20 May 2024
 Father Richard Leonard's presentation on his book 'Why God: Stories to Inspire Faith' was a rich dialogue exploring the intersections of faith, storytelling, and the challenges of contemporary life. He started by explaining how the book compiles various narratives that reflect on the presence and role of God in modern society. These stories aim to bridge the gap between ancient faith traditions and today's diverse, often secularized cultural landscapes. |
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16 January 2024
 Few books have stayed in the hearts and minds of parents everywhere as much as Raising Boys. Now in an increasingly complicated and nuanced world, raising boys to become emotionally strong, kind and resilient men is even more important and relevant. In response to calls from parents around the world Steve Biddulph has completely updated and revised his seminal work to include all the latest international information and advice for parents on all the key issues of today. |
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25 November 2023
 These YouTube videos launch Dr. Connie Zweig's book, 'The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul.' The book is intended for individuals over 50 who are feeling disoriented by aging and are looking for tools to help them find peace, forgiveness, self-knowledge, gratitude, meaning, and a way to contribute meaningfully in the latter part of their lives. Dr. Zweig extends her work on the shadow to explore the shadows of age. She discusses the transition from identifying with our roles in work and family to a deeper, spiritual identity that emerges as we age and our roles fall away. This shift is described as a transformation from role to soul. |
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12 November 2023
 'The Practice of the Presence of God' by Brother Lawrence is a collection of his letters, along with some of his conversations and spiritual maxims. The central theme of the book is the development of an awareness of God's presence in everyday life. Brother Lawrence, a Carmelite monk in the 17th century, advocates for a continuous conversation with God, regardless of the task at hand, thereby finding the sacred in the mundane. This practice leads to a spiritual state that transcends the need for formal prayer or meditation periods because every moment becomes an opportunity to commune with the divine. The book has been a classic in Christian spiritual literature, teaching simplicity and devotion in one's relationship with God. |
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11 November 2023
 In 1806 Jeanne-Marie Chavoin met the clerical student destined by God to play an important part in her spiritual formation. She was to feel the benefit of his guidance up to the last year of her long life. At the time of their first meeting, Jean-Philibert Lefranc was twenty, the same age as herself. He was Father Guillermet's nephew, and spent his holidays at Coutouvre. |
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01 September 2023
 In this Square faculty event, Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo and journalist Kerry O'Brien discuss the 'Voice to Parliament' handbook they co-authored. The handbook aims to provide information about the Voice to Parliament concept and upcoming referendum in Australia. The event acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land and emphasizes the importance of this topic. Thomas Mayo explains that the handbook was created to inform and empower people, particularly those supporting the 'Yes' vote in the referendum, by providing facts and personal insights. They discuss the significance of the Voice to Parliament in addressing Indigenous representation and the need for a consistent Indigenous voice in government decision-making. |
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18 August 2023
 The transcript by James Finley from the podcast episode discusses his book 'The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation.' In this excerpt, Finley reflects on various themes from the book and his personal experiences. He mentions how he resonated with Thomas Merton's desire for solitude and shares his own connection with Merton's teachings. Finley talks about the transformative power of spiritual writers whose words resonate deeply within, and how such writers can guide us on the spiritual journey. |
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24 October 2022
 Perhaps we are too apt to think of the Foundress of a religious congregation in the Church as a mighty soul breathing on the earth and finding new branches of her movement, all shining, complete and wanting for nothing, in the place where she has breathed. This is, to some extent, the inner truth. For it is the spirit that quickeneth, the bricks and mortar of themselves being profitless. But in the field of practicaliÂties, the foundation of each house is a matter of hard work, of courage to face a host of difficulties, patience to attend to a swarming mass of detail. We find all this in Mother St. Joseph's search for a house towards the close of 1835. Â¥any possibilities were envisaged and exÂplored. But to no avail. Thus hopes that seemed bright and promising in the dioceses of Grenoble, Gap, Belley and Lyons came to nothing. Finally, negotiations were happily concluded and preparations begun for the opening of a convent at Meximieux, about eighteen miles outside Lyons. |
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22 October 2022
 The quietness of the town of Belley and the splendour of its panorama were an ideal setting for a convent. And 'Bon Repos', perched on a hill overlooking the town just opposite the opening into which the Rhone pours its tempestuous waters, offered an escape from the noises of the world. For over a century it was the Mother House of the congregation, the only house returned to the Marist Sisters after the 1903 religious persecution. |
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20 October 2022
 'I WENT at once to Cerdon,' says Jeanne-Marie Chavoin in her brief memoir, 'to fix up about our leaving Coutouvre, which we did as soon as possible.' The invitation to Cerdon brought peace of soul. All doubt had vanished, leaving in its stead the certainty that at last God's hour had come. |
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19 October 2022
 At a time when apostates were quite common, Pierre and Jean-Claude Colin came of staunch and deeply Catholic stock. Their father, Jacques Colin, died a fugitive for his religion barely a month after the death of his sorrowing wife. This heroic woman had encouraged his resistance to the enemies of the Faith, had told him to die rather than submit to their demands. Known for her piety during life, Madame Colin's last act was to confide her young children to the care of Our Blessed Lady. Sebastian Colin, a paternal uncle and prosperous cotton weaver, took the orphans to his home and brought them up as members of the family. |
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15 October 2022
 This story are by no means a deep study of Jeanne-Marie Chavoin's spirituality. That will come later from a more able pen. This is just a straight forward, homely sketch-a modest attempt to gently lift the veil of silence which enshrouds her. May shepardon the liberty, since God is glorified in his works. A realist approach has been our aim-to let Jeanne Marie speak and act naturally without being encumbered by undue literary padding or personal commentary. |
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13 October 2022
 A cartoon of the story of John Claude Colin. Part 1. The first part in John Claude Colin's life one of the founders of the Marist Society. John Claude Colin is born in France in 1790 at the same time the French Revolution is breaking out. From this Chaos and the later wars brought on by Napoleon, Mary will invite the first men and women to found the Society of Mary. The original vision was for a multiple branched society even though at the time in the 1800s the church could not conceive of lay people, brothers, fathers and sisters being in one group. The original vision given by Mary had a multiple branch society in mind. Soon the early Marists would pledge themselves and be invited to go on mission. Both in the remote regions of the mountains of France and also to the outer islands of the Pacific. Soon they will go out beyond their comfort zones for Mary. |
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15 July 2022
 VENERABLE Father Colin was a man of strength. And this virtue of fortitude sprang from the cerÂtainty that God, using his nothingness to perform a work, filled that nothingness with His own divine strength: ' I can do all things in Him who strengthened me.'' |
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12 July 2022
 We are born restless. We are very complex in our nature. We are very driven and complex in our sexuality. The majority of people including Christians have trouble connecting that to God. I do not use this expression lightly “God smiles on usâ€. |
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03 July 2022
 ALL real charity, all apostolic work, is and cannot be other than the blossom and the fruit of renunciaÂtion and the interior life. That is why, when foundÂing a Society given to active apostolate, Venerable Father Colin taught his sons first and foremost detachment from everything, together with the necesÂsity of a life of prayer: |
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26 June 2022
 Union with God will be made quite easy, if we allow ourselves to be deeply penetrated with the truth, the essential truth, that God really lives in a pure soul. It was the holy Founder's wish that his children be conscious, at every moment of the day, of this life of God within them, that their every thought, word and deed spring from this consciousÂness, that God be the centre of their lives, their all. |
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25 June 2022
 Maggie Dent grew up in the country and she always felt she 'spoke bloke'. As a high school teacher and a family counsellor, she discovered she had a real affinity for teenage boys, and understood how to communicate with them. |
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25 June 2022
 Simplicity must be properly understood. Our Lord said to His apostles: 'Be as wise as serpents, and as simple as doves.' Those words are addressed very specially to us. We must be simple, but our simplicity must be that of the Blessed Virgin. We must have but one heart and no other object in view save the glory of God. True simplicity shuns all ostentation, affectation, singularity, all want of tact and of dignity. It is above all triviality, all vulgarity of posture, of words and of actions. Neither is it akin to dissimulation. . . . I wish you all that time simplicity of Mary which draws, wins and pleases God and man.' |
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24 June 2022
 VENERABLE Father Colin's soul was greatly attracted to the hidden life. And be found it noÂwhere in such perfection as in the little house of Nazareth, in the humble life of the Holy Family which he proposed to his children as a constant subÂject of meditation. It is, in truth, an infinitely rich theme. |
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| Poverty | Marist Father John Claude Colin |
18 June 2022
 Principles of the Spiritual Life. In the Constitutions of the Society of Mary, VenerÂable Father Colin returns three times to the spirit of poverty. His third reference to this subject is the very last Article of those Constitutions, as though, his work completed, his fatherly soul felt the need to insist once more, in a sort of spiritual testament, on a point intimately dear to him. |
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15 June 2022
 Principles of the Spiritual Life. 'Obedience consists in obeying man for God's sake. It enables brethren to live together harmoniÂously, and leads them to heaven by a safe path.' 'That is why all must endeavour to esteem it highly, and to practise it with such perfection that if they allow other religious to surpass them in knowÂledge, in mortification, in poverty, they will let none outdo them in obedience. They will thus show themÂselves to be the true children and servants of the Blessed Virgin who, though Queen of Angels and of men, always submitted humbly to all with whom she lived.'' |
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| Humility | Marist Father John Claude Colin |
10 June 2022
 Principles of the Spiritual Life. According to venerable Marist Father John Claude Colin . Those who knew Venerable Father Colin, those who have spoken of him, have all emphasized the out standing humility of his soul. His deep under- standing of the principle of true humility is aptly summed up in these words of his : 'You see, God is He who is. The creature is that which is not.' |
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06 June 2022
 VENERABLE Father Colin often re-emphasized the necessity of penance -and love of the Cross. But, scattered among other teachings, the texts dealing with that subject are difficult to isolate. Suffice it to say that the spirit of penance is a typically Marist virtue. For to continue the mission of Mary crucified with her Son one must be crucified with her. |
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05 June 2022
 Principles of the Spiritual Life. According to venerable Marist Father John Claude Colin. Detachment. It is said of the Apostles, that when Jesus called them, ' they left all and followed him '. |
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18 April 2022
 I am now going to enter this house where the mother of Jesus is spending her holy Saturday, and with John’s permission try and talk to her. The conversation is inspired first of all by contemplating the way in which Mary lived this dramatic moment. |
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18 January 2022
 A meditation, and a reflection on the book 'Like a Bridge'. |
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30 October 2021
 What is it like to think as Mary, Act as Mary and judge as Mary? This offers a spirituality which engages the whole person. How does John Claude Colin integrate Mary into his life and Spirituality. This brings some freshness to how we approach Marist Spirituality. |
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03 October 2021
 The stories in this work date back to the first century in the Christian era. They are the foundation stories of Western cultures and have held profound and world-shaping meanings for its audiences - for better or otherwise. As readers of this literature, we would like to pay attention to where these stories hit a chord or a dischord with us in che 21' century. How do we, reading through an eco-feminisc lens, encounter these stories and what liberating meaning might we find in chem? We may wonder, in face, are chey really 'good news' for women, for marginalised peoples, for the Earth in our world today? And if so, how? |
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24 June 2021
 We grow more spiritually by doing it wrong than by doing it right. In Falling Upward, Fr Richard Rohr offers a new understanding of one of life's most profound mysteries: how our failing can be the foundation for our ongoing spiritual growth. Drawing on the wisdom from time-honoured myths, heroic poems, great thinkers and sacred religious texts, the author explores the two halves of life to show that those who have fallen, failed, or 'gone down' are the only ones who understand 'up'. The heartbreaks, disappointments and loves of the first half of life are actually stepping stones to the spiritual joys that the second half has in store for us. |
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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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13 June 2021
 It is surprising that the church and Christian therapists have been slow to respond to the growing secular interest in mindfulness meditation. Even though there have been some recent rediscovers of Christian meditations and contemplative prayer practise, this knowledge is only held and practised by a relatively small number of people. It is not practised in mainstream Church, Catholic or Protestant. |
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29 May 2021
 There is no greater gift than to honour your calling. This is why you were born. It is how you become most truly alive. |
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17 April 2021
 By Steve Biddulph. Nearly 20 years ago, in what would become a landmark piece of research into the way men and women look at themselves, researchers had a series of American college students go into a dressing room, get changed into a swimsuit, and take a maths test |
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