New World, New Church

Father Colin, founder of the Society of Mary, asks Marists to find in the early Church a model for the Society of Mary. He doesn’t mean that we turn the clock back and imitate the physical lives of the early Christians; but he does invite us to try to understand what took place at the […]

Mary: Woman of Faith

One of the surprising effects of the Second Vatican Council on the life of the Church in recent years has been the dramatic drop in practical devotion to Mary. And this is all the more surprising when we recall that the Council itself spoke most beautifully of Mary in the last chapter of its great […]

December 24, 1836: In Whatever Part of the World

On Christmas Eve, 1836, an hour before noon, after two months of waiting, the right combination of wind and tide finally enabled La Josephine and La Delphine to leave Le Havre. On La Josephine, Bishop Blanc was taking twenty one missionaries, priests, brothers, and sisters, to New Orleans. On La Delphine, which was sailing for […]

The Marist Project and Assessment

How we think and feel about the Marist project will affect deeply how we approach the issue of assessment. I want to see myself thinking and feeling about the Marist project in a mode that I would describe as open, hopeful, articulate, likely to generate enthusiasm, to communicate a sense of purpose, to provide direction. […]

The Papal Brief of April 29, 1836: A Mandate to Start the Church Anew?

During the next three days, my contribution will make us spend most of our time in France in the year 1836. At the outset, let us remind ourselves that the fruit we hope to gather from these reflections has to do with the church in Australia in 1986. That means Jesus Christ becoming present here […]