Sorry for being so long in forwarding this blog.
Now I am back in Australia in my community. My details are:
Br John Moylan
Christian Brothers' Community
62 Northern Avenue
West Beach 5024
SA
Australia
Phone: +62 (0) 88 355 3299
E-Mail: johnhmoylan@hotmail.com
It is true that it is great to be back in my community at West Beach, a beachside suburb of Adelaide. I am a native of Adelaide, and I have lived in Adelaide the vast majority of years since 1965 although I have had two years in WA (Aquinas and CBC, Fremantle), six months in Rome, one and a half years at Fordham University, New York City, studying in the Graduate School of Education there and living in the Christian Brothers' Community at All Hallows Institute in the South Bronx, most of two years in the 1990s studying at the St Mary's Strathfield Campus, Sydney, and, finally until June 6th of this year for five and two thirds of the last seven years at Chavagnes International College in France.
It is just as true that I miss as greatly Chavagnes International College as I enjoy being back in Australia. I miss the pupils Mr McDermott and the staff, very much the wonderful Catholic, happy spirit which dominates life at the school there. It is an exceptional Catholic school, centred on daily Mass. Our Lord's command to love God with all one's heart, mind and strength, and one's neighbours as oneself are the bread and butter of life there.
It is truly a great Catholic college where the liturgy, traditional Catholic practices (eg dailyMass, Gregorian chant, beautifully inspiring Catholic choral pieces and hymns, wonderfully inspiring Mass serving, Benediction, the honouring of the Liturgical seasons and saints' feast days, devotion to Our Lady etc are highlighted in the way they should be. Far from turning boys away God and the Church, the boys are brought together. Surely there could hardly be a school in the world where boys are closer to one another or closer to Our Lord and His Blessed Mother than they are at Chavagnes.
I hope to be able to return to Chavagnes in January for another period of service after renewing my batteries, and celebrating my Diamond Jubilee of my entrance to the Christian Brothers Juniorate at Strathfield in NSW at the beginning of 1950. Until then I hope to write for publication as I was when I received an invitation to be a guest of the school in the School year commencing in 2002 for a year or a term or two, a year or two which turned into being of serice to the school for the period mentioned above.
The topics I am mulling over at this stage are:
Catholic Schools and the Year of the Priest
Catholic Schools and Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life
The document of the recently retired Bishop of Lancaster, Bishop ODonohue entitled: Fit For Mission? Schools
Catholc School and Legitimate Expectations of parents if the Catholic School if it is to effectively train its students to live out their Baptismal Calling
Chavagnes International College and its liturgical and Prayer Life.
The Place of the Liturgical Year, day to day feast days of Our Lord, Our Lady, the Angels and Saints in a Catholic School
The Importance of Caring for Others, especially the Most in Need, for truly Catholic Education
Listening to the successor of St Peter and its Importance for the Church's Divine Mission
I am still finding my way here in my community at West Beach which is comprised of Brs Pat Guidera, John McGee and myself. Brs Pat and John are wonderfully kind, good, holy men with a sense of humour. Both are older than I and have various health problems, but their happy, thoughtful, patient, uncomplaining manner and courage are wonderful gifts to bring to our little community. They give me something to live up to. I am trying to get into a routine after the highly structured life at Chavagnes. We are in a suburban house with a room reserved as a chapel, and with the Blessed Sacrament only five steps from my room. There is housework, shopping to be done, letters and emails to be written, Mass and Confession some distance away, community prayers to be said, TV to be watched, various meetings, funerals to attend, recreation with the other brothers to be enjoyed, mainly watching TV together and chatting, my walking (an hour a da) or half an hour of running and physical exercises every third day. It is a quiet life after Chavagnes, and needs to be managed in a balanced way. It is much more satisfying now I have myself more organised, but being in the same small house is very different from the vibrant life enriched by having many happy young peoplea round as at Chavagnes.
Thank you to my friends in the Norther Hemisphere who have sent me emails. One from Alex Morrison, a Foundation Student at Chavagnes, reminded me that even though we are searated by distance we are united with Our Lord, especially in the Mass, and in that union we are very much united with one despite the tyranny of distance. by the way, Alex has just completed a brilliant course at Oxford and is entering the Norbertines in England any day now.
