jesus himself says so, ‘people cannot be my disciples unless they take up their cross daily and follow me’. Jesus is leaving us under no illusions about the cost of discipleship. The indispensable condition for being a Christian is that we shoulder our cross daily and follow him. Read more »

Compiled by John Q. Goldingham

Christ be near at either hand,
Christ behind, before me stand.
Christ with me wherever I go,
Christ around, above below. Read more »

During a retreat many priests were gathered in the church for Vespers. Just after they started all the lights went out. A Benedictine priest kept on praying from memory and never missed a beat. Two Jesuits began to wonder whether this dispensed them from Office. Three Dominicans revisited the idea of light as symbol of divine knowledge. Four Franciscans meditated on God’s gift of darkness. Five Carmelites started slow steady breathing. And the diocesan priest went to the basement and replaced the fuse.

—————————————————————-

A frugal man was praying to God and bitterly complaining that he had never won anything on Lotto, Suddenly God appeared to him in a vision and said, “At least you could have met me half-way – you could have bought a ticket!”

—————————————————————-

Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel challenged the Pope for a friendly game of golf to be played between the two leaders or their representatives.The Pope then met with his Cardinals to discuss the proposal.”Your Holiness,” said one of the Cardinals, “Mr. Sharon wants to show that you are old and unable to compete. I am afraid that this would tarnish our image in the world.” The Pope thought about this and asked “Don’t we have a Cardinal to represent me?” “None who plays golf very well,” a Cardinal replied. “But,” he added, “there is a man named Jack Nicklaus, an American golfer, who is a devout Catholic. We can offer to make him a Cardinal, and then ask him to play Mr. Sharon as your personal representative. Everyone agreed that this was a great idea. The call was made. Of course, Nicklaus was honoured and he agreed to play as a representative of the Pope. The day after the match, Nicklaus reported to the Vatican to inform the Pope of the result. “This is Cardinal Nicklaus. I have some good news and some bad news, Holiness,” said the golfer. Tell me the good news, Cardinal Nicklaus,” said the Pope.

“Well, Your Holiness, I don’t like to brag, but this was the best I have ever played, by far. I must have been inspired from above.” “How can there be bad news?” the Pope asked.Nicklaus sighed, “I lost by three strokes to Rabbi Tiger Woods”.

St Joseph, the “Silent Man”.

We do not talk a lot about Saints in the present-day Church but for many people they are our friends in Heaven who help us come to know and love God in a deeper way. Tomorrow we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph husband of Mary, foster-father of Jesus. We could call him the “Silent Man” because there is no recorded word he spoke in the Gospels, only his willingness to do God’s work and the way he did it in the Holy Family. Read more »