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

Well, the results are in and after weeks of campaigning, tv debates, fact-checking, etc... ...Labour won a landslide victory with 83% of the vote… … in our school Elections (big thanks to colleague Josephine and her team of Election Elves). Nationally, things didn’t quite turn out the same, but what’s done is done and now we have to move on. With this week’s theme in our School Mission Programme combining the celebratory aspect of our end of term rewards assemblies with the theme of this 3rd week in Advent which is  Joy , it’s good to remind ourselves that being joyful,  truly  joyful, is a conscious choice. It’s the attitude of someone who not only sees the glass as half full, but who also then decides to express their gratitude and thanks for the contents of that glass, either inwardly or outwardly. We  re-joice , the “re” bit basically meaning that we actively engage in joyousness. For those who, like the majority of our students, ...

To say it’s been a busy month of December is to say absolutely nothing new, but this year the busy-ness seemed to pass off without the usual associate stress and nervous exhaustion, for which I am very grateful (thank you, God!). Perhaps I’m at last learning to trust in Him more and worry less. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few dark clouds on the horizon, beacuse there are… some issues that would normally weigh heavily on my shoulders… but at least for the moment I am able to hand them over, to not worry about what those clouds will bring. And if it’s a storm, if it’s flooding and gale force winds (my prayers go out to all those who have actually suffered from these in the past few weeks in northern Britain), well I know that I won’t be alone and that God will give me the strength that I need to stand strong with my face to the sky and joy in my heart. Talking of joy, I just heard the following track for the first time, a foretaste of Jesus Culture’s new album that comes out in...

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...

I am not alone in thinking that there is currently a generation of mature, confident, spiritually strong young adults aged roughly 18 to 30 that seems ready to follow God's call and commit to particular services in the Church (whether in lay ministry or religious life or priesthood) on a level not seen for a long time. Those of us who sense this feel that there is something quite exciting rising up in the Church, signs of new growth giving hope for the future. Since signing up on behalf of our Brothers as a participating congregation on the American VISION Vocation Match service, managed by the American National Office for Vocations, I have received a regular flow of questionnaires sent by people throughout the US, as well as from further afield, including some from near us here in the north of England. On top of this I seem to also be receiving more frequent requests for information about our congregation from people who stumble across this blog or my website (that links to th...