She converted to Catholicism at the age of 20 and was chosen by Bishop (later Cardinal) Reginal Delargey in the post-Vatican II years to help establish the Young Christian Students (later Christian Youth Movement).

With the encouragement of Bishop Delargey and inspired by the writings and activities of Cardinal Joseph Cardijn's principles for the lay apostolate - "See, Judge, Act" - Jocelyn became heavily involved in the establishment and training of the emerging lay apostolate movement.

She co-founded and was instrumental in the work of the Catholic Overseas Volunteers Service (COVS) as well as Justice and Peace activities.

Encouraged by Bishops Delargey and Mackey, she established the Lay Training Centre over a period of several years in two houses, where young people flatted together and studied at night and weekends after work, focusing particularly on social justice work.

In 1916 Jocelyn published a collection of poems and reflections on her long life of faith and her journey through her later years of failing health, called "Faith and Reflection". In a foreword to this book the late Bishop John Mackey wrote "Jocelyn has been an icon for those who rejoice in the layperson's work … Now in these poems she reveals the depths and richness of her faith."

In recent years Jocelyn has been a resident at the Little Sisters of the Poor St Joseph's Home, in Herne Bay in Auckland.

"We owe a great debt of thanks and gratitude to Jocelyn for her dedication, vision and missionary zeal. Well done thou good and faithful servant," said the bishop of Auckland Patrick Dunn in a Facebook post.

Her Requiem Mass will be celebrated at St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland on Saturday 12 October.

Rosary and Vigil Prayers at St. Joseph's Home Chapel, Little Sisters of the Poor, 9 Tweed Street, Herne Bay on Friday evening at 7.30 pm.

Source

• Supplied: Lyndsay Freer
• facebook
• nzcatholic.org.nz
• Image: Supplied

Hall was described as an ex-nun.

After spending 8 years as a member of the Palmarian Catholic Church she suffered a mental breakdown and walked away.

"I probably had to lose my mind in order to lose my faith," Maria Hall told the Sunday programme.

The Palmarian Church is a cult which is not connected to the Roman Catholic Church.

It is still active with a following around the world.

Hall is the author of a book, Reparation: A Spiritual Journey, published in 2015.

Amazon describes the book as "the true story of one woman's journey from the sweeping coastlines of New Zealand to the barren plains of Southern Spain, from youthful hope to deep despair, and from sin to reparation."

The Christian Palmarian Church of the Carmelites of the Holy Face (Spanish: Iglesia Cristiana Palmariana de los Carmelitas de la Santa Faz), commonly called the Palmarian Catholic Church (Iglesia Catolica Palmariana), is a small schismatic Catholic church centred on El Palmar de Troya, Spain.

The church regards Pope Paul VI, whom they revere as a martyr, and his predecessors as true popes, but hold, on the grounds of claimed apparitions, that the Pope of Rome is excommunicated and that the position of the Holy See has, since 1978, been transferred to the See of El Palmar de Troya.

The Palmarian Catholic Church has had three pontiffs since its break from the Catholic Church; Clemente Dominguez y Gomez (Pope Gregory XVII) declared himself pope in 1978 until his death in 2005, Manuel Corral (Pope Peter II) succeeded Dominguez in 2005 and led the church until his death in 2011. He was succeeded by Sergio Maria (Pope Gregory XVIII) who was elected by conclave in 2011.

Source

• wikipedia.org
• amazon.com
• tvnz.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: images.tvnz.co.nz

One woman and two men briefly spoke about their motivation and about their experience of living in a community.

The report noted that while there are not lot of people opting for religious life these days, the numbers, both locally and world-wide are recovering from the lows of the 80 and 90s
Source

• radionz.co.nz

The Rite of First Profession took place during Eucharist at St Thomas Aquinas Church in Springwood, NSW, Australia.

Both women were born and raised in the Republic of Kiribati.

In the coming weeks, Juniko and Tuata will return to Kiribati where they will continue with a study program and engage in ministry.

They are part of a growing group of Kiribati women drawn to the Good Samaritan way of life.

Currently this group consists of two perpetually professed sisters, four temporary professed sisters and three women in the pre-novitiate phase.

The Good Samaritan sisters have been working in Kiribati since since 1991.

They are involved in education, pastoral and community development roles.

The Congregation of the Sisters of Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict, known affectionately as the Good Sams, is Australia's first ‘home-grown' congregation of Catholic religious women.

Archbishop John Bede Polding, an English Benedictine monk and Australia's first bishop, founded them in Sydney in 1857.

Today, there are around 235 sisters living and working throughout Australia, in Japan, Kiribati, and the Philippines.

Source

• goodsams.org.au
• Image: goodsams.org.au

Following his elevation to cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he was appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, a position he held until 2002, when he became the first African Cardinal to head a Vatican office, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (2002-08).

His biography, God's Invisible Hand, was published by Ignatius Press, as were his books The Layperson's Distinctive Role, and Meeting Jesus and Following Him.

Cardinal Arinze's most recent book, also published by Ignatius Press, is Radical Discipleship: Consecrated Life and the Call to Holiness (2015), released in conjunction with the Year of Consecrated Life, which began on November 30, 2014 and will conclude with the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on February 2, 2016.

Cardinal Arinze corresponded this past week with Catholic World Report about the meaning and uniqueness of consecrated life, the roots and development of consecrated life, and some of the challenges facing embracing and living the consecrated life today.

CWR: In the Introduction to Radical Discipleship, you focus on how discipleship consists of accepting Jesus invitation, "Follow me." In what unique ways is the consecrate life an embrace of the call to radical discipleship?

Cardinal Arinze: The consecrated life is an embracing of the call to radical discipleship, the call to follow Christ in a radical way, because the consecrated person takes the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. The life of Jesus was a model of the three virtues lived to an extraordinary degree of commitment. All followers of Christ are indeed called to live three three virtues, but not in the same way. Consecrated people live the three virtues as vows binding them for their whole lives. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: St Thomas Province of the Claretians

The guide's creators created the resource targeting young people.

The four-part 'Discernment for Dummies' animated series, focuses on helping those seeking to know where to begin in the process of discerning their vocation.

The resource seeks to explain what discernment is not and then gives three most important steps to hear the call of God.

"Many young people experience great frustration because they have a strong desire to seek the will of God, but don't know where to start," says MLG priest, Fr David Callaghan.

"Often the greatest problem is that our agenda in discernment is very different to God's agenda," he says.

Fr Callaghan told CathNews that his main job is the novice director for the MLG's and he spends a lot of time with novices trying to discern their vocation.

He said his motivation to create the resource came about after seeing the frustration young people experience when they go through a bad discernment process.

"They have a very genuine desire to seek the will of God, but fail to realise that it is about so much more than just finding an answer to their question", he said.

Feedback to the series is very positive, Fr Callaghan says, and he is looking to create some more topics in the series in 2015.

The Missionaries of God's love priests and brothers were founded in 1986 in Canberra, Australia. They received official recognition as a religious institute from the Vatican in February 2014.

The MLG's have 8 young men starting novitiate next year and 'God-willing', a further 10 in the following year.

See more: Discernment for Dummies

I am writing to you as the Successor of Peter, to whom the Lord entrusted the task of confirming his brothers and sisters in faith (cf. Lk 22:32). But I am also writing to you as a brother who, like yourselves, is consecrated to God.

Together let us thank the Father, who called us to follow Jesus by fully embracing the Gospel and serving the Church, and poured into our hearts the Holy Spirit, the source of our joy and our witness to God's love and mercy before the world.

In response to requests from many of you and from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life, I decided to proclaim a Year of Consecrated Life on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, which speaks of religious in its sixth chapter, and of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal of religious life.

The Year will begin on 30 November 2014, the First Sunday of Advent, and conclude with the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on 2 February 2016.

After consultation with the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life, I have chosen as the aims of this Year the same ones which Saint John Paul II proposed to the whole Church at the beginning of the third millennium, reiterating, in a certain sense, what he had earlier written in the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata: "You have not only a glorious history to remember and to recount, but also a great history still to be accomplished! Look to the future, where the Spirit is sending you in order to do even greater things" (No. 110). Continue reading

Sources

• Vasallomalta
• Image: St Michael Catholic Church, Canton Ohio

"This (waking up the world) is a priority needed right now," the Jesuit Pope wrote in his letter to mark the November 30 start of the year.

However to be so bold, Francis is urging religious communities to "step more courageously from the confines of their institutes," to put aside pettiness, gossip and jealousy and to work together, and along with 'other vocations' in the Church.

The Holy Father says he is expecting religious orders to examine their presence in the Church and respond to the new demands constantly being made on them, and in particular the cry of the poor.

Francis stressed that looking to recreate the past will not provide answers for present, and he is calling on religious communities to see the signs of today and modify their structures and routines in order to respond to what God is asking now.

In his speech he said the church must be bold in recognising and changing "the structures that give us a false sense of protection and that condition the dynamism of charity," as well as "the routines that distance us from the flock we are sent to and prevent us from hearing the cry of those awaiting the good news of Jesus Christ."

"In that portion of the Lord's vineyard represented by those who have chosen to imitate Christ most closely... new grapes have matured and new wine has been pressed."

Pope Francis said religious are called "to discern the quality and the vintage of the 'new wine' that was produced in this long period of renewal (since Vatican II) and, at the same time, to evaluate if the wineskins that contain it - represented by the institutional forms present in consecrated life today - are adequate to hold this 'new wine' and promote its full maturation."

The pope met congregation members on November 27, three days before the opening of the Year of Consecrated Life.

Sources

• Vatican Radio (incl Official translation of his message)
• CNS
• Image: Congregation the sisters of St Joseph of Peace

The six missionary Holy Spirit Sisters (SSpS) on the staff of Divine Word University (DWU) in Madang will celebrate 115 years in Papua New Guinea on 8 December.

Two of the early teaching sisters, Sr Inez Strobl (now at Alexishafen) and Sr Edith Thies (Malala) will be special guests of honour, along with Sr Heline Senft, who has been guiding and caring for the student religious sisters for many years.

Historical pictures are being prepared to show a timeline paying tribute to all the sisters who have been teaching or serving on the staff of DWU.

Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron, was the presider and homilist for the Mass. Concelebrants included Monsigñor Brigido Arroyo and Palé Mike Crisostomo, officers of the clergy association.

Other clergy and members of the various religious orders and communities working on Guam joined in the Eucharistic celebration.

The Association of Diocesan Clergy of the Archdiocese of Agaña, (ADCAA), held the Mass as a way to show gratitude to Our Lord and to express thanks to individuals who have devoted themselves to being servants of Christ in consecrated life.

"Its focus is on showing appreciation for the men and women who are serving the Church and Christ in this way," said Palé Mike, President of ADCAA.

Pope Francis has declared that 2015 will be designated the Year of Consecrated Life. The recent Mass of Thanksgiving was a continuation of sorts of recent events in our Church honoring consecrated men and women on Guam.

Source

• umatuna.org
• Image: umatuna.org

The congregation hopes Pope Francis will celebrate the year's opening Mass Nov. 21, when the church marks a day of prayer for cloistered religious. The events would conclude one year later on the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council decree "Perfectae Caritatis" on the renewal of religious life.

The Church recognises that we are experiencing a "difficult and delicate" time in religious life, Cardinal Aviz said.

The Year of Consecrated Life is designed to help religious face the future with confidence.

The cardinal encouraged members of religious orders to rediscover the original charisms of their communities, as set forth in their founding.

"We are convinced that the council represented the breath of the Holy Spirit not only for the entire church, but in a particular way for consecrated life," said Cardinal Aviz . Continue reading

Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo said that the majority of cases occur at a "relatively young age".

The causes, he said, include "absence of spiritual life", "loss of a sense of community", and a "loss of sense of belonging to the Church" — a loss manifest in dissent from Catholic teaching on "women priests and sexual morality".

Continue reading