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Showing posts from July, 2019

St. Benedict (July 11th)

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St. Benedict “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play!” July 11th was the feast of St. Benedict, a 6th century Italian monk who became one of the most influential figures in the history of the Catholic Church. His “Rule” established both spiritual and material guidelines for day to day living in monastic communities and gave practical advice on managing inter-personal relationships within the community. It provided a template from which all religious order founders took inspiration thereafter.  One of his intuitions was to split up a monastic community’s day into clear sections: precise times for prayer, work and study… so Nestlé’s marketing campaign for the Mars bar some years ago wasn’t saying anything new about how we need to find an appropriate work-life balance! You don’t need me to tell you that this past year has provided more than its fair share of challenges. I know from my own experience that during the holidays I soon get bored if I’m just sitting a

The Mother Ship

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Bro. Hervé, Superior General of the De La Mennais Brothers (far right) together with two other General Council members (Bro. Jean-Paul, 2nd left + Bro. Miguel, 2nd right) at the Town Hall with Ploërmel's Mayor. An article in the local Breton press described how the 4 Brothers of  our General Council were received by the Mayor of Ploërmel at the local Town Hall in early June in the context of our ongoing Bicentenary celebrations. The Mayor talks about our Ploërmel Mother House as being our "vaisseau amiral", the "admiral's ship" of the congregation.  # TeamWin   got there before him, as we've been calling it the "Mother Ship" since I began taking groups there from Liverpool nearly 20 yrs. ago. Here's the article: http://bit.ly/2LimaOd I actually prefer the image of a "Ship" to that of a "House" as it suggests a flotilla of ships journeying together, on pilgrimage together, with the Mother Ship in the vangu

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (Thurs. 27th)

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A little bit late, but a couple of weeks ago I shared in our Staff Bulletin some brief notes from my staff training day (INSET) reflection with which we started the day: Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (Thurs. 27th) “Succour”  - “sub” (under/below) + “curro” (run) (Latin) = (self) run for cover, (another) run to someone’s aid, run to catch them  Click below for inform ation about this feast and the above icon: http://www.bishopeton.org.uk/novena-details2/shrine-to-our-lady-of-perpetual-help-2.html Father Jean-Marie De La Mennais He believed that we should educate “ avec douceur et fermeté ”, “gentleness and firmness”... at the same time! Here’s the song (based on a Breton dance) with which I began the reflection, written by one of our French Brothers, asking Fr. Jean-Marie to inspire us to live out the values that he felt were important for educators back in the 19th century but which are still relevant for us today: https://youtu.be/Q4ttpM0mxHg The b