A Catholic Monthly Magazine

Veil Over the Light, by Joy Cowley (0)

Fitzbeck Publishing, 2018

As Joy herself says, she is elderly, her sight is fading fast so this could be her last book. If so, it is a gift of exquisite value. In 168 pages we find a collection of wisdom, humour, joy and profound personal revelation.… More

Fr David Mullins SM (0)

Born in Christchurch, 29 September 1930
Professed 2 February 1952
Ordained 15 July 1956
Died 24 December 2018, St Joseph’s Home, Herne Bay, Auckland

 

There is a wonderful promise that Jesus gives us in the Gospel: “whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day.” Father David certainly acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God, believed in him, and based his life on that belief.… More

Abba Father — Who Are You? (3) (0)

Our Abba Father lives in ‘unapproachable light’ -- true. But Jesus also tells us “to have seen me is to have seen the Father” (John 14:9).

We know that Jesus uses parables to tell us about God and God’s ways. Does Jesus use a parable or an image that points readily to, and illuminates, his Abba Father?… More

Out of Darkness … into Light (0)

Out of darkness God has called us,
Claimed by Christ as God’s own people.
Holy nation, royal priesthood,
Walking in God’s marvellous light.
-- Refrain from the hymn Out of Darkness by Christopher Walker

The images on the cover and on page 2 of this issue of the Messenger are evocative of the account of Easter morning in St John’s Gospel (20:1).… More

World Youth Day (0)

Closing Mass 29 January 2019

The now of God

Jesus reveals the now of God, who comes to meet us and call us to take part in his now of “proclaiming good news to the poor… bringing liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, setting at liberty those who are oppressed, announcing the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19).… More

Fr Jeremiah O’Reily OFMCap… (0)

...and the Early Catholic History of Wellington (1)

In the winter of 1880, as he lay bedridden by his last illness, Father Jeremiah Purcell O’Reily OFMCap remarked wryly that “he didn’t know he had so many friends until he became frail”.… More

Our Holy Day — One God, Three Faiths (0)

Keeping a ‘holy day’ each week is something Abrahamic faiths have in common, according to leaders of New Zealand’s Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities. Organised by Wellington’s Abrahamic Council, the leaders all spoke of the centrality of prayer on their holy day.… More

SMSM — Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (0)

Collaborators in Continuing the Mission of Mary in the Church (3)

SMSM Collaboration with the Marist Brothers

The Time of the Pioneer Sisters

One of St Marcellin Champagnat’s biographers, Brother Stephen Farrell, wrote: ‘Marcellin’s fantastic amount of work with the Brothers had never distracted him from what was, for him, his ultimate aim: the creation of a large Society of Mary as originally envisaged by the seminarians at St Irenaeus’. … More

The St Peter Chanel Shrine, Cuet, France (0)

Text and photos by the editor
unless otherwise indicated

When Peter Chanel was born on 12 July 1803, the church in Cuet had been deconsecrated, having been ransacked during the Revolution. So Peter was baptised in the village of Cras four days after his birth.… More

In My Prison Ministry There Are No Criminals (0)

I have not been more passionate about any other ministry in my many years working in five countries than this walking with unaccompanied minors, aged 11 to 17, from Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador and now, Nicaragua. I am surprised what swirls up from deep within me and only recently have I gained a clue as to what it is and why.… More

MM 50 Years Ago (0)

The Everest Crucifix

It is fairly well known that a small crucifix that was once attached to a rosary now lies in the eternal snows at the top of Mt Everest. It was placed there by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953.… More

Reality Check (0)

Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.
Mark Twain, American author,
1835-1910

The mind sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
Robertson Davie, Canadian author,
1913-1995

The month of October, 2018, has had its personal challenges as a series of incidents occurred which made me question reality.… More

A School for Prayer (20) (0)

Mind-in-the-heart Prayer 

By Fr Craig  Larkin SM, 1943 - 2015

Hesychastic Prayer in the Eastern Church (1)

The Church of the East

The Church of the East is the part of the Christian Church which developed in the eastern side of the Roman Empire from the 4th century onwards.… More

April Saints (0)

Blessed Karl I of Austria
(1887-1922)

In 1916, Archduke Karl, after a strict Catholic, aristocratic and military upbringing, inherited the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was still only twenty-nine, handsome, popular, and charming, married to a lovely young woman, Zita of the royal house of Bourbon-Parma.… More

About Mystery (Comments Off)

Let’s start with a brief exercise.

Look back over your life and recall a time (or times) when you found yourself overwhelmed by a sense that you were part of something much bigger than yourself or that something happened to you that was like a gift coming from beyond yourself or an ordinary event briefly uncovered a world beyond the everyday

When we look at these experiences, we find that they can be positive or negative (or healing or painful).… More