De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

Holiness Holiness is a favourite topic of Pope Francis. In 2018, he published a document entitled “Gaudate et Exultate: Apostolic Encyclical on the call to holiness in today’s world” which builds on the Second Vatican Council document, Lumen Gentium (1964), and its “universal call to holiness”. This is not reserved for a select few. It is something that we should all aspire to, with Jesus as our model. In “Gaudate et Exultate”, Pope Francis says: “7. I like to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile. In their daily perseverance, I see the holiness of the Church militant. Very often it is a holiness found in our next-door neighbours, those who, living in our midst, reflect God’s presence.” Being holy doesn’t mean being perfect. It means striving to live for...

Here’s an excellent, sensitive, Bible-centred riposte from Pope Francis, in this week’s Catholic Herald, to those who have accused him of idol worshipping, etc... showing that St. Paul announced Christ to “idol worshippers” without attacking them. https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/11/07/pope-francis-st-paul-announced-christ-to-idol-worshippers-without-attacking-them

Have just seen this thanks to Bowie's film-maker son Duncan Jones' Twitter feed. He practically quotes what I have always said about the moment I realised I needed to/was meant to/was being called to study Music further, i.e. at university. The feeling was very sudden and very compelling. I was 15 yrs. old, sitting on my bed with my grade 5 clarinet certificate in my hands. "There is something inside of me that one day I will find a way to express through music and I HAVE to find it." There were no two ways about it. I had to do this. I'm still searching for that perfect expression of what's inside of me, but there are moments... when I'm leading the music (singing + guitar) with our staff worship band in a school Mass, for example, (most often during communion) or playing clarinet during communion in a Mass in a large church in France... when I forget where I am and the song or piece becomes an extension of myself, of my faith and love of God, of m...

In this very interesting article on the BBC website Adrian Chiles says "Spiritually, if I'm to really "connect" at Mass, I need a good priest to help me. And by good I mean, first and foremost, that they should look pleased to be there and pleased that we're there. Often they speak of great "joy" while looking as bored as swimming pool attendants." I think that the same has to be said of all religious (and teachers too). As religious we should be people who firstly know that joy that comes from a deep personal relationship with Jesus and secondly are not afraid to let that joy radiate from us to others. We need that passion that fills the hearts of those who have something that they cannot help but want to share with others. On this day of Pentecost, I pray for all clergy, religious, RE teachers and catechists, that the JOY of the GOSPEL may penetrate our hearts ever more deeply and that following the example of Pope Francis we may be faithful...

Some interesting points made here by Pope Francis​  in this article  (an address to Bishops), for example in his reaffirmation of the importance of finding and expressing the joy that is at the heart of our faith so that we might help others to discover that same joy inside them...  “At this moment of history when we often are surrounded by discouraging news, by local and international situations that make us experience affliction and tribulation — in this framework that truly is not comforting — our vocation as Christians and as bishops is to go against the tide.” Bishops, and all Catholics with them, are called “to be joyful witnesses of the risen Christ in order to transmit joy and hope to others.” “It is awful,” he said, to meet a bishop, priest or religious who is “beaten down, unmotivated or exhausted. He is like a dry well where the people cannot find water to quench their thirst.” Pope Francis: Faithful don’t need bishops ordering them ar...

Here’s the beginning of Pope Francis' letter for Vocations Sunday (last weekend). For the whole letter, click here . MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS FOR THE 52nd WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS 26 APRIL 2015 - FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Theme: Exodus, a fundamental experience of vocation Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Fourth Sunday of Easter offers us the figure of the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep: he calls them, he feeds them and he guides them. For over fifty years the universal Church has celebrated this Sunday as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. In this way she reminds us of our need to pray, as Jesus himself told his disciples, so that “the Lord of the harvest may send out labourers into his harvest” ( Lk 10:2). Jesus command came in the context of his sending out missionaries. He called not only the twelve Apostles, but another seventy-two disciples whom he then sent out, two by two, for the mission (cf. Lk 10:1-6). Since the Church “is by her very natu...

Here's something I wrote a few weeks back in a webpage comments section. Just thought I'd share it here: *************** Pope Francis has chosen a particular way of responding to God's call to follow Christ, his Son, by striving to become more like him in his own daily actions and relationships with those he meets, of being, as Francis puts it, a "missionary-disciple".  This is the theme for the year in my congregation and its wider  Mennaisien  Family with our lay associates, colleagues and friends. It is a  challenge  that the Pope reminds us is given to all Christians through their baptism, not just to religious and clergy. As disciples of Christ, we are by definition also given a responsibility to share the faith we have been given, to share the graces bestowed upon us and to do so with the joy in our hearts that only God can give. It seems to me that in this sense he is far closer to the core of Catholic "orthodoxy" than most of us, ...

A wonderful, wonderful song that I rediscovered recently. A rallying call for us all.  "Freely we've received now, freely we will give..." as "missionary-disciples" (Pope Francis) invited into a communion built on love with God the Father, through his Son, expressed through the action of the Spirit's creative dynamism within us, inspiring each of us as baptised Christians to reach out to others, to walk with them and invite them into that same communion so that they too will know the depth of God's love for them.

The Catholic Herald has published a summary of Pope Francis' World Communications Day message for 2014. Like his predecessor, Pope Francis sees the positive in the internet and social media as tools, most strikingly when he says, “The internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity. This is something truly good, a gift from God.” Pretty unequivocal. The Herald goes on to say... Returning to a previous theme Pope Francis said that a “bruised” Church was preferable to self-absorbed one. He said: “As I have frequently observed, if a choice has to be made between a bruised Church which goes out to the streets and a Church suffering from self-absorption, I certainly prefer the first. Those “streets” are the world where people live and where they can be reached, both effectively and affectively. The digital highway is one of them, a street teeming with people who are often hurting, men and women looking for salvation or hope. By means of the int...

Big thanks to Fr. Peter Morgan for pointing this out to me. It left me with a big smile on my face. Pope Francis showing how to live the Gospel and giving us an example to follow. From Zenit ( http://goo.gl/XJ9rvC ):  "Celebrating his 77th birthday today, Pope Francis invited the personnel of his residence at Casa Santa Marta to his daily morning Mass.... After the Mass, Pope Francis greeted all who attended the Mass. Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, Almoner to His Holiness, presented four homeless people who live nearby the Vatican to the Holy Father. All present wished the Pope a happy birthday and shortly after the Mass, joined him for breakfast." Glory and praise to you, O Lord!

Something tells me Jesus' heart rejoices at what Francis is getting up to. A man after his own heart indeed! The challenge is for us to find ways of showing the same love to those in need in our own situations and contexts. Be Christ to others! Click on the below link for the full article. Pope ramps up charity office to be near poor, sick By Associated Press VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has ramped up the Vatican's charity work, sending his chief alms-giver and a contingent of Swiss guards onto the streets of Rome at night to do what he usually can't do: comfort the poor and the homeless.

This news item doesn't seem to have broken yet in English-language sources. The Pope has criticised the arrogance of Italian Bishops, their taste for money, their complacency and their ambition. At last someone prepared to stand up to them!! And he doesn't mince his words. See here . But we should also take his words to heart ourselves as a wake up call for all Christians to resist complacency in the living out of their faith and respond afresh each day to his call to follow him. UPDATE: I've been sent this today.

Thank you, Lord! I have had the pleasure and the privilege to have studied at a Jesuit University faculty as part of my training to be a De La Mennais Brother and was delighted - as were many, it seems - that we now have a Jesuit Pope. But what about the man himself, his character, his background? In our modern media-savvy world it only took seconds for news agencies and people sitting in front of their TVs everywhere to bring up websites and images from the internet giving us a pen picture of this surprise choice... and those important first impressions were undeniably  and reassuringly positive. A collective sigh of relief could be heard like a gentle wave breaking over Catholics throughout the world, after which was a growing sense of optimism and excitement as Pope Francis asked those in St. Peter's Square to pray for him, as he smiled and joked, all with the calm serenity of someone who has accepted God's will in his life in total trust that "all will be well and all ...