A Catholic Monthly Magazine

“Love St Joseph” (0)

The Year of St Joseph

8 December 2020 – 8 December 2021

Love St Joseph a lot. Love him with all your soul, because he, together with Jesus, is the person who has most loved our Blessed Lady and been closer to God.… More

St Clare in Stained Glass – 11 August (0)

I first encountered St Clare when visiting the church of San Damiano (below), at the foot of the hill on which Assisi is built. In the building are two matching stained glass windows, one of woman religious [1], the other [2] of St Francis.… More

Solemnity of the Assumption (0)

The Catholic bishops of Aotearoa New Zealand will gather at St Mary of the Angels Church in Wellington on Sunday 15 August for a Mass to renew Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pompallier’s 1838 dedication of Aotearoa New Zealand to Our Lady Assumed into Heaven.… More

Something Old – Something New [1] (0)

Part 7 of 8

A Possible Marist Spiritual Ecology 

The third Dimension:
Tasting God – Cerdon

The Marist Story within the Universal Story

 We are proposing a paradigm for re-energizing our Marist Story by reconnecting it with the Universal Story

The Marist Story can be seen as having four foundational dimensions:

Call – Le Puy;
Commitment – Fourvière;
Tasting God – Cerdon;
and Mission – Bugey and Oceania.… More

Hope for the Coming of the Kingdom (0)

It’s early autumn as I write. The dark, dank days will become even darker and danker as winter takes hold. With such short days wrapped in dull cloud-cover, it’s easy to become despondent and worry about things we cannot do much about.… More

On family life and on the Assumption (0)

On family life

There is no perfect family. We do not have perfect parents, we are not perfect, we do not marry a perfect person or have perfect children. We have complaints from each other. We  disappoint each other. So there is no healthy marriage or healthy family without the exercise of forgiveness.… More

“Loving People Back to Life” — Caryll Houselander (0)

Part 2 of 2

When Caryll was 16, her mother abruptly withdrew her from school because she needed her daughter’s help running the boarding house. Returning reluctantly, Caryll found herself working for her mother as a domestic servant. One of her many tasks was shopping for groceries and her second vision occurred while she was shopping for potatoes.… More

Pope Francis – a Son of St Ignatius (0)

Several interviewers have asked how Pope Francis’ Jesuit background and training have influenced his pontificate. The answer is that it is impossible to separate Francis from his Ignatian Spiritualty and his membership of the Society of Jesus.

When the Pope was interviewed by Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ, and asked, “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?”… More

Can You Bear It? (0)

Having been married for fifty years, the wife was asked what advice she would give to a newly married couple. She said, "The three most important words in a marriage are, 'You're probably right.'" Everyone then looked at the husband, who said, "She's probably right."… More

Celebrating Fr Colin’s Birthday (0)

7 August

Text by the Editor
Photos: Fr Ron Nissen SM

Jean-Claude Colin, the founder of the Society of Mary, was born on 7 August 1790 in Barbery, in the Beaujolais region of central France. He was the eighth of nine children born to Jacques Colin and his wife Marie, née Gonnet.… More

MM 50 Years Ago (0)

Futuna pilgrimage at last

Only a few individual pilgrims from NZ have ever visited the Shrine of St Peter Chanel on Futuna Island in the Pacific. The most celebrated was the late Archbishop Francis Redwood SM, who had to break the lock to enter the then deserted church, and the latest was Mrs Ida Corrigan, well-known to Marist missionaries, and now back at her home in Paekākāriki.… More

The Empty Chair Exercise (0)

rom Sadhana,
A  Way to God, 1978
By Fr Anthony de Mello SJ (1931-1987)

I developed this exercise as a result of hearing the story of a priest who went to visit a patient in his home. He noticed an empty chair at the patient's bedside and asked what it was doing there.… More

Just Play Sausages (0)

One of my childhood piano teachers was a Brigidine nun, Sr Fidelis. Along with her great love for music, she had a zest for life that stayed with her till the end of her ninety-some years. She reverted to Elizabeth, her baptismal name, in latter years, but for me she was always Fidelis.… More

August Saints (0)

St Bonifacia Rodríguez y Castro
(1837-1905)

Bonifacia Rodríguez Castro was born in Salamanca, Spain, the eldest of six children, to deeply Christian parents. Having completed her primary studies, she learned the trade of cord-making which, following the death of her father, helped her mother support the family.… More

St John of the Cross — The Spiritual Canticle (0)

Part 2 of 5

St John of the Cross, the Mystical Doctor of the Church, provides teaching to help us survive and thrive in these testing times. To begin to appreciate his profound wisdom, a wise man told me to begin with the Spiritual Canticle.… More