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

SFX Staff Bulletin - Chaplain’s Page (03/06/19) “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way!” (Mac Davis, 1980) A few of you will be old enough (sorry!) to remember this comedy song. For those who aren’t, here it is:     As you may have guessed, the assembly and form period theme for the week after half-term is Humility. It’s a term that in the Christian context generally gets contrasted with the sin of pride. But, personally, I like the interpretation that refers back to the word’s etymology and the latin “ humus ” or earth . Someone who is humble is someone who is grounded , down to earth . One of my favourite Catholic folk hymns from the 1980s quotes in paraphrase form the Old Testament prophet Micah (chapter 6, verse 8) on this topic: “This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this, That you act justly, that you love tenderly, That you walk humbly with your God .”   Walking ...

Despite, or perhaps even because of the current environment in which teachers are having to work, the presence of religious orders in the education system in England seems to be potentially more important now than when I first joined our congregation 28 years ago.  The Catholic hierarchy in this country has overseen a return to a more formal, catechetical approach to R.E., especially in the public exam syllabuses for G.C.S.E. and A-Level, and rightly so, in my opinion. Long gone are the wishy-washy platitudes of the "Weaving The Web" Key Stage 3 syllabus and its like that were all the rage in the 1990s. However, a new G.C.S.E. syllabus that involves delivering content relating to the topics of Creation, Incarnation, Trinity, Redemption, Kingdom of God and Eschatology to pupils of all ability (we still teach R.E. as a compulsory G.C.S.E. subject in most Catholic schools), as well as a detailed study of beliefs and practices in Judaism, could be daunting...

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the 50th jubilee of Bro. Jacques Jouvance, member of our community in Liverpool. Bro. Jacques came to Liverpool upon his retirement as a teaching Brother in France in 2009, the year I transferred to our Southampton community. We've been in community together in Liverpool now since 2013. Jacques is a wonderful cook, green-fingered gardener and lovely company in community. This summer we went to World Youth Day together, helping to accompany a group of 120 French and Spanish young people. Twenty years ago this month I took my final vows as a De La Mennais Brother during a Mass at SFX College (it's 26 years since I started my life as a Brother). It's been a wild and wonderful ride since then. So many amazing experiences in the service of young people. It's been a privilege sharing them with the Brothers and lay people God has put on my path. And I've been so blessed to have made many friendships that continue to sustain and enrich me...

Here’s a clip that I’ve been a bit slow to publicise… It was commissioned by the lovely folk at the National Catholic Office of Vocation for England and Wales (Fr. Christopher Jamison osb and Sr. Cathy Jones) to be released online in time for Vocations Sunday in April as part of a set of different resources celebrating Consecrated Life, as this is the Year of Consecrated Life. Click here for the page where all these resources can be found. It shows different aspects of my life in community and work with young people.

Preparations in our Vocations Network North-West core group  (and larger group of interested volunteers from about 20 different congregations) are stepping up for our 2-day "Living Joyfully" vocations festival event at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. See below 2 posters for the 2 days. The Friday event is aimed at young people aged 14-18 and will provide a useful complement to G.C.S.E. and A-Level R.E. work on vocation, religious commitment, religious life and the priesthood. Both days will be made up of workshop activities, games, live music, speakers,discussion groups, a question panel, and finish with a final liturgy. On the Saturday this will be the Saturday evening Mass (1st Mass of Sunday) celebrated by Archbishop Malcom McMahon. There will be about 50 Sisters, Brothers, religious order priests and diocesan priests present each day with displays around the Cathedral, as well as members of new ecclesial communities such as Chemin Neuf and Focolare, repr...

Is God possibly calling you to life as a Religious Brother? Ask yourself the question.

Here is some information about antiphons that are sung at this time of year in the Divine Office prayers of religious communities (inc. my own) and monasteries around the world Thanks to friend Richard Emblem for the hat tip. (This sketch of the Seven Antiphons courtesy of Fr. Maurice Gilbert and Sandro Magister of Chiesa.Com) Read more here . The "O" Antiphons They're sung one per day, at the Magnificat during vespers from 17 December until the day before Christmas Eve , all of them beginning with an invocation to Jesus, although he is never called by name. The antiphons are very old, going back to the time of Pope Gregory the Great, around the year 600. They are in Latin, and are inspired by the texts of the Old Testament proclaiming the Messiah. At the beginning of each antiphon, in order, Jesus is invoked as Wisdom, Lord, Root, Key, Star, King, Emmanuel. Read starting from the last, the Latin initials of these words form an acrostic: "Ero cras," meaning: ...

Two days ago I arrived at our General House (Headquarters) in Rome to meet with 5 other members of an international De La Mennais Brothers commission for Communication + Information (4 Bros. + 2 lay people from France, Uganda, Canada, Uruguay, Spain + me from England). The other five members of our team and a Brother (2nd left) from the General house community that has welcomed us for these 5 days of meetings. On the agenda: - looking at what initiatives are already being undertaken by Provinces and/or individual Bros. as regards web sites, blogs, social networking, publications of all types... - learning from initiatives outside of the congregation (other congregations, secular or church-based organisations...) - imagining the future of the congregation and what needs to be put in place to respond to future needs in relation to our charism of working with young people - all sorts of other related topics, including training for those who may wish to set up a blog or a web site, or who ...

I am indeed proud to be a De La Mennais Brother and I want the whole world to know it :-) I'm proud of what we stand for - helping young people to grow as individuals and in particular helping them to come to know and love Jesus Christ. I'm proud of the individuals in our congregation and the marvellous work they do. I'm proud of their dynamism, their dedication, their enthusiasm (even when they are no longer young), their warmth, their prayerfulness, their hopefulness.... I'm proud of our Brothers' communities and the fraternal atmosphere that reigns in them. I'm proud, and I want our congregation to be able to carry on doing it's work which I feel in today's society is ever more relevant and necessary. To give but one example... I know many Brothers who after having reached the end of their professional careers in France at the age of 60 decided to commit themselves to the missions and spend their "retirement" teaching in our missions in, for...

About 6 weeks ago I found myself on the list of the 24 delegate Brothers elected to represent the 300+ in the Province (France, Enlgand + Italy) at our next Provincial Chapter in October. We were called to a weekend of preliminary meeting at our Mother House in Ploërmel to set the agenda for the pre-Chapter consultations/discussions that will be taking place in each community over the intervening months. It was good to see so many Brothers that I know well amongst the other delegates. Spending 5 years in France during my studies has helped me to get to know a large number of French Brothers, many of whom have become firm friends of mine. So as well as the serious side of the meetings, we also take the time to socialise and have a bit of fun in the evenings. Here are some photos from the weekend.

My good friend Bro. Henri Rivoalen invited me to take a much needed break in his community down in the south of France. This is the Brother who converted me to long-distance, fast-paced cycling (especially Pyreneen mountain cycling) and mountain hiking during my Noviciate (first year of training) in 1990. He was my group's Assistant Novice Master. Here's a first set of photos from my 5 days there over the New Year. Henri introduced me to the joys of cross-country skiing, ie.uphill as weel as down!. These were taken during my second of 2 days skiing with him. As you can see, we were blessed with glorious weather, allowing us to take in the wonderful scenery. Henri - friend + mentor The view from Henri's community (at 845 metres altitude).

Fr. Ray Blake over at St. Mary Magdalen, Brighton has posted the following article from the zenit.com Catholic news agency. ROME, OCT. 28, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's vicar for the Diocese of Rome expressed his hopes that religious men and women increase their use of information technology, and thus take advantage of what he called a new form of apostolate. Cardianl Camillo Ruini spoke to the religious at the Pontifical Urbanian University during the diocesan gathering of the Union of Major Superiors of Italy, which represents 1,287 communities and 22,000 religious in Rome. According to the Roman diocesan weekly RomaSette, Cardinal Ruini said: "A priest from Novara told me that the theme of 'Jesus' is very much discussed by youth in blogs. The focus, though, comes from destructive books that are widespread today, and not from Benedict XVI’s book ‘Jesus of Nazareth.' "What will the idea of Christ be in 10 years if these ideas triumph?" The true Je...

Having met up with the French the day before at the Burkina Faso border, we were now staying together in a diocesan residential centre. With us now were the French group from Guérande and Lamballe who had not come to the festival weekend in Mango as they had spent most of the 3 weeks working in the neighbouring country on Bénin. The Bénin "Frenchies" had proportionally more boys in them (like us) than the other French groups and perhaps because of this our group found in them some kindred spirits. This was demonstrated on the Sunday night (our last in Africa) when we had a final sing-song (justmissing a campfire). Team Win and the Bénin crowd were the last to leave for bed. I use the latter term loosely as "bed" actually meant for most of them Anglo-French socialising, playing cards, exchanging e-mails, etc... outside their chalets into the early hours. Fair enough... it was their last night and they'd behaved so impeccably all trip. Chillin' outside their c...

At last, the complete article with more photos. This was the first time that our group of 13 young people met the 70 or so French participants and our last training event before setting off for Togo on July 9th. We'll be meeting amongst ourselves in Liverpool after Easter to clarify which activities we want to use with Togolese children we'll be working with in 2 different places during the trip (a secondary school and the nursery attached to a village agricultural centre). And we'll also be undertaking some fund-raising events to buy equipment that we'll be bringing out (eg. sports, audio-visual...)and leaving with our hosts for them to keep. Our adventure started with a mini-bus journey from Liverpool to Southampton, arriving in time for a buffet supper with our Brothers in Southampton (= where I went to school... aahh, bless! :-). Supper with the Brothers. Bro. Francis, former Head Teacher of our Liverpool school on the far right. Next up, the overnight ferry from Po...