Friday 17th September 2021

Attached Reports:

Marist News from Rome 695

Download Marist News—PDF

Friday 24th September: Marist Anniversary 1836—Father Jean-Claude Colin was elected Su-perior General of the Society of Mary. 20 Marist Fathers made Vows in the Society of Mary. Mar-cellin Champagnat preached the occasional Homi-ly. Sunday 26th September: Daylight Saving/Summer time begins—clock “Spring forward” one hour. Tuesday 28th September: New Zealand Marist Brothers Trust Board meet.

Marist Youth (Youth Peers) Outreach Reflection

Greetings from Kiribati—By Brother Tabunga

Here at Lavalla, our selected Marist Youth Team members, Barry and I em-barked on our outreach at the Betio Parish and ran a Choice Weekend for 4 days to 167 young people. These stu-dents were KIT students, USP students, students from different schools includ-ing Saint Louis and those who are stay-ing at home and receiving no educa-tion. The main purpose of the week-end was to allow our Marist Youth members to relate to and immerse themselves with other youth members, and to share what is part of our plan. This agenda of ours is based on 3 themes which are: Empowering Youth, Ecological Awareness and Spiritual Nourishment. The program’s objectives were to allow the young people to be leaders of themselves, helping them with their studies be-fore all the coming Exams this year, having opportunities for choices for their own future life, and some Vocation Promotion – including Marist Brothers’ Life. I extend my sincere thanks to Sacred Heart College, New Zealand for their Donation to our Mission here in Kiribati which helped this program go very well and for being able to purchase and use materials such as Charts, Pens, and books during the running of this program. I also thank Tawerio, our lay Marist and our Marist Youth mem-bers who were part of this program. "I also extend my gratitude and thanks to my community for

understanding and supporting this event."

Mr Teingira Totarawa. (Ex SLHS (USP Students 20 yrs)

Being part of an Outreach team is something that allows me to develop my confidence in sharing who I am as a Christian and Youth. I have been blessed with an idea; Youth Outreach initiated by our dear Marist Brothers. I know that it is not easy to conduct a program like this but as a result, our program has been a tremendous tool for my brothers and sisters in the Betio Parish. I love this program and I realized that it is bless-ing for the many youth like me. I thank Brother Tabunga, our so young and respected Brother who has been a good ed-

ucator for me before we actually got involved in our given task on the Outreach. I am very grateful for my beloved Saint Marcellin who teaches me how I can become a teacher of my same age, especially during my facilitating time.

Ms Reteta Ataia Riwata (Ex SLHS (USP students 20 yrs) Firstly, I would like to Thank God for my life and a special way I thank God allow-ing me to be part of Kiribati Marist Youth. I am blessed being part of Brother Ta-bunga’s involvement with young people. My reflection is based on the love of God through people I encountered during the Weekend. Even though I am part of the Team running the Choice Weekend, somehow, I have learnt a lots from some of the Youth from Betio. Their stories are touching and very helpful to me as I re-late with my own love story. The Choice weekend overall for me has given me a chance to change my life, from an independent person into a social person, The

use of Phone was blocking me from being an active daughter and - lastly for re-focusing on my USP Goal. All these changes in my life are all part of God loves for me. God Bless us all and Thanks to our Marist Brothers!!

Toa Pasifika

Mālō e lelei

A former Pasifika Old Boy of the early '90s recently told me the total number of Pasifika students at

Sacred Heart used to be less than 10%. Today, as we celebrate Tongan language week in 2021, we are

able to reflect on the tremendous growth in diversity of our school.

Our Tongan Marist Men now alone make up approximately 8-10% of our students, with almost 35% of

our student body identifying as Pasifika. These statistics are also representative of the diversity across

our multi-cultural city.

Importantly, however, we are talking about boys and families, not simply statistics. Speaking on be-

half of the staff I can say that the heart and spirit our Tongan and all our Pasifika boys, bring to the

school is not just appreciated but in fact seen as essential to the very fibre of our Catholic Marist

Champagnat community.

'Toa Pasifika' is the name given to a new school initiative we are trialling. “Toa” is aligned to our school motto “courage to live manfully” and is translated in this sense as “a Polynesian Warrior”. Evi-denced-based educational strategies are well underway where the confident warrior spirit inside of our Pasifika boys will help drive their future success, particularly in the fields of student leadership and academics. Strategies underway include: • Targeted mentoring of senior Pasifika students (continuing throughout lockdown) • Plans and mentoring supports for our Year 9 and 10 students A Toa Pasifika Google Classroom launched this week for our Year 12 and 13 students and will move to include other year groups as this is developed. We hope you enjoy this example of a recent post to the boys below by our teacher Mr Timoteo…

HAPPY TONGAN LANGUAGE WEEK MEN

A Tongan proverb for Tongan week...

......“Ala ‘i sia, ala ‘i kolonga”

Translation: “skillful at sia, skillful at kolonga”

Pigeon hunters would lay a trap on a mound called the 'sia'. The 'kolonga' refers to the place where

the caught pigeons were cooked. The proverb infers that those who were skilled at catching the pi-

geons were also skilled at cooking them. Most of our young men are amazing sportsmen with bril-

liant skills. The application is that skills that we have in one area are transferable and can be

adapted to other contexts.

First Profession of our two Newest Brothers—11th September 2021

Brother Karalo (Fijian) at Lomeri Pacific Novitiate Fiji with Brother Jone

Brother Melchor Nowelle (Filipino) at Marist Mulivai, Samoa

CONGRATULATIONS to the newest members of our Marist Brothers Family

Brother Karolo

With the Presider (Local Leader of SM Priests) Afa

(Novice Master) and Nowelle Nowelle cutting the cake

Preparing for an item ... joining the Filipino Samoan Community

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR JUBILARIANS

12th September—The Holy Name of Mary Feastday

Brothers Afaese, Kees, Kevin, Sam

Happy Jubilee to Brothers Rupert (79th), Sam (70th), Edward, Henry and Peter H (RIP) 60th, Kees and

Kevin (50th), Afaese (25th) and all our Brothers who made their commitment on this day.

Congratulations.

Brothers Peter (R.I.P.) Edward, Henry

HAPPY FEAST DAY TO ALL CHAMPAGNAT MARISTS

Brothers Sam, Kees and Rupert