The feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple is a central feast for we Passionists. The feast commemorates the (unrecorded) taking of Mary as a child to the Temple by her parents Joachim and Anne in order to place her under the protection of God. For Passionists, it commemorates the day Bishop Gattinara

I’m often asked the question, “Why?” Why did I join the Passionists, and why do I want to be a priest today, with all that’s going on in the church? It’s something that I ask myself, from time to time: “what on earth am I doing?” Well, simply put: I’m following where I believe

A few years ago, one of my friends asked me “when the time comes, will you embrace your diaconate as a good thing in itself, or will you simply see it as a step on the way to priesthood?” Now that I have been ordained a deacon, her question has become ever more relevant

Some time ago I was leafing through a publication in which hundreds of Religious Orders, including the Passionists, advertised their mission and charism. Among the many pages I found a general similarity with each Congregation or Order suggesting that the personal qualities needed to live their life were deeply human ones - warmth, dedication

Some years ago, in the United States, a group of seminarians were on retreat. They were due to be ordained deacons later in the year. As part of the retreat, the seminary rector arranged for the seminarians to undertake a 3-kilometre walk following a direct route, to a church in the city where they

We're coming towards the end of Vocations Week. We’re asked, this week in particular, to pray specifically for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. However, not everyone is called into these vocations. We all have different callings in life. That’s easy to see, just by looking at the people around us in our