TITLE: Marist Laity Australia - Simplicity, Flexibility, Inclusiveness












Mary and Son

A Church Reborn

Meeting: 12 July 2007

Presenter: Fr Patrick Kervin sm

Prayer: Fr Pat led us to reflect on the birth of the Church in Acts 1: 12 – 15 by way of Lectio Divina: So from the Mount of Olives, as it is called, they went back to Jerusalem, a short distance away, no more than a Sabbath walk; and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying: there were peter and john, James and Andrew, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Jude son of James. With one heart all these joined constantly in prayer, together with some women, including Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Wherever we find Mary in Scripture (except for the Annunciation) she is in the middle of a group – supporting, comforting, pondering, listening, responding to the needs of others.

Images of the Church we have encountered in the last two weeks:

  1. World Youth Day Cross & Icon welcomed to Australia in Darling Harbour and how people stopped, interrupted their walk to greet and venerate the Cross on the walk through the city last Friday.
  2. Cardinal Pell, as Archbishop of Sydney and Primate of the Church in Australia, challenged the politicians to act in accord with the teachings of the Catholic Church.
  3. Community Outreach work of the parishioners of St Patrick’s Church Hill – a 93yr old man on walking sticks taking compassion and comfort to the marginalised. Something he has been doing since his teenage years.
  4. The faithful at St Patrick’s Church Hill number 800 for reconciliation per week and 5,000 receive Holy Communion per week.
  5. The Motu Proprio from Pope Benedict XVI allowing celebration of the Latin Tridentine Mass following the Missal of 1963.
  6. Pope Benedict XVI’s pronouncement that to be Church one must recognise the Apostolic Succession from St Peter to the present day Pope (Lumen Gentium), otherwise Christians may be called ecclesiastical communities but not Church.
Discussion: We discussed these images which helped us become more aware of the various elements that make up our Church and challenge us to live our faith. We are the Church today and give witness to the Good News by our own commitment and compassion for the most needy. We receive our primary ongoing education in our faith during our Liturgy or Sunday Mass where, gathered in Community, we are nourished in Prayer, Scripture and Sacrament. We then go out to live what we proclaim. Some will respond to the Sacramental needs of people, some will lead Parish groups, some will do the cleaning and tidy up after events and meetings, others will care for the needy. All sharing what we believe and what we have in the way that we are able to share it.

Marist Reflection: Readings from A Certain Way by Craig Larkin sm pp. 44-45

September 27, 1846 - The Mayet Memoirs:
Father Colin said: The Society must begin a new Church over again. I do not mean that in a literal sense, that would be blasphemy. But still, in a certain sense, yes, we must begin a new Church. The Society of Mary, like the Church, began with simple, poorly educated men; but since then the Church has developed and encompassed everything. We too must gather together everyone through the Third Order. Heretics alone may not belong to it.

Fr Colin did not mean that Marists were to construct ‘another church’. But rather “a church that is other” not “a different church” but “a church that is different”. One could say that he envisaged Marists as agents for the Church beginning again, being born again. Recent Popes have spoken about a new Church being re-constructured; to quote one: We must be prepared to leave atrophied schemes and be ready to move to where life is beginning. - John Paul II, September 1985

A Transformed Church
We cannot revive old factions
We cannot restore old policies
Or follow an antique drum…… - T.S. Eliot Little Gidding

And the church must be forever building
And always decaying
And always being restored…… - T.S. Eliot The Rock

The message of the Father must be preached again in a new language, in terms of a new culture. The Incarnational movement of the Church is to start again in this new civilization. She must meet this world on its own terms. – Jan Snijders, sm

As Marists, we must dedicate ourselves to the more important and radical task of transforming the Church into a communion and a people….. Such a church will demand a different form of leadership, one based not so much on hierarchy as on the ability to create an atmosphere in which people can recognize their gifts and have the courage to offer them for the task of the Kingdom. - John Jago, sm

In the natural world a loving God has designed each creature for the environment in which it is to live………God has designed Marists, too, for their environment and our environment is a time characterised by unbelief, ignorance, confusion and sinfulness. Our Founder said that we were called to serve the most abandoned and the most profligate of sinners. That is our milieu, that is where we are at home.
- Frank McKay, sm

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