Well, here I am in Australia. AirMaria has landed. Notice Fra Cyprian’s (sort of) smiling face (far left). He is the first to be delivered a “friar in the box” across the Pacific, and he will be our first overseas producer.
The “friar in the box” is a complete mobile kit for producing video entries on AirMaria. It is an engineering wonder. Effective, light, mobile and quick to set up. Five pounds overweight, I might add, for domestic flights, as I found out. AirMaria Central is working on that.
For the past few years I have spent some weeks with our friars in Perth on the West Coast of Australia. This year I am here on a visitation in preparation for our General Chapter coming up at Pentecost.
We have two friaries in Australia, one in Perth itself, Munster properly, pictured above, and one about an hour and a half North of Perth in a little town called Toodyay. I am staying right now in Munster. In the picture, from left to right, that’s Fra Cyprian, Father John Joseph, myself, and Father Andre. Here is the Australian friars website.
It is said that Perth is the most isolated city in the world. With over two million people it is a large city, but drive outside of the suburbs and you are in the bush and the bush goes on for hundreds of miles before you find another town.
In Munster, the brothers organize what we call a Marian Family Cenacle and our MIM. They also do a weekly radio show called Gate of Heaven. I will be on the air tonight. (Live Stream here 7:30 PM Perth; 5:30 AM EST; archived afterward here, click on the link 20:00.) More on the Cenacle in a later post. Hopefully, I will get you some video of that.
In Toodyay, the friars are restoring an old school, transforming it, actually, into a retreat house. They are also involved in the Family Cenacles. It is in Toodyay that there is a burgeoning interest in the Knights of Lepanto.
I will be there later in the week and giving a men’s retreat from Friday, November 23 to Sunday, November 25. We’ll try to get some video of that as well. I am sure Fra Cyprian will be looking up Apostolate for some technical help. More to come. Ave Maria!
