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About Us
Towards the end of 2006 the Brothers invited some young men to join them in community. Several took up the invitation. So, what is this FM Connection? Something in contrast to AM?
The Vision
It's about belonging to a community - both actual and extended - 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's footsteps - to the young and especially the marginalised.
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 an deepen ways of prayer and living spirituality as adult men in the Church and society
- to join the mission of Marists in New Zealand, the Pacific and beyond
Why men, you may well ask?
These days, especially in New Zealand and even now in the Pacific, men are hard to find in the helping professions. Look at any primary school and you'll see a disproportionate representation of men. When children come from families with absentee fathers, they need good, strong models of what it is to be men in both church and society.
Confortare esto vir - Take courage and be a man - is a 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.
So, 
- 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 Marists 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.)
- provides formative and insertion experiences for living a vibrant community life in mission in the wider Marist world outside one's own comfort zone
- 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 live-in community contribute to the negotiable all-costs rent that takes into account involvement in ministry in the parish and beyond in arealistic way - aware that members work and/or study.
Knowing this we commit to
- developing a common goal
- having a common mission with ministry together, especially to marginalised young people
- being hospitable, welcoming others into our home
- sharing together the daily responsibilities and tasks of the community
- share in animating the spiritual life of the community and with others in the parish
- some regular accompaniment (walking with) in each one's own spiritual journey
- welcoming outside facilitation to help us keep the focus
- a study of the sources of our faith and spirituality, deepening our relationship with Jesus.