A weekend chocker of catchups, re-introductions and lots of stories, for old mates, some who had not seen each other for 30 years or more focused around Friday drinks, a visit of the Marist Archives, the the actual book launch, launch dinner and Sunday Mass.

Wives and partners too seemed to learn lots and were able to put names and faces together, some for the first time.

The conversation flowed all weekend.

Speaking at the On a Mission launch dinner, in a packed dining room at the Back Bencher Hotel, Mike Fitzsimmons described the occasion as 'very special.'

"I often thought if ever a place deserved an old boys gathering, the Mount does. The great quest we were all on, intensity of our experience and the friendships formed make the school equivalent very pale indeed."

Mr Fitzsimmons said the seminary was a 'great deal' for him.

• Board and meals for seven and a half years.
• A tertiary education at Victoria and the Mount worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• It gave me 'once a seminarian' stories to last a lifetime that seem to leave people gob-smacked even to this day.
• It gave me friends for life.
• It gave me habits so useful for married life - extraordinary ability to take criticism, unquestioning obedience, and an instinctive habit of speed drinking whenever someone is approaching the door!

Mr Fitzsimmons however reminded those who had yet to read the book, that On a Mission is not a history of the seminary, rather it's 22 stories, each with their own truth, he said.

A similar event earlier in Whangarei, earlier the week also attracted more than 100 people.

Author, Shaun Davison says his former colleagues "rank as some of the most inspiring people I've ever met" and described the call to a Marist vocation as "a noble mission to serve God in our world".

For Mr Davison, the journey to write the book began 1976, when he joined a thriving community of over 100 at Mount St Mary's Seminary, Hawkes Bay, most of whom were training to be Catholic priests, and although in the late 70's number began to dwindle, still four years later Mount St Mary's still had around 80 seminarians.

"We had no doubt it would carry on for another 100 years," he said.

But all of a sudden things changed.

Just twelve years later the bells at Mount St Mary's Seminary, Greenmeadows tolled for the last time, the grand Hawkes Bay institution closed, and the remaining handful of students moved to Auckland to continue their training.

Motived by turning 50, Mr Davision, who left the seminary in 1981, went in search of his former colleagues, to retrace their journeys, revisit their decision to embark on a religious path and discuss its impact on their lives.

Fr Merv Duffy SM, a professor of Systematic Theology at Good Shepherd College, Auckland, describes the book as: "A terrific read! Wonderful coming-of-age stories. Talented men reflecting on their seminary days, the ideals and ordeals."

Monsignor Gerard Burns, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Wellington, bought On a Mission on Friday night and found the stories so riveting that he couldn't put the book down until he finished it.

Those interested in a copy can get them direct from the publisher, Steele Roberts.

I said, "Well, I don't know."

What might you be doing?"

"I think I'll go to the seminar."

"Whyich one?"

"The Marists."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want an application form?"

"Yep."

He started rummaging around for an application form.

I said, "Do you mind if I have a smoke?"

He had a packet of Pall Mall Filters sitting on his desk.

He said, "Go ahead, help yourself."

So I took a cigarette and lit the wrong end. I lit the filter end.

I went home and told my parents and my dad said, "You'll bloody well have to pull your socks up before they let you in!"

So the shortest answer is it was done in the spirit of the moment, but therre were other things. Ten of us went that year from st Pat's Town, so it was the atmosphere.

Other reasons to go were more grounded in the way I was brought up: Irish Catholic. I had a number of relatives who were priests and religous. The story goes that at two weeks old I was being ooh-ed and arr-ed at by certains Sisters of Compassion, who still remind me of it! So that was there in the blood and in the roots.

The other thing was, I had good connections with some of the priests at St Pat's and I was impressed by their community life. And when I had surgery and was on crutches for five months, these fellows were very good at picking me up, taking me to school and then home again. So there was this personal connection they made with me.

As far as alternatives when, I didn't have any girlfriends. I was too shy to go down that track. I went on a blind date once and it was pretty appalling. Not from her side, but from mine. I certainly wasn't mature, not for a long time. So that helped get me to the seminary too.

My first impressions of the place were of a community of fellows who were quite respectful with each other. There was acceptance by older fellows and friendships developed. The place was physically beautiful. I remember the first few mornings waking up with the fog at the base of the hill stretching across to Napier and I thought, 'This is pretty nice. I could stay with this.'

Read more excerpts from On a Mission by:

Andrew Gunn
Dennis Farrelly
Chanel Houlahan
Merv Duffy

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Get your copy of On a Mission

As a preist I was very privileged. Initially I was overwhelmed with being in a responsible position whereby people trusted me instinctively. It generated in me a deep feeling of, 'I need to honour this responsibility,' so I used to try hard to prepare for anything I did. I spent hours preparing anything to do with a sermon or liturgy, so much so that I used to spend sometimes until three in the morning preparing. Yes, I sued to burn the midnight oil a lot.

I was unhappy about the lifeless way some priests said mass. I didn't think that the repetitive distributing on Holy Communion saying words that sounded like "By Carp, By Carp," was the thing to do. There was a priest at school who was like a bumblebee in his expression of Mass. I used to find my own words and that took a long time. I was damn sure I wasn't going to sell people short on any of my ideals.

...

As time went by, my ideas diverged from those of the church and I found myself critiquing things: the church's attitude towards homosexuality; the issues of sexuality outside of marriage; and of course the freedom of women in the church. So disenchantment grew.

There was dissonance between me and being an icon of the church, bing a priest. More and more my beliefs weren't church beliefs at all. Over time the dissonance was too sharp and I couldn't keep it together any longer, I felt I had to leave the active priesthood in the Catholic church which I did.

During all this time, in terms of sexuality, I was extremely immature. I didn't have any sexual encounters before going into the seminary and certainly none during or after. Whenever I heard of such luminaries as monsignors misbehaving, I just couldn't make sense of it. So my sensual drive was unexpressed. There were certainly no homosexual or heterosexual overtures - it was like an unknown area really. When I came to Auckland it was still that case and I was totally unknowing of what people's reactions were to me. If there had been any sexual agenda behind their relating to me, I would not have been aware of it. It was totally of the radar. I didn't have the language or the signals.

...

I'm not anti the Church but I am grief-stricken that I can't find a faith community that I feel comfortable with. I've been to different places from time to time, but they just don't resonate with me,, so I don't tend to go. My main concern is that my own kids don't have a faith community to fall back on.

Read more excerpts from On a Mission by:

Tim Howard
Andrew Gunn
Dennis Farrelly
Merv Duffy

Get your copy of On a Mission

Then, and now, that strikes me as wrong. Given how good the group of people in the place was, it seemed to me that there was a massive reservoir of goodwill and great talent around the country.

I've been told that the seminary was the best 'finishing school' in the country. One woman I know says that every prospective husband should be sent through it, if only to learn how to clean toilets. James K Baxter said, "We're called to be a servant church and a servant's job is to clean lavatories, actual and metaphorical."

Read more excerpts from On a Mission by:

Tim Howard
Andrew Gunn
Dennis Farrelly
Chanel Houlahan

Get your copy of On a Mission

When I left the seminary, i did struggle to find the signficant meaning that it provided. I don't find it in my career, quite frankly. I find a certain amount of satisfaction having success in business and helping other people and seeing employees grow and making a profit. But for me it would be like six out of ten.

I've had that lingering sense that anything else that I've done subsequently is great is good, but it's not the ultimate. It's not to denigrate what I've done in my life. It's not to undermine the importance of family and partners. But there was certainly something very big that we are part of: that mision, that vocation, which we passionately believed in - or I did anyway.

There are echoes of that in my life now. In some of the things I have done in my life: my tenacity in business that wes struggling; my tenacity in my relationship. What's important to me is things that will last. The business isn't important, but being loyal to my family, through thick and thin is.

Read more excerpts from On a Mission by:

Tim Howard
Dennis Farrelly
Chanel Houlahan
Merv Duffy

Get your copy of On a Mission