The Vision
So, what is the FM Connection?
It’s about belonging to a community committed to faith in Christ and his mission for the world, as was Mary, the first disciple.
- In short FM means
- Faith and Mission
Following Mary
in the footsteps of Marcellin
Marists who walk in the footsteps of St Marcellin Champagnat live a spirituality of the ordinary, following Christ as Mary did. This spirituality rests on five pillars: Presence, Simplicity, Family spirit, Love of work and the Way of Mary; and a faith worth its salt spills out into mission—and for men and women following Marcellin—to the young and especially the marginalized.
The Aim
- The FM Connection is an invitation
- * to young men to come and live and grow in faith in Jesus,
* to develop a greater self-awareness in order to follow Jesus more closely, as Mary did.
* to live together with Marist Brothers developing the skills for building community at home and in the parish and beyond;
* to broaden and deepen ways of prayer and living spirituality as adult men in the Church and society
* to join in the mission of Marists in New Zealand, the Pacific and beyond.
Why men?
Have you been to a primary school lately? Men are hard to find and few are in the helping professions. Confortare esto vir— ‘Take courage and be a man’ is the motto that some with a Marist education well know. Marcellin Champagnat—his example and that of his followers—presents a way of being Christian and manly for children and young people today.
Marist Brothers have a long tradition of inspiring young people to live the values of the gospel, to be good Christians and good citizens.
The FM Connection continues this tradition in a new way to meet today’s needs in Church and society.
provides direction for young men who wish to follow Jesus as Mary did, whether that be as single people, as married persons, as diocesan priests or as Marist Brothers.
provides opportunities for links to the mission of Marists, Brothers and lay together in New Zealand, the Pacific and the wider Marist world. (Marist Brothers and their lay partners are involved in 78 countries in the world today.)
maintains links with others in the archdiocese of Wellington and beyond whose focus is youth and young adults.
The Living
Our house is home for the FM Connection. Members of the community contribute to the negotiable all-costs rent that takes into account involvement in ministry in the parish and beyond in a realistic way—aware that members work and/or study.
The FM Connection is an initiative of the Marist Brothers’ Province of New Zealand: Aotearoa, Fiji, Kiribati and Samoa
- For more information:
Br Chris Maney
- cjmaney@xtra.co.nz
- Br Kevin Dobbyn
- kevind.fms@xtra.co.nz
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