Simply, they are about Love.  Our Groups, as I see it, are primarily loving relationships based upon and energised by the Spirit of God in our hearts. We are all brothers and sisters. No one is better than anyone else. We all need each other and we all depend totally upon God.  That, to me, is the basic truth of our Family Groups.

As I reflect back on my life as a priest, I can honestly say that I was trained to believe that controlled predictable progress in holiness occurred only on a vertical plane. The parishioners were in no position to help themselves because of their poor experience and limited knowledge. From Pope to Bishops to Priests, we were there to guide, inspire and correct them. For them to attempt to assist each other could be dangerous as the blind leading the blind.

However, I was blessed by being given the little tin shed church of St. Anthony in the Fields, Terrey Hills. It was here, with the people, that we were able to share our lives and help each other in an atmosphere of freedom and acceptance. I was to learn that we all have within us the Holy Spirit - the voice of love. From the youngest child to our seniors, no matter what their education, we were taught the message of love.

I was privileged to watch the miracle of Christian Community grow and transform the lives of so many people, giving them freedom and the conviction that they were good and holy in their humanity. The Family Groups provided this loving environment - spiritual oxygen and sunlight for the growth of their spirits.

In our Family Groups, as is the case today, all were equal: Leaders were servants and each member was unique.

Those who joined with me to start our Family Groups in this parish, and later throughout all the parishes and places where I have worked around the world, had the same attitude. Their real satisfaction has come from their service to others.

We really never had any long-range plans or dreams of expansion. We have tried to keep the structures flexible and simple. Every effort has been made to adapt the methods and the organisation to the local environment.

We have always insisted on the aims being met, however, we have always claimed that there are different ways in our Family Groups of achieving those aims. No one-way, no one method is the only way. Therefore, no one-way, no one method, is the right way.

As I reflected, it struck me that over the years our PFGM Directors, Team Leaders, Coordinators and Leaders  have all made every effort, with all our human frailties to foster a true spirit of love and family amongst us.

In his book, “Teach Only Love”, Gerald Jampolsky, writing about his Centre for Attitudinal Healing & Terminally Ill children, eloquently says, “Sometimes my therapists will think that other groups members’ feelings are not as important as the sick children that they are all there to help. What is not realised that only people with healed relationships are in a position to give the kind of help that will last. It is peace we want to extend, and to extend peace we must first have it.” 

I believe this is paramount to our work as servants for our own people. Someone said, “It is better to be kind than right”.   

Father Peter McGrath   October 2003