Marist Messenger

By Fr. Brian O’Connell sm
This piece of music is central to the brilliant multi award-winning motion picture The Lives of Others, in which it is a birthday gift from one dissident artist to another. Read more »

by Messenger reader Stella Brown
Having recently read an article in the London Tablet on Irish children making their First Communion ‘dressed to the nines’, looking like brides, as well as receiving expensive gifts and money from family and friends, it brought to mind my own First Communion as an evacuee in war-torn England. Read more »

Extract From The Message of Pope Benedict XVI For Mission Sunday 2008
GO AND TELL
Proclaim the Gospel
In this Jubilee Year dedicated to St Paul, we are reminded of the urgency to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the world. There can be no slackening or stagnation in the essential mission of the Church to evangelise all people. Read more »

By Tim Duckworth sm
Once or twice in a lifetime something really good happens and my tropical island holiday was one of the best. In June I headed to Vanuatu to Denis Revi’s ordination. Read more »

John Rea sm relates scripture texts from St. Paul to the Illuminative Mysteries of the Rosary.
Either his words or events in St Paul’s life remind me of the Lord Jesus as he is portrayed in the first three Gospels. So much so that in this Year of St Paul I’m using verses from the Book of Acts and the Pauline letters as a Rosary aid. Read more »

by Nancy Hill (Grandmother to four WYD pilgrims)
OUR CONTRIBUTION
1. Prayer before, during, and after WYD. Read more »

by Kat Walsh, Messenger Kiwi WYD Correspondent.
The first thing my dear ‘Aged Parents’ wanted to know about World Youth Day (once they had ascertained that I had a wonderful, holy, happy time of course) was how on earth the WYD organisers managed to feed up to 400,000 people at once. Read more »

©by Stephen Sparrow –
Part way through The Thanatos Syndrome, novelist and Catholic convert Walker Percy portrays a psychiatrist counseling a thirty-something divorcee who models her life on the gestures and sayings of various TV and film actors. Read more »

By Fr Paul G Shannahan sm, Missionz Director.
These boys (pictured) have tuberculosis (TB) but are on the way to recovery – thanks to a band of Canossian Sisters who work among the poorest of people in Manila city. Read more »

By Fr John Kelly ocso
A monk of Kopua Abbey
Pope Benedict in his first encyclical on love treats at length of two dimensions of Christian love. He teaches that love is a unity that expresses itself in two ways, as eros and agape ( two Greek words). Read more »

by Vanessa Lawgun, Director – Marist Alternative Learning Centre
“What we want to achieve in our work with young people is to find and strengthen the positive and healthy elements, no matter how deeply they are hidden. We enthusiastically believe in the existence of those elements even in the seemingly worst of our adolescents” Karl Wilker
This is what drives the work we do here at the Marist Learning Centre. Read more »

by Mike Martin
Let’s be honest, Lourdes was an afterthought. We were making a quick trip to Ireland and England to visit elderly relatives for what could be the last time and were wanting a trip on the Eurostar, finally flying home from Marseille. When our son heard of our plans he suggested we go to Lourdes in the year of the 150th celebrations of Our Lady appearing to Bernadette. So we went. Read more »

by Kilian de Lacy
Blessed Jeanne was born in a small, impoverished fishing village. Her father, a fisherman, died when Jeanne was four. Her mother did farm work and raised her children in the Faith. Read more »

By Kilian de Lacy
Four hundred years ago the Ottoman Empire was conquering the world. A powerful Ottoman armada advanced on a badly out-manned and out-gunned Christian navy. The Christian world was in great danger. All that stood between the Ottomans (Muslims) and Western Civilisation were a relatively few ships, a small number of valiant men and the Holy Rosary. Read more »

By Kilian de Lacy
Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa were born at Kitgum, Uganda, at the beginning of the 20th century. Daudi was 14 and Jildo 10 when they were baptised by the Comboni missionaries. Read more »

Mildred, the church gossip, and self-appointed monitor of the church’s morals, kept sticking her nose in to other people’s business. Read more »

Next Sunday is Mission Sunday a reminder that by our Baptism we are all expected to spread the Good News. Read more »

Holy Mass is offered each month by the Editor for those whose names occur in this list. To add a name, simply write to the Editor
Recently Deceased: Jean Gray, Jim Furness, Daniel Philip Crowley, Fr Toma Soso sm, Sr Paula Brettkelly, Kitty Fahey. Read more »