The Only Way to do Good

The Work of Mary – support for the Church and compassion for the world, loyalty to the mission of the Church and involvement in this world – when done in the spirit of Mary, will have a particular fruit and a characteristic feature.

Worthwhile task

The first Marists were young and inexperienced when they started. They lacked information, finance, or contacts in high places. Colin was always stressing the importance of the innter, spiritual life, but he also said, “We did not build the Society on our knees.” Champagnat recalling the grinding labour of the early days, declared, “We built […]

Mayet Memoirs

His modest simplicity has never stopped him from believing that the Society of Mary was called to do great things in the Church of God. Mary, he said, protected the Church in her cradle; she will protect her in a very special way at the end of time.

Instruments of Divine Mercy

To do “the work of Mary” is not to do something directed towards her, but in a sense, to do something directed by her. It is to enter into her work.

Useful Instruments

If the arena for Marists is the world as it is, how will they be able to become “useful instruments” of the mercy of God to an era which Colin described as an age of “indifference, unbelief, pride and madness” to a period of history where “faith is disappearing”, to a world whose “inhabitants are […]

The Great “No’s”

Society of Mary historian Jean Coste uses the phrase “the great NO’s” to refer to the stand Marists are to make against greed, pride and power: and he seems in this attitude one of the essential elements of the Marist way.

“Flesh To The Word”

One of the fruits of a life whose centre of gravity is God and the real needs of others will be that the Gospel will ”take flesh” in the lives of people.

“In this World”

While the work of Mary is something clear and simple, it can never be defined in fixed activities, because how the work of Mary is to be done will depend on the changing times, cultures and needs of the world. Two of Colin’s early realisations will help us here.