Marist Messenger

By Fr Brian O’Connell
In this hemisphere February is usually the launch pad for the new year of grace and endeavour. Summer holidays for most are over. Provincial Anniversary holidays, Australia Day, Waitangi Weekend and the Sydney to Hobart ocean race provide a brief respite before the academic year proper kicks in. Read more »

At least two of our Messenger readers are Centenarians: Mrs Agnes Mora of Seatoun Wellington is 102, and Sr Eulalia Martini rsm of Hokitika is 100. Congratulations and warm greetings to you both. Perhaps there are more out there. The Messenger would like to hear from you. Read more »

Benedict XVI meets with artists
VATICAN CITY, 21 NOV 2009 (VIS) – This morning in the Sistine Chapel, Benedict XVI met with artists in an event promoted by the Pontifical Council for Culture to mark the tenth anniversary of John Paul II’s Letter to Artists of 4 April 1999, and the forty-fifth anniversary of Paul VI’s meeting with artists of 7 May 1964. Read more »

Information from the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington
Leonard Cornwall Mitchell (1901-1971) was an internationally known stamp-designer, and his painting: A reconstruction of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, 1840 appeared first on the cover of the ‘New Zealand Journal of Agriculture’, January 1949. Read more »

Dame Claudia Orange DNZM, OBE
Treaty of Waitangi Scholar
MM: How long have you spent researching and writing about the Treaty of Waitangi?
CO:I started seriously researching the Treaty in 1977 for a PhD which I finished in 1984, but since then I have continued each week to add to that early research. Read more »

by Brother Ed Jones sm
The horror started at 6.48am. on the Feast of Michael the Archangel while I was reading the Sydney Morning Herald off the Internet. First the noise, then the computer screen started to jump all over the place; then there was a mad rush outside – my four dogs and all. Read more »

by Sr Marietta Parsons smsm
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb;
naked I shall return.” Job 1:21
Five Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary – Srs Alice Hardiman, Etevise Ioane, Pafuti Crichton, Selina Tuilagi and Marietta Parsons, and our postulant, Kirsten Sloan, a nurse at Starship Hospital, were asked to go to Samoa to support and assist our SMSM Sisters in Apia, and to be with and help the people in need. Read more »

26/12/1942 – 30/11/2009
Vows 4 Jan 1973
Ordination 26 June 1977
From the homily by Fr Carl Telford sm
As we listen to the Word of God at this Funeral Mass for Peter Leonard Kiley, priest of the Society of Mary, God speaks words of passion. That is why they were chosen; ‘Sir, give us that water;’ ‘Christ during his life offered prayer and entreaty to God not without a piercing cry;’ they who eat me will hunger for more; they who drink me will thirst for more;’ Hunger thirst, entreaty, cry. These are deepest desires of every heart. Read more »

Born in Bordeaux, France, in1556, Jeanne’s father was a fervent Catholic, her mother a convinced Calvinist. Jeanne was drawn to Catholicism, while her mother continually tried to undermine the child’s faith. In the end, Jeanne opted to follow her father. Read more »

Saint Jerome Emiliani, born in 1481, was a member of one of the Christian patrician families of Venice, and in early life a soldier. Read more »

Polycarp, disciple of St John and bishop of Smyrna, found there was only one answer to the heresies and persecution which were springing up in the Church – to be true to the life of Jesus and imitate that life. Read more »

by Mary Pepping
Rob Pepping won a scholarship to visit the Holy Places in France especially those with a Marist connection. He visited St John Vianney’s church and brought back a Pilgrim’s guide, from which Mary wrote this article

The Curé of Ars was a priest in love with the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. We know this because he spoke of it in most of his sermons. “He is there”, he used to say, “He is listening to you.” Read more »

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father Benedict XVI, on 18 November 2009, appointed Fr. Jean (John) Bosco Baremes, SM, formerly Councillor of the Marist Fathers’ Oceania Province, as Bishop of Port-Vila (Vanuatu).
Read more »

by Bill Farrelly
I mentioned at one point that I’d have a chat about God the Father with whom my relationship seems to take a poor third after Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I’m not sure how much this has got to do with the subject but I’d like to begin by talking about a memory from childhood and which I suspect many of you will share. Read more »

by Fr John Kelly ocso
‘Prayer is communion with one whom we know loves us’. (St. Teresa of Avila).
Like many words today used in spiritual books the word ‘prayer’ can have many meanings. It is often used to signify prayer of petition only, or it might be used for any good work done with a right intention. Read more »

by Elizabeth Isichei
By the late tenth century, Christianity in China was apparently extinct. By the early thirteenth, it was very much alive, only to disappear again when the Ming dynasty came to power in 1368. Read more »

Miracles are everywhere
by Stephen Sparrow
For regular readers of the Messenger it must be obvious by now that I am more than somewhat besotted with The Little Flower, aka St Thérèse of the Infant Jesus. Perhaps I should explain why. About fifteen years ago and wanting some ‘light’ holiday reading, I purchased from a used books shop the Autobiography of a Saint (the Ronald Knox translation of The Little Flower’s story), Interior Castle by the 16th Century Spanish Carmelite Saint and mystic St Teresa of Avila and The Eagle and The Dove, Vita Sackville-West’s dual biography of both these saints. Read more »

The charcoal cross of Ash Wednesday
February 17 was Ash Wednesday. It was a great joy to see the Church crowded for both Masses, a wonderful start to the season of Lent. As I greeted the people after Mass the black cross of each was easy to see and would have been a witness to many people. Read more »

A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. Four worms were placed into four separate jars. The first worm was put into a container of alcohol. The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup. The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil. Read more »

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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:
Gavin Lambert, Fr Humphrey O’Leary CSsR,Kevin John O’Flaherty, Fr Peter Kiley sm, Felix Kane
In Memoriam:
February 1st Jadwiga Filarowski, Jean Linklater, Alma Mary Frame, Edward Macken. Read more »