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.

Salvation Sunday - Brisbane - 16 Jan 2011

Father Peter McGrath cp is in Queensland working with our Family Group Directors, Gwen & Russ Winterscheidt. With Gwen's idea of "Baskets of Hope" for victims of the devasting floods to hit the State, they have been able to allocate over 140 Baskets of Hope to families in the Brisbane area.


Peter took a car load of Baskets and drove to the Bundaberg Parish in the Rockhampton Diocese  As well as weekend Masses he has been able to encourage, motivate and reach out to so many people in need.


In his words, "It is good to now be back in the saddle!"   We are blessed to have him back with us after his major heart operation in June 2010.


A further detailed report will be added to our website in the next few days.