Resources

The Edmund Rice Oceania Province assists people wishing to source material about the Christian Brothers and more specifically about the Brothers in the Oceania Region.

Patrick Ambrose Treacy – enterprising immigrant

By Regis Hickey cfc (2012)

 Born in Ireland in 1834, Patrick Ambrose Treacy spent his formative years in Thurles, Tipperary, at the Christian Brothers' school, later entering the Brothers' novitiate in Waterford.

In August 1868 he departed Dublin, arriving in Melbourne, Australia, in November. Ambrose arrived when free, secular and compulsory education was being introduced. He accepted the challenge of providing a quality Catholic education and would continue to address it for the next 30 years. This involved providing teachers, raising finance and erecting buildings without government assistance.

 This book covers his strategies for implementing his courageous ideas, including his fundraising journeys to goldfields in remote areas that are the stuff of legend, and details his relationships within the hierarchy of the church and the wider community. In 1900, Ambrose returned to Dublin as assistant to the superior general of the institute. A decade later, he returned to Australia, where he died on Wednesday 2 October 1912."

The Price of Freedom – Edmund Rice Educational Leader

By  Denis McLaughlin

This book is a critical contribution to the rediscovery of Edmund Rice. The specific focus is on Rice's contribution as an educational leader. In so doing, Denis McLaughlin has critiqued many long-held traditional interpretations and has found them either historically inaccurate or challengeable. He offers alternative perspectives that richly portray an invitingly human Edmund Rice as son, victualler, husband, father, religious Brother and education leader.

 

 

Harvesting the Wind

by Shane Wood cfc

2018 was the 150th year since the arrival of the first Christian Brothers in Melbourne to establish a permanent presence in Oceania. This book chronicles the various events held to recognise this significant year.

Available from Coventry Press - https://coventrypress.com.au/overcoming-fear $44.95

Overcoming Fear – Trusting God in times of Change

By Tim Lockwood cfc

Faithful to the Bible witness, sensitive to ancient Christian spiritual traditions – for example the writings of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross - as well as insights of contemporary teachers like Richard Rohr and Walter Brueggemann, the author’s experience as director and counsellor encourages us in our search for God’s purposes and how we may overcome fear within that journey, deepening our understanding of God and God’s invitation to closeness, growth and faith.


Overcoming Fear is a book for contemporary disciples who are willing to take seriously the invitation to acknowledge fear in their spiritual journey and to overcome that fear so as to grow in confidence in their relationship with the God of compassion and love.

 

Fire, Earth, Air, and Water – Ecology, Cosmology & Spirituality

By Trevor Parton cfc

 

This book contains poems, images, and essays on ecology, cosmology and spirituality by Trevor, who was the forward-looking pioneer in this area in establishing the Glenburn Centre for education in these interconnected areas of current human exploration.

 

The writings and reflections will nurture the readers’ contemplative stance and companion them in personal reflection.Seasonal Essays are the main content of the book and are accompanied photographs taken by Trevor himself.In his reflections, Trevor draws heavily on the works

Christian Brothers & Technical Education

This well researched book briefly traces the origin of technical education from Europe to Australia,  and then focusses attention on the involvement of the Christian Brothers in Technical Education. It was launched on 2nd May 2021 at Treacy Centre, Parkville.  The publication is just over 100 pages in length and includes references to most if not all former technical schools in Oceania.

 

This effort to enable young men to be trained in the basic skills of working with wood and metal, and other materials, as well as an understanding of the machinery used for that work, was aimed at leading them into a trade to provide life-long employment in essential manufacturing industries.  Sadly this enterprise was not as highly valued in recent times, and the decline of the schools has led to a dire shortage of these essential trades.  

 

A limited number of copies are still available by contacting Brother Wilding at wjwilding@edmundrice.org.

 

This publication contains brief biographies of the following Christian Brothers who worked in Australia:

Patrick Ambrose Treacy

John Joseph Barrett

Edmund Michael (Dominic) Joyce

Patrick (Gildas) O’Neill

David Gabriel Purton

Edmund Rice and the First Christian Brothers

By Daire Keogh

In 1944, W.T. Cosgrave described the Christian Brothers as “Ireland’s gift to civilization”. More recently, a former government minister called them “a shower of savage bastards”. This history aims to get beyond these stereotypical representations of Edmund Rice and the first generation Christian Brothers, to see them as they saw themselves and were understood by their contemporaries. It goes beyond hagiography, and interprets the Brothers within context, against the background of Catholic Emancipation, the modernization of Irish society and the fashioning of the Church according to the norms of the Council of Trent.

Available from Coventry Press - https://coventrypress.com.au/not-forgotten-australian-catholic-educators $34.95

Not Forgotten – Australian Catholic Educators  1820 - 2020

While essentially a sample of biographies drawn across the two hundred years since the establishment of the first continuously operating Catholic school in Parramatta, Not Forgotten is also a history and a tribute.  A history that details growth, struggle, threat, success and, occasionally, tragedy.  The book also records education's local connection to parishes, the sense of Catholic identity that was formed and reinforced by sacrifice and a sense of deep and lasting belonging.

It is also a story of change, in Church and State.  Periods of exclusive leadership from priests, bishops and religious congregations gave way to the emergence of lay people at all levels of Catholic education.  Not In celebrating their lives, today's teachers, clergy, administrators, parents and students are called on to emulate their courage and commitment in shaping Catholic education now and into the future.

 
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The Treacy Story

This 45 page booklet is an ideal resource for schools, Boards, or groups interested in learning about the Patrick Ambrose Treacy Story.  It is divided into topics related to Treacy’s life accompanied by appropriate reflective questions, guided sharing, and closing prayer.   Available from Treacy Centre.

Give to the poor in handfuls

FB Garvan cfc

Tells the story of the life and times of Edmund Rice and the genesis of the Christian Brothers anf the Presentation Brothers

Edmund Rice Windows Computer Games

Br Lino Robazza

Available from Coventry Press $39.95

enquiries@coventrypress.com.au

 The Gospel of John teaches us that people of faith listen to God speaking to them. But how God speaks to us and how we identify that message for ourselves – individually and as the people of God – is also a basic consideration of Hearing God Speak. 

Originally written as individual chapters over a two year period, the series of reflections encourages us to strengthen our personal relationship with God, assuring us that each of us will experience that relationship in ways that reflect our own needs and expectations in life. 

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