The latest from Fr Peter on the Road '06

My Dearest Family

I just wanted to assure you of my gratitude and affection for you all. I am continually amazed at all the work that you do so quietly and un-ostentatiously for the Lord. 

I had an extraordinary experience recently, being present at a de-briefing session of 100 senior students of a Marist Brothers College. They had spent the week working in pairs (sent out like the Disciples in the time of Jesus) among the disadvantaged and afflicted, especially young people and the very elderly. Such groups as the Hospice for the Dying with young men dying with AIDS, young Cerebral Palsy and Autistic children. Little Sudanese refugees learning English and delinquent children in a reformed school.

Their presentations to their fellow students were amazing. They all said that there expectations had been completely blown away. They discovered friendships with these young people, that they found so brave, so human and so more accepting of their lives than they were. They claimed that the little Sudanese and many of the afflicted young people, were far happier than they were with all their material comforts and distractions in their Northern Suburb homes.

When the young men finished speaking there was thunderous applause of agreement. These young fellows said their lives had been changed during that week of encounter and emersion in the plight and life of those they deemed previously inferior to themselves. 

I was privileged to celebrate the Eucharist with them in this highly charged environment. The Gospel was "I was hungry and you fed me, sick and you visited me, etc. etc."  That Gospel had been lived out in their very lives. They saw that they had experienced the presence of Christ in the least of his Brethren. 

For many, many of them, it was a fundamental experience of the Good News. They had acted and been moved as the first communities followed Jesus and were called people of the Way, long before Creeds, Institutions and regulations.

It was such a formative experience, so natural, so human and so deep.

It hit me like a thunderbolt that that precisely is the aim and goal of our Family Groups. I was all the more convinced that the work that we do together and the sharing and family that we have with thousands of people around the globe, is the fundamental message of the Gospel and is truly the Good News in ACTION.

I was  privileged to be able to go back to the USA to work with the Family Group parishes there. We now have a very active Family Groups in the First Congregationalist Church in Manchester, Vermont. We held a meeting with their leaders and those of the neighbouring Catholic parish of Bennington VT. This mirrored the very wonderful experience I had recently of a united meeting of over 100 people of the Family Groups of the Catholic parish of Port Macquarie and the Uniting Church there.

On another very positive note, we have begun our PFGM in the Diocese of Geraldton WA.  In July we established 6 very healthy and enthusiastic Family Groups in the Cathedral parish of Geraldton. The Bishop, Justin Bianchini, who was a classmate and great friend of our own Justin Ives, was such a tonic to be with and a fantastic support for our efforts there. So human and personal, He reminded me of that wonderful Bishop down in Invercargill NZ.  

Must leave you with great gratitude and love,

Your brother, soon in the air,                                      Peter