On May 11, 2024, I, Lauro da Silva Ferreira, at the request of the Assistant General Father Ben McKenna, I joined the Meeting of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation – JPIC Roma, of the USG [Union of Superiors General-men]/UISG [International Union of Superiors General – women]. The meeting took place at: Piazza di Ponte Sant'Angelo. Pour la traduction française voir ci-dessous The first factor that struck me was the number of participants. Representatives from more than seventy different religious congregations. The vast majority were first-time members of the commission. For this reason, I believe, the meeting took place with an introductory bias, in the sense of pre...

Fr Ted Keating - USA Marist - continues to give us the main points of a recent Recollection Day: on Spirituality and Consciousness: Spirituality and Consciousness: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ                          Traduction française - voir ci-dessous (Talking points from PowerPoint presentation by Ted Keating, SM) Human Consciousness and the Incarnation •Genesis says that after the creation of the natural world, Adam and Eve were created by God by blowing His breath into their nostrils giving them life out of the very breath of God. (Spirit) •They were also created in the image and likeness of God making it po...

Fr Ted Keating - USA Marist - gives us the main points of a recent Recollection Day: on Spirituality and Consciousness:  Spirituality and Consciousness: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ              Traduction française - voir ci-dessous (Talking points from PowerPoint presentation by Ted Keating, SM) Consciousness    •What you are sitting in here and using today. •No good definitions because we would have to use what we are trying to examine in examining it—consciousness. •This is a new inquiry and analysis for humanity likely touching into a new evolution of consciousness itself while we are reflecting on it. •Comparison to the Axial Age...

Title: Cultivating Sustainability: A Visit to Bishop O'Dowd Catholic School In January, I traveled with my colleague, Mike Burns, to explore the thriving culture of sustainability at Bishop O'Dowd Catholic School in Oakland, CA. With our President of Marist School Atlanta, J.D. Childs, having come from Bishop O'Dowd and spoken highly of their sustainability initiatives, we sought to learn how they have built an ingrained culture of sustainability. Our first stop was the Bishop O'Dowd Center for Environmental Studies, a LEED Platinum Certified Building that serves as the epicenter of their environmental science and engineering program. The seamless integration of indoor and outdoor spaces was...

Fr François Grossin SM, NC Marist Vicar Delegate,  send this Introduction on May 24 - to the Churches Appeal made on Pentecost Sunday:  Traduction française - voir ci-dessous : Has the Joint Declaration of the historical Churches in New Caledonia read in all places of worship, churches and chapels on Pentecost Sunday brought back peace to its peoples ? It would have been a miracle! Neither did the unexpected quick visit of President Macron (18 hours all together), on May 23, who met many local leaders and representatives of all kinds except the religious ones (a serious mistake). The fights are continuing and bringing more violence and desolation to the areas concerned, Nouméa...

Dear confreres and friends Laudato Si' Week "Seeds of Hope", started on May 19, Pentecost Sunday, and closes on May 26, Holy Trinity Sunday. This year the Laudato Si Movement are proposing different themes and actions for each day of the week, ways to put it into practice, its importance and impact on our planet. Please, find the celebration guide at the following links and share within your network: link in Spanish link in English link in French link in Italian link in Portuguese Also consider that in the "resources" section it is possible to download the social media kit for a better promotion (including the logo). Chers confrères et amis, la Semaine Laudato Si' « Semences d'espérance », a...

This week's blog is Chapter 2- Communities for Mission, from Fr John Larsen's recently released Letter to the Society of Mary: Like Mary, Bearers of Hope.         Pour la version française - voir ci-dessous.        Nazareth From our first beginnings Nazareth has always been an important symbol for us as Marists. For Father Jean-Claude: "Our spirit, the spirit of the Society … I personally find it in all its fulness in the house at Nazareth" (F.S. 188, 12) Nazareth speaks of a small village where people grew together in faith together with Mary, Joseph and their son. It was far from the centres of power, whether Jerusalem or Rome or elsewhere,...

Deep Time - Deep Adaptation - Deep Transformation    :    Peter Healy SM  Temps profond, adaptation profonde et transformation profonde  :  Peter Healy SM  :  Traduction française ci-dessous The following is a Summary of a Presentation given by Peter Healy, Kiwi Marist, to our Ecology Commission on 20th March 2024. Peter spoke, in the summer months, to a Gathering of Young Activists for social and political change. They were not specifically Catholic, or Christian. He felt privileged to be called to speak – as he is called to do by their organizers each year. He spoke of Deep Time and Deep Adaptation – using as a Visual a painting he has...

NEW TUTU NURSERY TO ASSIST IN GROWING AGRICULTURE IN THE GARDEN ISLAND            Traduction française ci-dessous #StrengtheningPartnerships   Tutu Rural Training Centre in Taveuni reached another milestone recently, as their new state of the art nursery was commissioned by the Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Waterways, Honourable Tomasi Tunabuna on Thursday 21st March. "The opening of this nursery was only made possible through collaboration between British American Tobacco (BAT) and Tutu Rural Training Centre. The nursery will provide fruits and vegetable seedlings to around 100 farmers based here in the Garden Island of Taveuni," said Hon. Tu...

OUR LADY OF CONSOLATION CENTER – BAMBILI, CAMEROON, AFRICA CENTRE NOTRE DAME DE LA CONSOLATION - BAMBILI, CAMEROUN, AFRIQUE -   Voir ci-dessous Our Lady of Consolation Center (OLCC) for Children and Persons Living with Special Needs Bambili is a daycare center supported by the Marist Fathers of the Society of Mary. It has been serving the community for 17 years. Located in Bambili, Tubah subdivision some 14km from Bamenda town. It cares for 30 children, 17 of them are girls while 13 are boys with a dedicated staff of 4 including a physiotherapist, social worker, driver, and a steward. With these, the objectives are to gather children living with disabilities and make them feel like...

CALLED TO BE EUCHARISTIC PEOPLE                                               Traduction française - voir ci-dessous Our world has plunged into a frightening darkness. LIGHT has diminished, almost extinguished. The threat of evil hovers large today, in the suffering and horror of wars: in the cries of the women, The bewilderment of the children, The hunger and exhaustion of the elderly, The helplessness and powerlessness of the innocent and suffering. The list is endless, Yet, in the midst of this God reminds us- He is alive. He LIVES in me. He LIVES in you. He LIVES in me ...

Mary Burkett is a wife, mother, grandmother, retired nurse, and sometimes-gardener: she discovered a Gift for drawing loving attention to children who have been victims of violence and slavery. Her work is an invitation to our world today, where so many of victims of war and violence are children .Here is her story, and below are links to her work:                 Traduction française ci-dessous My work is simple. I draw pastel portraits of children who were killed in the Holocaust. This is an unusual work for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that I am not an artist. I have no art training; I have no background in art; I know litt...

One of the most serious violations of justice is slavery. An International Day of Prayer and Awareness was instituted on February 8, the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese girl who was sold into slavery in the 19th century and later became a nun. This is an opportunity to recall the importance of these crimes, which often remain in the shadows, and which States rarely pursue. Organizations like Talitha Kum are constantly fighting against slavery and human trafficking, and they ask for our prayers and support. https://preghieracontrotratta.org "Journeying in Dignity": Listen, Dream, Act is the theme of the X° International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking, celebra...

A quick look at our Constitutions SM enables us to see that we are inherently Synodal.  156: All Marists imitate Mary's delicate responsiveness to the promptings of the Spirit and to the needs of God's People.  158: those who exercise authority develop a network of interchange and solidarity to promote unity for mission. 160: this mission requires structures of consultation and participation at the local, provincial, and general levels. 161: unity in the Society and effective action require that its members be consulted and participate in decision making. As good stewards of the Gospel we bring out of our treasury things both old and new: the 'old' treasures in our Constitutions ca...

by Nik Rodewald, Theology Teacher and Campus Minister, Marist School, Atlanta, Georgia         Traduction française ci-dessous Over the last few years, in response to Pope Francis's encyclical, Laudato Si', I have been on a journey to a more authentic ecological conversion. The article that follows is a musing on the concrete steps that journey has taken, and an invitation for you, dear reader, to consider your own journey into God. Awareness and Action God is always at work trying to "do a new thing" (Isaiah 43:19). Yet for this "new thing" to come to completion, I must learn to discern how God's Spirit is moving, stirring me away from my old ways and tired habits, ...

Changing How Economy Works                                                                Traduction française - voir ci-dessous Capitalist economy, especially in its neoliberal, financial version, is ecologically and socially unsustainable, and it is the main driver of the poly-crisis we are today experiencing. Therefore, we need to change how the economy works. This will take a social transformation, that is, a systemic change that transforms both socio- economic structures and the worldview that underpins them. Having understood th...

Social implications of Economic Justice                            Traduction française - voir ci-dessous With the end of the bipolar system (Western capitalist world Vs Eastern communist system) Trans National Corporations (TNCs) pushed for a globalization of markets, seeking an expansion that could secure growth. Having reached the limits to growth within the Western consumer market, they needed to expand it. That meant pushing to turn the world into a global, single market – without any barriers of sorts – a single, interconnected financial marketplace, and a unified production system. However, they soon realized that s...

Mary and new beginnings                                                                                              Texte original français : voir ci-dessous Here then, given to our Marist family today, is the story of Cana. In John, who is the only one to give us this episode, it is the first public appearance of Jesus and he will give there his first sign, as an opening of what will cross the whole gospel. And Mary is involved. So there is something ver...

On-line Course on Integral Ecology From Laudato Si' to Laudate Deum An Initiative of the Alliance for the Care of Our Common Home (Pontifical Universities & Atheneums of Rome) In 2015 Pope Francis gifted us Laudato Si', the landmark encyclical letter on the care for our common home, in which he invited all people of good will to "a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet" (LS, 14). However, as Pope Francis recognizes in Laudate Deum, the apostolic exhortation published on 4th October 2023 - on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of ecology, "our responses have not been adequate" and "the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the b...

Fr Richard Rohr OFM, presents on the Centre for Action and Contemplation , 4 key issues that call for us to be engaged in this year, 2024: He draws on Brian McLaren's work: Everything must Change .  McLaren presents 4 Crises: Planet, Poverty, Peace, and Religion.  McLaren Writes Way back in 2007, I wrote a book called Everything Must Change. I wanted to understand what our greatest challenges and threats and problems were here on Earth as a global civilization. I spent a year researching the literature of global crises, and I came away with an understanding of four deep problems that we face. First, we face a crisis with our planet. We are literally destroying our life su...