Sunday down the southcoast

One Sunday I was privileged to be down the southcoast of NSW with Family Group friends cared for by Margaret and Paul Casey, whom so many of you would remember with delight. I have to admit that the group was all senior citizens except for one outstanding young woman, Rebecca , Family Group Coordinator of Kiama.

We all had a great time in each other's company and for sure, Marg Casey can work miracles. She’s even got me enjoying vegetarian food immensely!

When you least expect it, the Father surprises us. In our Faith sharing, a grandmother,  who had raised eight children herself on a dairy farm, spoke to us from the heart saying,

“When I was a young Mum I wish I knew the loving God I know intimately now instead of the strict and judging God I passed onto my children."

Family Groups do change lives.

A Moment in the Sun - and with the Son

I was on the veranda of an Italian farmhouse deep in the woods of rural Duffy’s Forest. It was a crisp morning with the sun warming us and the birds at their prayers. I had just anointed and given Pietro, 97, and Rosa, 83, the Holy Oils and Communion along with Edda, my faithful Italian translator.

We sat in silence and all were praying to the Master of our hearts. Pietro, who had lived and suffered even false imprisonment in his native Italy, been through the War in Italy and struggled as a refugee here, was quietly praying. His time on this Earth was numbered in days and yet he sat in the sun at peace with all, especially his Lord.

All was peaceful and God was close at hand. At that moment that is all I wanted to be.  A servant of these faithful, hard-working people of God.

New Team member joins NSW Directing Team

From June 2012, Catherine Boulton, commenced working with NSW Director, Mary Ingham, at the offices in Grace Cottage.
Catherine has been involved with Family Groups since 1972 as the daughter of  Mary & Leo Ingham, Leaders back then of one of the very first Family Groups, based at St. Anthony in the Fields, Terrey Hills.
Catherine brings years of experience and exuberance to the NSW team. Over the coming months Catherine will be assisting Mary and her Regional Teams throughout NSW.

PFGM Directors 2012

 
In June Catherine met all the Australian PFGM Directors at their Annual Meeting in Melbourne at Holy Cross, Templestowe.

Only One White Flower

A reflection by Fr. Peter McGrath C.P.

Desperate for a coffee, crossing the busy road quickly, I was halted at the curb. There in front of me was the green hedge of the coffee shop and just one white flower.

A dismissive voice behind me “only one white flower!”. It came from an old man also braving the crossing. I reflected “Only one white flower…  Only one white flower in all that green!”

A memory came to me. There was a time millions of years ago on our evolving planet when there was the first flower that ever bloomed, all alone in a world of green. One flower to be followed by so many that changed the world forever.

It would be only when humans walked the earth that those flowers would touch the hearts and the spirit of mankind, bringing a beauty, grace and peace beyond all measure.Here before me was the symbol of it all. Just one white flower.

My mind switched tracks and I thought of that African motto “It takes a whole village to raise one child”.

Again I was reminded of the vital importance of our little Family Group Movement.

The Toppling Wave of Hope

What is HOPE? 
I remember attending a Jesuit Retreat at Canisius College some 40 years ago and the Retreat Director made this poetic metaphor, 
‘Each of us rides the toppling wave of Hope”.  

This has lived with me all these years in the back roads of my mind. While more and more seeing myself as a cork bobbing up and down in the breaking waves, I’ve come to see a great difference between Hope and Optimism.

Having twice seen, ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’, I delighted in the lunatic hotel manager, formerly of Slum Dog Millionaire. “Yes, yes. I am so terribly sorry that the room has no door, the window will not open and the shower has fallen on your head. These are catastrophes. However, my Uncle said to me that all will be well in the end. So this is not the end!!”  Unbridled Optimism. It’s only when Maggie Smith, the movie’s supreme English Racist, takes over the management that Hope enters.

The distinction between Hope and Optimism could not be better portrayed. Optimism is the belief that somehow, somewhere, sometime, things will get better. Whereas, Hope is the energy and result that we find within ourselves, in our very guts, to do something about the situation, well aware of the apparent impossibilities and challenges that lie ahead. Hope is active, whereas Optimism is passive.

This is true about the present situation of the Institutional Church and during the past decades of the Vatican Council there was plenty of Optimism, now there is only Hope. That’s where this meeting of our PFGM is so vital. We are given the gift of Hope, as Jesus was in His Ministry when everything was going against Him, and even the Father was silent. There was still the Hope of the Resurrection when the Father raised the Son into Light and Life.