This blog anticipates the third week of the Season of Creation: beginning on Sunday 18th August:  We bow to the presence of God in all creation and we also bow to the presence of God in the heart of every person. Mantra: Holy Ground Monica Brown You are here, so this is holy ground. In all that is You are here. This is holy ground, the ground of my being now. My spirit bows to You upon this holy ground. Before each reading, the reader places a pair of shoes at the prayer focus. Reflection 1: Holy Ground is any place where we experience God: where we learn that we're not alone and where we discover that God provides us with what we need to be, who we're...

The Second Sunday in the Season of Creation will be on September 11th.  This Meditation and Prayer Exercise anticipates the 2nd Week:  Meditative exercise: I invite you to close your eyes and to be attentive to all that you hear. (allow 2 minutes) I now invite you to open your eyes. Remembering what you have heard, try to locate where the different sounds came from. Do you see anything unusual, extraordinary, or unexpected? Rejoice and thank God our Creator for what you have heard, seen, and discovered… and allow it all to draw you into the presence of God! Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:3-4 Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bu...

The Season of Creation begins on 01 September.  The Theme of Prayer for our first week is: Blazing yet not consumed "Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. Get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed". - Abraham Joshua Heschel … nature is a constant source of wonder and awe. It is also a continuing revelation of the divine. - Laudato Si 85 Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:1-2 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and c...

Fr Joseph McLaughlin SM, Notre Dame des Victoires, San Francisco, California writes: It is 9:15 am and I begin my 20-minute walk to St. Anthony's dining room in the tenderloin district of San Francisco. In October 1950, Father Alfred Boeddeker opened the doors of St. Anthony's dining room to men and women in need of meals. Since then, services offered here have grown to include a medical clinic, free clothing program, technology lab and more. However, its mission remains the same: to care for those in need and create a society in which all persons flourish. As I draw closer to Golden Gate Avenue I meet Anna who could be 35 or 55; a dear lady who seldom speaks to me. "Hi Anna, it is Joe....

Fr Jim Carty sm, Aussie Marist, calls us, in our current world situation, to remember the tragedy of Nuclear Warfare The secretary general of the United Nations warned on Monday (1stAugust 2022) that humanity was "just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation," citing the war in Ukraine among the conflicts driving the risk to a level not seen since the height of the Cold War. "All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening," the official, António Guterres, said. "And when crises — with nuclear undertones — are festering from the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula to Russia's invasion of U...

Safeguarding… "seeks to create a culture of relational safety in persons and institutions of the Catholic Church …. It is a perspective and way of life that needs to become an intentional part of the daily life of every Catholic." (from the Ateneo University of Manila)  These words are quoted by Sr Catherine Jones smsm, for the Congregational Newsletter of the Mission Advancement Team.  The article in full follows:  Marie Francoise Perroton has set us an example of "hearing a call" and setting out in response to this call of the women of Ouvea in 1845. We SMSM have tried to follow in her footsteps by continually discerning the signs of the times, and responding to new cal...

Peter Healy sm, Kiwi Marist, gives us this reflection on a recently released documentary:  Carbon the Unauthorized Biography This documentary film made in Australia in 2022 is all at once a cosmology, a geology and an ecology of carbon. Our planet home's most ubiquitous element, it is everywhere, in our bodies, our food and what we wear. As we all know it is blanketing our collective airspace given the millions of combustion engines in most every country on earth. If you have ever wondered what the carbon cycle is, then this documentary is for you. The carbon atom is cleverly animated in this film and speaks in the first person about our current crisis of extraction, burn and overload. ...

Fr Arnold Garferio sm, current Director of MAF recently made this Report:  Burmese Migrant Secondary Education Program Thai Government Non-Formal Education (KOSONO) Preparation Program Marist Outreach Program A.   NUMBERS Student Population Towards the End of the School Year 2021-2022: 62    Students in Preparation Program 156   Students in Burmese Migrant Secondary Program 218  Total Number Students 25     Graduated from Burmese Migrant Secondary Program Examinations Passing Rate and Class Attendance Rate (End of School Year 2021-2022) 82 %    Preparation Program students class attendance rate 47 ...

Fr Setefano Mataele sm, Provincial of Oceania, recently presented this Vision to his Province:  A REORIENTATION OF THE OCEANIA MARIST PROVINCE 2022 AND BEYOND The Three Circles Of The Marist Apostolic Religious life  Contemplation, Community, Mission Reorientation: changing the status quo:  When looking at the reality of our situation there is a temptation to disillusionment and resignation regarding our future. It could all be just very discouraging and depressing. In the past we have tried to respond by telling ourselves to make one huge effort to turn things around and slogans have been put out like "think region", "think province", "think society",...

 Marist Father - John Bolduc SM, Parochial Vicar, St. Patrick Parish, Roxbury, Massachusetts writes about his Prison Ministry, and its Marist dimension:  I think of the icon, Our Lady of Tenderness. What strikes me is that she is not looking at us. She does not look for our attention; it is Jesus who is important and He seems to be looking to his Father and He is not a little baby. Marists learn to love that woman, but never without her Son. Her Son was sometimes a hard man, calling others names – Herod was a fox; Pharisees were whitened sepulchers (Matthew 23:27), decomposing, putrid dead corpses. Her Son never shamed those who were shamed by others: lepers, criminals, c...

Fr Hermes Larry Sabud sm, Superior of our Marist Community in Ranong, Thailand, recently sent this news to us:  Le P. Hermes Larry Sabud sm, supérieur de notre communauté mariste de Ranong, Thaïlande, nous a récemment envoyé cette nouvelle : Blessing of the Harmony Centre, Ranong, Thailand:    Bénédiction du Centre Harmony, Ranong, Thaïlande : During an interreligious and intercultural celebration on 10 June, the Marist Harmony Centre in Ranong was blessed in the presence of many faithful and their religious leaders, the Muslim Imam, Buddhist Monks and Catholic priests and also other civil authorities. The Centre envisions harmony in cultural and religious diversity in Ra...

Fr. Luigi Savoldelli sm sent this news to us on 24 May the 7th Anniversary of Laudato Si:  For those who believe it is a planet shaped by the hands of God, for others it is an environment rich in resources, which are good for the eyes, which make us feel good in the depths of our being and which can be used for human needs.We call it Earth and all of us, believers or not, are its inhabitants, its custodians and we have it on loan for free use, on loan from our children and grandchildren, from those who will come after us and inhabit it. Earth. Space. What we tell you are not "the journeys of the spaceship Enterprise, whose mission is to explore strange and new worlds in search of n...

 Mary Ghisolfo, Lay Marist serving with Notre Dame des Victoires, San Francisco, California, writes to answer the question:  "Why Does Ministry Among the Poor Awaken for Us the Critical Role of a Marist Vocation?"  "At our best, we are instruments of God's mercy working to help others taste the boundless love of the Lord, especially those who find themselves on the margins." (Statement of Identity, US Province of the Society of Mary – Assembly and Chapter June 2013 The parishioners at Notre Dame des Victoires Church (NDV) are committed to supporting the Gubbio Project, an organization which serves the homeless, hungry and those in need of various health services...

Gerald A. Arbuckle, sm, Marist Father and distinguished cultural anthropologist writes:  The world is flooded with conspiracy theories, the beliefs, contrary to reality, that individuals or groups are secretly acting to accomplish some malevolent purpose. Once COVID-19 was identified, conspiracy theories emerged. Some said it was a hoax or a campaign to disrupt the presidential re-election of Donald Trump; others the pharmaceutical industry spreads the disease. Conspiracy beliefs may satisfy people's needs for certainty, security, and a positive self-image in a world they feel is disintegrating. When the comforting securities of cultures crumble, paranoia makes sense. An inability ...

Marist Brother - Francis Lukong fms - a member of our Marist Family Laudato Si Group - wrote this article recently: The International Day for Biodiversity is observed every year on May 22 by the international community to draw the world's attention to the importance of biodiversity on the planet Earth. The theme for this year's Biodiversity Day celebration is "Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth". A shared future for all life represents the shared aspiration of mankind. Ecological challenges remind us that we are members of the same universal community. Our basic call to survival is best captured by the Chinese saying, "all beings flourish when they live in harmony and receiv...

Laudato Si Week, with the Theme – Journeying together – is on, you can register here Marist Asia Foundation works with 3 of the 7 goals of Laudato Si, in response to: Cry of the Poor; Community Engagement and Participation; and Ecological Education. Cry of the Poor: Education of Migrant Children The Marist Asia Foundation's migrant community education center happily welcomed two hundred eighty-five students to another exciting year of learning, on May 19. The Parents' support is very much appreciated as they accompany their children for registration. The first three days of school are set specifically to orient the students to MAF child protection policy, transportation safety, anti-bul...

Fr Samuela Tukidia sm, Fijian Marist, completed a Thesis in Rome last December which is good for us to share as we approach the seventh Anniversary of the Encyclical of Pope Francis - Laudato Si - on May 24th.   Samu's 145 page thesis has 4 Chapters:    1. Setting the Scene - The Roots of the Ecological Crisis and the Search for An Integral Ecology 2. The Creator and Creation: Thomistic Perspectives on Divine Action, Emergence, Analogia Entis, and the Eschatological Challenges of Ecology 3. The Relationship of Human Beings to Creation 4. The Sacramentality of the Cosmos Following are his own words of reflection when he shared his Thesis with the other membe...

Sr Catherine Jones - a Marist Missionary Sister from NZ - recently shared something of her life and work,  with our Marist Commission for Inter-religious Dialogue.  She began with the Batique, from India, in the cover photo - which she said was designed for one of the first Inter-Faith L'Arche communities in the world. Their symbol is the center piece of the Batique.   Catherine was professed in 1970 and applied for a Fiji Mission appointment, knowing that Fiji was both a multi-religious and multi-faith society.  She was no stranger to inter-faith encounters, since they began for her with the Buddhists in Shotover River Valley, Central Otago, NZ, where she grew ...

Ron NIssen sm writes from Sydney, Australia: Some weeks ago I was part of a fund-raising Camino, Walk for Wilai, a ten-day chapter in the adventure of tackling the statelessness of thousands of children worldwide, beginning with a young girl called Wilai. In a hospital by the River Kwai at Kanchanaburi, Thailand, and close to Myanmar, Wilai was born to parents whose origins are 'unknown' but thought to be somewhere in the border forests between the two countries. From them she inherited statelessness. The 14 yr old presently lives in an orphanage in Thailand. As a stateless person she is denied opportunity for education and the freedom to embrace young womanhood as a free person in a fr...

Sr Christiana Nshimiyimana smsm - Rawandan Marist Missionary Sister - gives us this news from Ngozi, Burundi:   GIRITEKA is a project set up to respond to the phenomenon of street children in the city of Ngozi which, in recent years, has experienced accelerated expansion with its corollary of new problems. One of the consequences of this reality is the sad situation of street children given their ever-increasing number. The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (Marists), called by the Bishop of Ngozi, sought ways to "recover" street children with a view to social reintegration. The reception Centre was set up in 2003. Since the beginning, we have been in contact with...