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

Here’s an interesting article from the Franciscan spiritual writer Fr. Richard Rohr that manages to summarise in a few paragraphs important developments in early Church history and the impact they had on the subsequent centuries. The Early Christian Church From Bottom to Top Tuesday, April 28, 2015 The last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ended in AD 303. Ten years later, Christianity was legalized by Constantine I. After this structural change, Christianity increasingly accepted, and even defended, the dominant social order, especially concerning war and money. Morality became individualized and largely sexual. The Church slowly lost its free and alternative vantage point. Texts written in the hundred years preceding 313 show it was unthinkable that a Christian would fight in the army, as the army was killing Christians. By the year 400, the entire army had become Christian, and they were now killing the pagans. Before AD 313, the Church was on th...

Mont Aigoual, Les Cévennes, France, 1997 An unforgettable day back in 1997 with my good friend Frère Henri in the Cevennes (S. France, where we were staying for hiking and cycling in the area) on top of Mont Aigoual after a long hike to the top. During the climb he'd put me in front to lead the way for the first time in our 7 years of summer hiking since my Noviciate where he was the Assistant Novice Master. Sounds banal but this gesture had a profound effect on me during the climb and I got very emotional. Someone was putting their trust in me in a way that no one else had done before. On top of this the views around me were so beautiful. A couple of times in the climb I had to stop and sit down as a wave of emotion broke over me. One such break, with Mont Aigoual itself in the distance. Then when we arrived at the top I could have sat there for hours with the view you can see in the photo below. I feel now that it was a key experience for me in the process of growing up...

Just found the below article about the need to be vulnerable on one of my sister’s blogs ( Mona Villarrubia - Christianity in the 21st Century ) and I think it’s quite wonderful. Today’s Gospel was from John chapter 12. One verse caught my attention. 24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” In the homily we were reminded of the process whereby a seed grows. It has to be in the right temperature and level of moisture. Then its protective shell has to soften and crack open. Only then can the seed send out a root and a shoot and make food and grow. The hard shell has to be broken. Two things came to mind as I listened. The first is the obvious prophecy of Jesus’ death and the beginning of the church. Without Jesus’ death would his words have taken root? Without his death would others have been willing to die for their faith? Secondly, I reflected on what happened to bring about his death...