Course for English-Speaking Brothers 2013
On 17th October fifteen Brothers and one Marianist priest gathered at Manziana to begin their two-month renewal course. The house was well-prepared and very comfortable and we settled in for a few days of orientation, during which we each outlined our family background and ministry experience. There was an amazing variety of experiences told, from years of primary school teaching to work in inner-city schools, then missionary work in Nigeria, East Timor and the Philippines. All told this amounted to a total of about 800 years of Marist ministry. We then moved on to special presentations by visiting lecturers, usually three days for each topic.
The participants are: Norbert Simms (Scotland), Kieran Nally (Ireland), John Nash, Patrick Hogan and Jim Adams (USA), John Horgan, Justin Guthrie, John O’Brien, Graeme Peacock and John Wagner (Australia), Denis Turner and Kevin O’Mally (New Zealand) and Jude Pieterse (South Africa) plus two Marianist Brothers from USA: Tom Trager and Robert Juenemann. Our chaplain is a Marianist priest, Patrick Tonry SM.
The program is led by Barry Burns and Antoine Kazindu, while Anthony Hunt looks after our temporal needs and keeps the house in good order. Recently we had visits from Superior General Emili Turu who gave a presentation on the general situation affecting the Institute today, and from Br Michael McAward SM who gave a very clear outline of the Marianist charism and the concerns of the general administration of that order.
At the start of November we departed for our pilgrimage into France to visit the sites of the origins of the Marist project. As well as visiting the key sites connected with Champagnat, our group will travel one day to Taize, Cluny and Ars. The pilgrimage has emerged as one of the highlights of this renewal program, and we are all looking forward to the experience it offers.