I guess it was 1988 when we joined the Lunnon Family Group, having been members of the St Anthony in the Fields community since 1983. We’d migrated to Australia in 1981 and after a couple of house moves ended up in Terrey Hills, where by 1988 our three children were at primary school. St Anthony’s was a special place for us as a family and joining a Family Group, capital letters or not, seemed a natural thing to do. We…
Dearest Fr Peter, Where do I start???? I didn’t realise the impact that our presence at the change of leadership handover last night would have on everyone. It really is a special moment when you can feel so loved and welcomed amongst a group of people who you haven’t seen for a few years but have come to know as your ‘extended’ family. I must thank you for letting me be a part of this wonderful Family Group all those…
Occasionally you meet someone with a dynamic personality whose memory lives through what they can inspire, when the dream becomes the reality.
Such a person is Fr. Peter McGrath, an Australian Priest, who has had an amazing impact in St. Wilfrid’s School and Parish recently. Rarely have I experienced so much spontaneous joy and laughter, especially in the Church, shedding new light on aspects of God’s love, and raising our awareness for the need of friendship, support and love in tparish. Through his wealth of stories and anecdotes he enkindled a new desire for love and belonging.
As we all remembered the tragedy of 9/11 ten years ago, Father Peter McGrath was celebrating a Mass of Remembrance in Auburn, Maine USA with the parish of St. Phillips where their 7 Family Groups were celebrating 15 years. Fr. Roger Chabot, Pastor when Family Groups were first started but now retired, returned to take part in the Mass and the following celebration. Also, Chief Dan Daly was giving a heart rending presentation in Dublin to remember the victims of…
The Passionist Family Group Movement May Have the Answer
In April 2011 the Office of National Statistics will ask the UK population to rate their own well-being in the first official Happiness Index. David Cameron’s £2 million plan to measure the nation’s happiness makes good an election pledge which promised a significant coalition investment in the quality of life as well as in economic growth. Speaking at the Google Zeitgeist Europe conference last year the Prime Minister said, “It’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than money and it’s time we focused not just on GDP but on GWP – general well being.”
The following is Fr Peter’s version of how the Statue of Mary has come to rest at Grace Cottage. It was written from Grace Cottage on the Feast of the Assumption, 2007 by Peter McGrath. Please come and see the statue for yourself one day. The Dawsons have been at the very foundation stones of our Passionist Family Group Movement. While St. Anthony in the Fields, Terrey Hills was the tiny parish of origin, the Passionist Monastery at St. Ives was…
This extract is from the Tui Motu’s review of lay movements in the church since the Vatican Council defined the church as the People of God. The Passionist Family Groups The successor to the Christian Family Movement has its origins much closer to home. The Passionist Family Group Movement was started in 1972 by Fr Peter McGrath cp in the Terrey Hills parish, New South Wales. It has grown steadily and now it operates in 420 parishes in English-speaking countries touching…
Mark was invited to join a Family Group about 3 years ago. He was divorced and had only just recovered from a freakish accident which left him unable to continue to work.
Early in August Father Peter McGrath ran a Sunday for family groups. He asked me along with others to make a presentation on how family groups had influenced my life.
An extraordinary affirmation comes to us from Fr Peter Bickley, PP of St. Michael’s Traralgon, Victoria.