A Catholic Monthly Magazine

The Legend
 of the
 Candy Stick Witness (Comments Off)

A candy-maker in Indiana, USA, wanted to make a candy that would witness, so he made the ‘Christmas Candy Cane’. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry and death of Jesus Christ.

He began with a stick of pure white hard candy.… More

How to Have 
a ‘Mary’ Christmas (Comments Off)

Let us learn from the Virgin Mary how to be bolder in obeying the Word of God.

Lessons for Living - from Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Pope Francis

When friends and colleagues learned that Protestant theologian Dr Scot McKnight was writing a book about Mary, he was often asked, "Why?"… More

Mary in the Pacific (Comments Off)

This article first appeared in Marist Messenger in November 1970. Professor Dunmore of Massey University had recently published a two-volume work, French Explorers of the Pacific. He recorded references to the Blessed Virgin that he had found during his research.… More

Fr (Michael) Vincent Curtain SM (Comments Off)

Born: 4 July 1932, in Greymouth
Professed: 7 February 1954
Ordained: 20 July 1958
Died: 20 September 2020 in Christchurch

Michael Vincent Curtain was born in Greymouth in 1932. His family moved to Motueka and then to Nelson, where Vince attended St Joseph’s Primary School.… More

The Inspiring Story of Silent Night (Comments Off)

He was illegitimate, grew up in a hangman's cottage, and he wrote the words for 'Silent Night'. His mother's name was Anna Schoiberin. His father was a mercenary soldier and deserter called Franz Mohr, who never saw him. The hangman provided accommodation in his house for single mothers and their children, as he was trying to improve his reputation by works of charity.… More

The grace of God has appeared (Comments Off)

Extracts from the Pope’s homily at Midnight Mass, 24 December 2019

The grace of God, “bringing salvation to all” (Titus 2:11), has shone on our world this night.

But what is this grace? It is divine love, the love that changes lives, renews history, liberates from evil, fills hearts with peace and joy.… More

Celebrating the Immaculate Conception in Wellington, 1855 (Comments Off)

M Jean François Yvert was born in Pleuville, France on 10 June 1796. He arrived in Kororāreka, Aotearoa New Zealand, on 15 June 1841, and was the printer for the Catholic Mission based at Kororāreka. He arrived in Wellington with Bishop Viard on 1 May 1850.… More

How to Judge Others – Fairly (Comments Off)

A fourteen-year-old girl entering 9th grade laments that other students have judged and isolated her as being unattractive.

A stay-at-home father of young children experiences judgment from others for being lazy, unmotivated and for living off his wife.

Canadian singer Céline Dione recently responded on social media to judgments and body-shaming directed at her by individuals declaring she is too thin.… More

Can You Bear It? (Comments Off)

Real Estate Agent: "This house has its good points and its bad points. The disadvantages are a chemical plant one street south and a slaughterhouse one street north". Prospective Buyer: "Goodness gracious! What are the advantages?" Agent: "You can always tell which way the wind is blowing".… More

The Life of
 Venerable 
Jean-Claude Colin (Comments Off)

“On whatever distant shore”

Part 2 of 2

The Society of Mary begins

Sharing the Marist dream with his local bishop, Colin met with opposition and ridicule. “If you want to be missionaries”, said the bishop, “then start here in the villages of Bugey”.… More

Marist Third Order –
A Joyful Christmas (Comments Off)

You will have been following Pope Paul’s visit to Samoa and to Australia. As Marists, we are proud to be “the Pope’s men and women”.

He recently warned us not to let the true meaning of Christmas “be suffocated by profane customs that change its sacred nature”.… More

The God Nobody Seemed To Want (Comments Off)

The Messiah was predicted and longed for among the Jewish people but when God actually came among us, the light was so different from what was expected, that in our shallow human perceptions it appeared that Christ was the God that nobody seemed to want.… More

Covid-19 – Part 2 (Comments Off)

Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died”. “Your brother Lazarus will rise again”. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he die.… More

January Saints (0)

St André Bessette

(1845-1937)

“When things get tough, the tough get going” could be the motto applied to many saints who retained their vision for
doing God’s work despite almost overwhelming odds.

Alfred Bessette was born in Mon-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, the ninth of 13 children, four of whom died in infancy.… More

The Interior Castle of
St Teresa of Jesus of Ávila (Comments Off)

Part 2 of 7

The Second Mansion

St Teresa writes briefly and concisely on the Second Mansion and it is all worth reading. This Mansion is called the proper entrance to the Castle and has the word prayer marked over it.… More