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These readings explore what compassion looks like when it moves beyond feeling into action.These readings explore what compassion looks like when it moves beyond feeling into action. The factory parable in 'Being Aware' warns against tending the wounded while ignoring the systems that harm them, urging us to address causes and not only symptoms. The German widow who sheltered refugees 'because the time is now and I am here' models the courage to act without waiting to feel ready, while Mother Teresa, introducing a dying man as Jesus, reveals Christ present in the least and most forgotten. Maslow's 'peak moment' reminds us that grace often breaks in unexpectedly, and the reflection on Mary teaches that real love cannot stay hidden but must find expression in service, justice, and care for others. Together the readings call us, as members of one family of faith, to recognise God in the vulnerable, to act with courage and mercy, and to trust that our own small part in God's future genuinely matters.
James Finley, a psychotherapist and former monk who studied under Thomas Merton at the Abbey of Gethsemani, reflects on how his childhood trauma and his mystical formation became inseparably intertwined - describing early experiences of finding refuge in God's presence amid his father's violence, and later discovering in the monastery a profound sense of 'breathing God' that shaped the rest of his life. Drawing on his six years as a monk, his friendship with Merton, and decades of teaching alongside Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation, Finley describes the mystical path not as an escape from suffering but as a deepening honesty about one's own brokenness, through which one discovers being 'unexplainably loved without foundations.' He closes by reflecting on his current life at 76 — caring for his ailing wife, no longer able to travel, and finding in this podcast a providential way to keep sharing these teachings - insisting that the mystic's authority comes not from having transcended human fragility but from remaining vulnerably present to it, trusting that God sustains us even amid loss, aging, and unraveling.
You are invited to join us on Sunday, 26 July 2026, to commemorate the Marist Pledge at Fourvière, first made on 23 July 1816. The Event will begin with Mass at 10 am Holy Name of Mary Parish Hunters Hill. Morning Tea 11 am. Ukulele Group 11.20 am. Youth Concert (PJ) 12.20 to 2pm. Please invite your family, friends and community.
Join Marist Brother Bill O'Sullivan for A Marist Reflection on Living in the Way of Mary, a retreat that invites participants into the quiet, contemplative heart of the Marist tradition. Drawing on the spirituality that has shaped generations of Marists, Brother Bill explores what it means to walk through life as Mary did: attentive to the presence of God in ordinary moments, ready to say 'yes' without fully knowing where that yes will lead, and content to live 'hidden and unknown' in a world that prizes recognition. Through prayer, reflection, story, and shared silence, the retreat opens up Mary not as a distant figure of devotion but as a living model for discipleship, one who pondered all things in her heart and trusted God's will even when the way ahead was unclear.
Father Jim's homily begins with a vivid comparison, likening the first experiences of prominent figures like Lionel Messi, Ash Barty, and Taylor Swift in their respective fields to the first Holy Communion for the children in the parish. He emphasizes the potential life-defining impact of these initial moments, suggesting that receiving Holy Communion could similarly shape the lives of these young parishioners.
Brother Matthew Green reflects on his over three decades of Marist formation, from entering as an aspirant in 1988 through to his current role leading the province's postulancy program, centring his spiritual life on the phrase 'in the way of Mary' - a rhythm of call, ponder, and response modelled on Mary's own contemplative life. He speaks honestly about the tension between holding this concept intellectually and truly living it, describing days of clear awareness of God's presence alongside days of felt absence, which he meets through Meister Eckhart's idea of 'an unknowing that makes room,' trusting that seeking itself is a form of being found. He finds grounding in the wider Marist association, which reminds him he belongs to something greater than his daily ministry, and in the simple rhythms of formation community life - cycling, football, shared meals, and time with family and friends — that sustain him amid the round-the-clock demands of living alongside young men in formation.
Part 3 of the Marriage Tune-Up series turns to love itself - not as a static feeling but as something active that must keep growing, or else quietly fade into imbalance, resentment and distance. Real growth begins with humility: the willingness to face our own blind spots before naming our partner's, and to receive hard feedback (as Dr John Gottman models with his notebook) through reflection rather than reaction. Drawing on the early Marist founders - holy yet unfinished — and on Saint Paul's contrast between the flesh and the Spirit, the entry uses Richard Rohr's idea of the 'false self' to show how the ego we build from our roles, pride and reputation rarely surrenders except through Rohr's two great paths of transformation: great suffering and great love. True love, the kind that lays itself down for another, calls us to let that false self go - but first, many of us need to be healed, which is where Part 4 will lead.
In 'The Call to Wholeness of Life in the Church - A Marist Response,' Father Craig Larkin argues that the 'second conversion' many Marists face in the second half of life is fundamentally a call to inner wholeness. Drawing on the psychology of Carl Jung — particularly the ideas of individuation and the integration of the neglected 'anima' (the qualities of compassion, relationship, intuition, and surrender) alongside the dominant 'animus' (achievement, control, logic, and power) - Larkin describes midlife as a journey 'without maps' into the dark forest of the unconscious, where a person must confront their hidden fears and shadow-self rather than cling to the certainties that served their younger years. He then maps this psychological insight onto Marist spirituality, warning that contemporary ministry too easily becomes compulsive, individualistic, and power-centred, and proposing instead five marks of an 'anima ministry': identification with the feminine, compassion, solitude, powerlessness, and relationship. These, he shows, are already embedded in the Marist charism - Mary as model, the mercy of Colin's mission to the most abandoned, the solitude of Nazareth, and the union of cor unum et anima una. Ultimately, Larkin finds the integrating point in Colin's rule that Mary be declared superior of every house: to let mercy, compassion, and relationship govern one's choices is to identify with Mary herself and, in doing so, to find both personal healing and the true heart of Marist life.
This is a prayer for hope in times of anxiety, doubt, and depression. The one praying begins by naming the days when worry crowds the mind, the heart races, and dark clouds gather, and asks God to hold them gently, to help them recognise their own capacity for transformation - imaged as a butterfly - and to take refuge in God's presence. The prayer then petitions God to fill the soul with hope and Spirit, so that Christ, the 'morning Son,' might warm a frozen heart and change the mind. It closes by asking for tears to be wiped away, anxiety and depression to be lifted, and shadows to be dispelled, so that the one praying might see the doorway God has opened for them and begin to sing of God's love as a beloved child of God.
The talk identifies three 'faces' of the earliest Church that shaped Fr Colin and Marist spirituality: Nazareth (the hidden life of the Holy Family), Calvary (where the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, recalled in Courveille's Le Puy revelation), and above all the community of Acts after the Ascension. Reading those early chapters of Acts closely, the talk shows a community that was stable, deeply prayerful, and marked by a real sharing of life and goods — cor unum et anima una, 'one heart and one soul' - a unity that had to be built rather than assumed, and one in which Mary stands at the centre as a reconciling presence who 'supports' the newborn Church and holds its different groups together. This yields a distinctive model for the Society of Mary: not primarily a missionary body in the activist sense, but an intense communion of prayer and fellowship whose influence overflows into service. Yet that model sits in real tension with the apostles 'going from place to place' on mission - a tension felt acutely in Colin's day over the Oceania missions — which the talk argues should not be resolved by collapsing either side into the other, but held together through 'creative fidelity' to both the gathered Church of Jerusalem and the apostles sent to bring God's salvation to all.
This reflection is such a gentle and needed reminder that the kitchen table, the 1am wake-up, and the patient presence through a child's frustration are not interruptions to our spiritual life but are the very fabric of it. The idea that Jean-Claude Colin called his followers to be present "in the manner of Mary", quietly, humbly, without seeking the spotlight, fits the hidden daily work of family life so perfectly. What is one ordinary moment in your daily routine that, after reading this, y
This reflection beautifully captures how Mary's quiet presence at the foot of the cross is an invitation for all of us, not just mothers, to stand alongside others in their suffering with compassion and patience. The examples of Moira Kelly and the volunteers in the Philippines remind us that this "mothering" presence can take so many courageous forms in our world. Who in your life has been a "mother" to you in this sense, someone who showed up and accompanied you through a diffic
What a wonderful way to celebrate the 210th anniversary of the Marist Pledge at Fourvière with Mass, morning tea, a ukulele group, and a youth concert sounds like a truly joyful community gathering! The Fourvière Pledge reminds us that the Marist charism was born in a moment of humble and prayerful surrender to Mary's guidance. Are you planning to come along on 26 July, and is there someone in your family, parish, or community you could personally invite to join you?
The image of whispering "Come, Holy Spirit" in a moment of trembling vulnerability, and then feeling that warmth and presence, is something that resonates deeply. It is so true that God so often shows up not in our strength, but precisely in the places where we feel most out of our depth. Have you ever had a moment, big or small, where you felt the Holy Spirit show up unexpectedly, and what did that feel like for you?