A very Merry Christmas to all!!

"King of Kings + Lord of Lords..." - Silent monks singing Handel's "Halleluiah"

This is great fun. Done by US High School kids.

Dangerous Wands

A mash-up of Dangerous Minds and Harry Potter. This isn't a real movie trailer, but it should be. Very clever.

Coming to the end of term + taking stock

Well, today is the last day of my first term back teaching at my old school and living back in the town where I grew up (that I left 22 years ago). It's been a strange but very fulfilling experience, at times quite surreal. A lovely side benefit has been making contact with old family friends, people who knew my parents or my brothers and sisters and even old friends from my primary school (the latter via a reunion we had 10 days ago).

St. Mary's College with our community house (known as the White House) at the far end.

Of particular delight has been meeting up with a couple that were very good friends of my sister Mona (their daughters went to school with Mona and my other sister Helen): Frances + Bernard Weaver. They have been involved in charismatic prayer groups for many, many years and Mona used to play guitar in one with Bernard back in the '70s. They also played guitar together at my brother Shaun's wedding in N. Wales. Through them I have got involved with a local charismatic group, which is something I was hoping to do after my wonderful experiences with the Prince of Peace community prayer group in Liverpool these past few years.

Bernard + Frances Weaver

The last few weeks have been filled with marking end of term exams, writing pupil reports, preparing + leading one day retreats for each of our 2 Yr. 9 classes (13-14 year-olds) at Park Place Diocesan Centre in Wickham (each time the nuns forgot to turn the heating on until we got there so the building was pretty freezing), the traditional Advent Festival concert and full school evening Carol Service, Christmas meals (Catenians' "Clergy" Night, prayer group meal, staff meal, etc...). With the exam marking + reports now all done, it just remains to finish writing my Christmas cards :-)

The College chapel

We're off to our Liverpool brethren for Christmas this year, then I'll be going to our Mother House in Brittany, France for our annual Study Session (with about 50 other Brothers from the Province), followed by a few days break in one of our French communities.

Hope - written by my sister

My sister Mona also has a blog which she uses to mainly write reflections and testimonies relating to her life dealing with the suicide of of her eldest son nearly 3 years ago.

Two days ago she posted the below as part of a article on Hope. What she says is so true:

"A small act of kindness can make such a difference, even to someone who doesn’t seem to be in need of encouragement. Because maybe they are the ones who suffer in a private darkness and need desparately to experience a little piece of hope that the unexpected kindness of another human being can provide."

God's Chisel - The Skit Guys: vocation + calling

This is a thought-provoking, well written sketch (or skit as they say in the States) that relates to a key idea about vocation: following God's call, whatever that might be, requires a stripping away of "self", a handing over of every aspect of my life in total trust to Him who created me... and that this is never easy.

But, as I say to my pupils, I truly believe that following the individual, personal call that God offers to each of us (whether it be to married life, to religious life, to the priesthood, to being a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, a fireman, a bio-chemist...) is the ONLY way to true, lasting happiness and fulfilment.

It is a calling that is renewed each day, according to the way we respond to it, and our response has to be renewed each day. It is never once-and-for-all. And though it may sometimes be very difficult to let go of our own desires, our own preferences, our own intellectual reasoning, if we do manage to do this, the rewards will astound us.

As Jesus says to his disciples (Mark 10:29-30)

“I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive in this age a hundred times as much – homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life."

I'm reminded of the words of a Coldplay song, "The Scientist", one of my all-time favourites:

"Nobody said it was easy,
No-one ever said it would be so hard,
I'm going back to the start."

Each morning, I try to go back to the start, to go back to God and start again, start afresh. I try not to dwell in the past, but rather move ahead, following in the footsteps of Jesus and my congregation's Founder, Jean-Marie De La Mennais. Though I know I am so unworthy in my own eyes, I trust that God knows what he is doing. Which is good, because very often I don't know what I'm doing... seeds sown, shots in the dark... do they ever make a difference? "Keep sowing, feed my sheep.!"

Founder's Day 2009

Every year on November 26th, our schools and Brothers communities worldwide celebrate the life of our congregation's founder, Jean-Marie De La Mennais, a dynamic, influential Breton (Brittany, N.W. France) priest of the 19th century who founded our congregation in 1819 together with another Breton priest, Gabriel Deshayes. Jean-Marie De La Mennais died on December 26th, 1860. But due to that date's proximity to Christmas, the celebration of the anniversary of his death was moved to November 26th instead.

In many cases, this day will be preceded in our schools by a week of celebratory activities of one kind or another (Masses, school trips, activity days, sports events, etc...). In our case here in Southampton we had a Founder's Mass, but decided to postpone the Founder's Week activities until the summer term, because of the proximity of the winter exams (including mock GCSEs and some actual GCSE modules).

This time next year, we'll be marking a year of celebrations to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his death. The different Provinces of the congregation are planning activities/celebrations independently and also some in common. Examples of the shared/common events include an international pilgrimage to Lourdes, a celebration at our Mother House in Ploërmel and a hiking pilgrimage with young people to Santiago de Compostella (N.W. Spain) next summer.

I realise many people do not know much about Jean-Marie De La Mennais (who he was, what he did...), so I've added below a text that I've used in R.E. lessons over the years to explain a little about his background, how and why he founds the brothers, etc...

**************************************

The Brothers of Christian Instruction, also known as the De la Mennais Brothers, is a religious order founded by Father Jean-Marie de la Mennais in 1819 to teach the poor children of Brittany in Western France. These children had not had the chance to go to school, nor to learn about their faith due to the social upheaval caused by the French Revolution in 1789.

Jean-Marie de la Mennais was born in St. Malo, Britanny, on September 8^th, 1780. His father was a wealthy ship-owner who had greatly helped his region during a time of famine by selling corn to the local people for less than he had paid to buy it. King Louis XVI (16^th) of France gave him a special honour in reward for his actions. Jean-Marie’s mother died when he was only seven, but her deep faith and lively intelligence left their mark on the young boy.

From an early age Jean-Marie decided that he wanted to be a priest, despite the difficult times of the Revolution and the persecution that priests suffered. His family gave refuge to priests in hiding. Young Jean-Marie showed great courage in the help he gave to them. He advanced rapidly in his studies and in his spiritual growth under the tuition of Fr. Vielle, a young priest in hiding, and Fr. de Cloriviere. On February 25^th, 1804, Jean-Marie was ordained a priest. On top of his priestly duties, he also tried to do something about the number of children who were not able to go to school. Education was to remain his main concern for the rest of his life and it was for its sake that he refused the offer of becoming a Bishop on numerous occasions. 

Fr. Jean-Marie de la Mennais was very popular with the ordinary catholic people of his region, but was strongly disliked by the enemies of the Church because of all the good work that he did in the service of God and his people. In 1819 he founded, together with another priest, Fr. Gabriel Deshayes, the Brothers of Christian Instruction or De la Mennais Brothers to educate the youth of Brittany and “make Jesus Christ better known and better loved”. He gave as a motto for the new congregation, “Dieu Seul” (D.S.), which means “For God Alone”. He endured vile accusations and threats, but such was the success of his congregation of Brothers that they were soon in demand throughout France and in its colonies. 

In 1903, the Congregation had a severe setback when the French government closed all its schools in France and the colonies, like those of other congregations. The French “Noviciate” or training house for candidates to the brotherhood was immediately transferred to Taunton in south-west England and new missions were started in other countries such as Spain and Canada. In 1922 the Noviciate moved to Jersey and the Brothers in England opened their first school in Southampton, St. Mary’s College, which still exists. In 1961 the Brothers came to Liverpool and in 1964 they began teaching at St. Francis Xavier’s College. In 1974 they took over the direction of the College.

The Brothers are now in 24 countries around the world, places like Chile, Japan, Uganda, Tahiti, Senegal, Italy, the U.S.A. Argentina, etc... Wherever they are, their aim remains that of their Founder, to educate the young and “to make Jesus Christ better known and better loved”.