First Calling

When the Marist Fathers and Brothers first left France for these distant shores, the only clear idea they had was that they were being called to spread the Gospel in places where it had not been heard. They did not know the ministries that would grow or even the places where they would be planted.  They did not know that schools would be founded, or parishes, or churches built, or the details of programmes that would be created.   What they did know was that they would spend themselves and be spent "in every way", in the name of Christ and his Mother, for the salvation of souls.

Nearly two hundred years later, we find across New Zealand men and women, religious and lay, old and young, Marists who still hear and respond to that first call in an incredible variety of ways. While these people work in a way that is, by its very intention, “hidden and unknown,” this blog attempts to share the inspiration, the determination, the faith, and even, from time to time, the genius, that is Marist ministry in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Through sharing stories and thoughts from right across this wide network of ministries, communities, schools and individuals, we hope to connect people. The stories are numerous and diverse, but they each exist as a lived response to that first call. They share the call to spend everything and be spent in every way as Marists at work in the world.