24 July 2021
 In today’s Gospel – John 6:1-15 – we see Jesus with his disciples in an awkward situation. A large crowd had followed Jesus in the wilderness. Why? Because they believed in him as the Son of God? No! It was “because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick”. They were not reading the miracles as “signs” but as power. Vulnerable people seeking invulnerability? They wanted some of that power channeled in their direction! This led to a potentially embarrassing outcome: “Jesus said to Philip: ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little’.” |
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11 July 2021
 In today’s Gospel – Mark 6:7-13 – the fishermen are introduced to the mission: “Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits”. We are told little more than that “they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them”. Notice, Jesus has not yet entrusted them with the ultimate task of proclaiming the reign of God, the Kingdom. |
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09 July 2021
 I think of Marist spirituality as kitchen table spirituality. That way of being and talking about life to me is Marist Spirituality. It is not that it rejects the theoretical. It is just that it assumes that living it practically and making it real is the real essence of the spirit. |
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08 July 2021
 Lay people are on the front line of the life of the church. We need their testimony regarding the truth of the Gospel and their example of expressing their faith by practising solidarity. Let us give thanks for the lay people who take risks, who are not afraid and who offer reasons for hope to the poorest, to the excluded, to the marginalised. |
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04 July 2021
 A reflection on the Gospel Mark 6:1-6. A very wise old psychotherapist once told me that the work of the psychotherapist is to help people feel at home in the world, while the work of the spiritual director is to help people not feel at home in the world. If you are in anyway reflective, you will be aware of the “more than”. The presence of the “more than” can have varying and sometimes quite challenging effects on us. |
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04 July 2021
 It’s a good time to reflect, each of us, on the role of the Eucharist in our personal, community and missionary lives. As Marists, how is the Eucharist “the source and summit of our whole Christian lives”? (Lumen Gentium, 11) |
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30 June 2021
 The early development of the Marist Sisters through Jeanne Marie Chavoin and Marie Jotillon. |
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29 June 2021
 Simplicity is a very important for both Christians and Marists. It asks the question - 'What is the most important thing in our lives'? We are called to let go of what is not as important. Yet, this is very hard. Especially in our culture and society that encourages the opposite. |
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27 June 2021
 Unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mark’s Gospel has no account of Jesus’ birth or early life. Mark plunges straight into the story of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. A brief reference is made to the temptations in the desert then Jesus begins his public ministry. There is a sense of urgency. The first disciples are called, the sick are healed, demons are cast out, parables are told, Jesus sails back and forth across the Sea of Galilee, from the Jewish side to the Gentile side . . . he is on a mission! |
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24 June 2021
 This is a question which has in a sense a frantically common sign. For the real question is not are we to make of Christ, but what is he to make of us. The picture of a fly sitting deciding what it is going to make of an elephant has common elements about it. |
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20 June 2021
 All three synoptic Gospels give accounts of the calming of the storm – see Matthew 8:23–27; Luke 8:22–25 and Mark 4:35-41 which is today’s Gospel. Each of the accounts is remarkably similar. There is one extraordinary detail, however, that sets Mark’s account apart. At the height of their fear, Mark tells us that “they” – the disciples – said to Jesus, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Don’t you care! What a thing to say to Jesus! |
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12 June 2021
 “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” So begins today’s Gospel – see Mark 4:26-34. What a peculiar way to speak of “the Kingdom of God”! But parables are like that. They present the imagination with a series of triggers that can awaken us to new and deeper truths. Consider the last phrase as such a trigger – “he does not know how”. It challenges our taken for granted understanding of what it means to know. It invites us to open ourselves to a much deeper knowing – one that might, in fact, look more like “unknowing”. |
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06 June 2021
 Today we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Our Gospel – Mark 14:12-16 & 22-26 – gives us an intriguing description of the final meal Jesus has with his disciples. Is this a formal, Passover ritual or a more informal meal? |
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06 June 2021
 At the same time, Bishop Vincent Long announced that this approach will be known as Living Life to the Full, drawing on Jesus’ words in John 10:10: “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.” Reflecting the richness of our Catholic Tradition that enables fullness of life through the Gospel, Living Life to the Full is an invitation for everyone to experience human flourishing. |
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05 June 2021
 The amazing Champagnat Week 2021 resources provided to Marist Schools and Ministries by the Marist Association of Saint Marcellin Champagnat. A gift that keeps giving. We hope all 56 schools and ministries in Australia are enjoying them. |
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04 June 2021
 Transformational leaders are future oriented people who are able to see fundamental discrepancies between the way things are and the way they should be, They recognise the shortcomings of a present order and offer an imaginative vision to overcome them. |
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29 May 2021
 Today is the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. It is a celebration of the Loving Community that we call God. Our Gospel text is a brief and simple one – Matthew 28:16-20: “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” |
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23 May 2021
 Today’s Gospel – John 15:26-27 & 16:12-15 – reminds us of another Johannine theme: “Truth” – “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth”. “Truth”, as used by John, can only be understood in the context of the other themes, especially, menō. |
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16 May 2021
 Recently I was having a conversation with another parent whose daughter finished school 3 years prior. She commented that during her daughters schooling religion and spirituality focused on academic and priority on thinking. Sadly, since leaving school, her daughter has completely abandoned religion. I thought to myself, this is typical for most young people in Australia. Someone in the teenage years, faith, religion and spirituality do not grow up. |
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16 May 2021
 Endings are part and parcel of everyday life. Endings change things. Endings may be predictable or unpredictable, remarkable or unremarkable. The day ends, a night’s sleep ends, a meal ends, a conversation ends, a journey ends, a relationship ends, a career ends, a life ends. Day to day living simply would not go on without endings. |
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09 May 2021
 Our Gospel today – John 15:9-17 – contains nine explicit references to love. Together they emphasize a profound and practical truth: Being a disciple of Jesus is being in love. The first of these references sets the context for the others: The Father’s love for Jesus. In his First Letter John spells this out: “God is love . . . all love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God . . . God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us” – see 1 John 4:8-10. |
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18 April 2021
 One of the truly striking features of the Gospels is that they are focused on Jesus himself. Jesus is the Good News! That is nowhere more so than in today’s Gospel – Luke 24:35-48. When describing the reactions of the disciples, Luke uses words like, “startled” and “terrified” and “frightened”. However, perhaps the most interesting of his descriptions is, “in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering”. |
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10 April 2021
 In John’s Gospel, Thomas seems to be a man of drive and energy, ready to take on a challenge, a man of high ideals. But he also likes to be convinced that what he is doing is worth it. We meet him in John 11:16, when Jesus announces his intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus: “Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’”. Thomas does not really know what he is saying! |
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05 April 2021
 At the heart of the Easter message is the summons to a new future, framed with hope and possibility, in the midst of entrenched hopelessness. As with Mary and the disciples, who were emboldened to move from the shadows of crucifixion into the light and life of the Risen Christ, the Church must live this message. |
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04 April 2021
 Listen to the hopelessness in those opening lines of today’s Gospel – Mark 16:1-8: “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’” It is not difficult to imagine the women walking with their heads down. The harsh truth of what they had personally witnessed was weighing heavily on them. From the arrest of Jesus, through his “trial”, torture and eventual brutal crucifixion, they had every last ounce of hope wrung out of them. That Friday was not a beginning but an unimaginably horrid ending. |
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04 April 2021
 For many people Easter weekend is celebrated with friends and family, with sports events and taking “a bit of a break”. This year the Covid virus puts a dark cloud over some of these celebrations, but people do the best they can. There may be the hope that in the midst of all these celebrations people remember the joy of the Resurrection. Well, perhaps! |
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28 March 2021
 Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001, published a book entitled, Fascism: A Warning (London: William Collins, 2018). She was eleven when she escaped from Czechoslovakia with her parents and two siblings. She lost “three grandparents, and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins … among the millions of Jews who had died in the ultimate act of Fascism – the Holocaust” |
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23 March 2021
 Is it possible that the Holy Spirit is working underground in places today where we may not have even considered? Come and listen to renowned spiritual guide and former Abbot of the famous Glentsal Abbey in Ireland, Mark Patrick Hederman OSB, as he unearths underground cathedrals and explores where the Holy Spirit is at work in the world and lives of ordinary people today. |
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21 March 2021
 It is easy to forget – and we must not forget! – the huge transformation that the disciples have to go through in their thinking of the Christ. The standard assumptions would have been strongly influenced by the legends of David passed down through the ages. At the very least, the Christ would meet some acceptable criteria of human success. Little if anything in current thinking prepared them for a Christ who would be vulnerable, apparently defeated by the powers that be, left to die an ignominious death like a criminal on a Roman cross for the passing world to mock. |
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19 March 2021
 The hiddenness of St. Josephs life can speak to those overwhelmed by the pandemic. Fr. James Martin, SJ, reflects on why St. Joseph is the saint we need as enter into a new year. |
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14 March 2021
 In today’s brief Gospel text – John 3:14-21 – John has Jesus make a summary statement of human moral possibilities: “The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light”. |
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05 March 2021
 By Father Ron Rolheiser. I went through the seminary and I went through many courses on the Eucharist. After 3 major courses on the Eucharist, I have decided that I do not understand the Eucharist. But, that is okay, the Eucharist is not meant to be understood. Why not? Well this is the story. |
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03 March 2021
 To simplicity we link humility and modesty, making the “three violets” of our Marist tradition. In our teaching and organisational structures, we show a preference for simplicity of method. Our way of educating, like Marcellin’s, is personal, rooted in real life, and practical. Likewise simplicity of expression, avoiding any ostentation, guides our way of responding to the possibilities and the demands of our contemporary educational settings. |
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28 February 2021
 The second affirmation occurs at the transfiguration of Jesus. The transfiguration begins the testing period leading to Jerusalem and the Cross – the second half of Mark’s Gospel. |
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21 February 2021
 We are in the presence of someone who has experienced an event that has turned his world on its head – he has been driven into the wilderness by the Spirit of God! By any measure – if it is true what we say about the Incarnation – it should also turn my world on its head. |
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16 February 2021
 Listen to the audio of Pope Francis Lenten Message for 2021. |
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14 February 2021
 Explore the meaning of the eucharist through a series of interactive activities. Is the Eucharist boring or is there something we are missing? Ponder the meaning.....both personally, at home, in youth group or at school. |
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07 February 2021
 A short reflection on Jesus calling of his disciples and mission of Jesus Christ. |
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04 February 2021
 By John Thornhill sm The Magnificat is probably the most revealing text about Mary. It comes from Saint Luke. Saint Luke really loved Mary and was very interested in Mary. There is a rich number of text in Luke’s infancy Gospel and the other parts of the Gospel. |
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31 January 2021
 A short reflection on authority both in Jesus in his day, but also today. |
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31 January 2021
 This is a summary from one of the books in the Marist Laity Australia library in the Colin Library. It's about the Marist Spirit. |
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30 January 2021
 Reflective listening is the ability to bounce back at them what they are saying. This is a skill that does not come naturally to us. When involved in a conversation we tend to talk about ourselves, or give advice, we try to make them feel better or agree or disagree or tell stories. |
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28 January 2021
 We do not break generations apart. That is what we learn in scripture. We carry the best of every generation with us. That is the difference between tradition and traditionalism. There was a liturgist at St John’s in Minnesota, Godfrey Dateman said one day “I don’t have a lot to teach you. But I will teach you the difference between tradition and traditionalism. Traditionalism is the stuff we pass on. Tradition is the passing on of the stuff”. |
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27 January 2021
 A prayer and reflection for teachers |
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24 January 2021
 A short reflection on the calling of Peter in the Gospels. |
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22 January 2021
 At Nazareth, even before the birth of the Church, the fullness of the Kingdom of God existed in the life of a simple family of ordinary people. Two believers gathered around Christ, and their only thought was the will of the Father. |
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21 January 2021
 The Vocation of a Marist involves a response to four calls The Call of Christ, The Call of the Church, The Call of the Founder and The Call of modern humanity. |
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11 January 2021
 Listen to the audio of Pope Francis' message of Peace for January 2021 entitled 'A Culture of Care for the Path of Peace'. |
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10 January 2021
 By Marist Sister Marie Berise Nash sm on how we become 'Bearers of Hope'. In this present period of the beginning of the Third Millennium we wish to turn in a special way to her (Mary) the one who in the night of the Advent expectation began to shine like a true Morning Star, for just as this star, together with the dawn precedes the rising of the sun, so Mary from the time of her Immaculate Conception preceded the coming of the Saviour Her presence in the midst of Israel a presence so discreet as to pass almost unnoticed by the eyes of her contemporaries shone very clearly before the Eternal One who had associated the hidden daughter of Zion with the plan of salvation embracing the whole history of humanity. |
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09 January 2021
 Humility is a key virtue which Marist Founder John Claude Colin often writes about. For Marists we do not take on the Stoic and Greek ideal of humility, but seek a Christian humility who seeks to live in relationship with God and other people. |
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09 January 2021
 Apocalyptic literature from the scriptures often gets miss interpreted. Apocalyptic does not mean the “end of the world”. This is a miss interpretation. But, what the world is going through with COVID-19 is an “apocalyptic” event or a revelation. This event is an unveiling or to pull back the veil. This style of text, Apocalyptic, uses exaggerated images and metaphors. Like stars falling from the sky or the moon turning to blood in the scriptures. This is like a Steven Spielberg movie like Close Encounters or ET where suddenly you are placed in an utterly different world. What was normal before does not apply any more. |
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07 January 2021
 Marists are people who claim to have such a vision, and who believe that what they do is supremely worthwhile. In fact, it's very important that we define ourselves as Marists, not by what we do but by our special vision of life. |
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06 January 2021
 A Marist Perspective from Father Paul Cooney sm |
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01 January 2021
 We celebrate the Motherhood of Mary on January 1 and it is also the World Day of Peace. |
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31 December 2020
 9 Key Marist Documents exploring the themes “when will the time come”, “the confraternity of both sexes living in the world”, “like a bridge”, “shine out into the church”, “a new church” etc. |
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28 December 2020
 I would like to plead for a Marian church; not for a church which multiplies processions and blesses huge statues ... rather a church which 'lives the Gospel after the manner of Mary'. The Marian Church follows Mary into the mountains, going off with her to encounter life; she visits men and women, and, though things may seem to be sterile, she is on the watch for what is coming to birth, for possibilities, for the life which beats in things. |
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26 December 2020
 Marists seek simplicity in life. Marists search tochoose the essentials in our own life. Today, welive in an information rich world which can oftenblock out God’s word and will. A more simplelife style enables a freedom to let go of the thingswhich prevent us from striving for and findingwhat is most important. |
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24 December 2020
 Do we accept the real presence of the Eucharist? The faith of the church from the beginning becomes the Body and Blood of the Lord. The Second Vatican Council tried to bring a balance. The Council recognised many ways Jesus is present. Jesus is present in the community “Where two or three are gathered in my name”. But this is not the Eucharistic presence. Jesus is present in the scriptures. God is the eternal Word. “In the beginning of the Word and the Word was with God”. Jesus of truly present in the scripture. Jesus is truly present in the pastoral presence. We cannot go it alone. Finally, Jesus is present in the sacraments. Saint Augustine said, “it does not matter if it is Judas who baptises or Peter who baptises”. Why? Because it is Christ who baptises. |
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23 December 2020
 This is a very complex question, but of great importance today, as the Church seeks renewal. |
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22 December 2020
 In our search for possible factors within the Catholic system that might have had some bearing on the incidence of sexual abuse and the poor way it was handling, we turn now to the question of belief and, more specifically, how we think of Jesus Christ. |
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17 December 2020
 Wonder is a powerful film about a 10 year old boy (Augie Pullman) who is born with a significant facial disfigurement. The film journeys with Augie’s transition between being home schooled and returning to regular day school. Wonder deals with several major issues such as bullying, poor self-esteem, peer pressure and family break down. Through these difficulties Augie is able to discover the goodness of who is through the relationships and friendships that form around him. |
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