Marist Meditations for Lent

Lent can be a time for spiritual rebirth.  This spiritual awakening can also be a time for us to see life in a new way, prompting us to act now in a new way.  These meditations can serve as a chart for a spiritual journey of sorts sparking us to contemplate life perhaps in new ways and thus pointing toward new ways of living like Marists and as Christians.

Ash Wednesday, February 17

Ps: 51 “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”

Because they bear the name of Mary, Marists desire to be like her and follow Jesus as she did.  Contemplating Mary in the mysteries of Nazareth and Pentecost and her role at the end of time, they come to share her enthusiasm for her Son’s mission in his struggle against evil, and to respond with promptness to the most urgent needs of God’s people.

As Marists, they desire to breathe her spirit, to be humble and obedient, and to deny themselves for the love of God and their neighbor.

Attentive solely to the Lord, and aided by the prayer and example of Mary, they strive to become, in their Founder’s words, ever more effective ‘instruments of divine mercy’ (SM Const. #8, #9, #11)

Thursday after Ash Wednesday, February 18

Ps: 1 “Happy are they who hope in the Lord.”

Let us be good and courteous to all, but let us not rely on men.  Let us place all our confidence in God and the Blessed Virgin.  After all, it is our own work that we are doing?

What is essential, what will leave us with the best dispositions , it is to remain closely united to God, with a great mistrust of ourselves and a feeling of unlimited trust in Him.

Friday after Ash Wednesday, February 19

Ps: 51 “A broken, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn”.

A conversion of our hearts and minds will make it possible for us to enter into closer communion with our Lord.  We nourish that communion by personal and communal prayer, for it is in prayer that we encounter Jesus who is out peace and learn from him the way to peace.

The Lord’s promise is that he is in our midst when we gather in prayer.  Strengthened by this conviction, we ask the risen Christ to fill the world with his peace.  We call upon Mary, the first disciple and the Queen of Peace, to intercede for us and for the people of our time that we may walk in the way of peace.

Saturday and Sunday following Ash Wednesday, Feb 20 and 21 

Ps: 86 “Teach me you way, O Lord, that I may be faithful in your sight.”

The basic challenge of Marists today is to enable the laity to play their full part in the Church’s life and mission and to recognize their gifts.  The laity constitute the Church together with religious and priests as servants and stewards of the mysteries of the Kingdom.

Such a church will demand a different form of leadership, one based not so much on hierarchy as on the ability to create an atmosphere in which people can recognize their gifts and have the courage to offer them for the task of the Kingdom.  A leadership which desires to let go of its power to the group after it has helped it to develop its effectiveness.

Each Marist community, whatever its apostolate, must find time to reflect together on this vision and hope.  It must set itself to the task consciously, and through a systematic corporate reflection develop a plan to turn the vision into a reality.  We must not give up hope even in the face of failure.  This is not a task for a day, but a quiet revolution which may take many years.

Monday following First Sunday of Lent, February 22

Ps: 23  The Lord is my Shepard; there is nothing I shall want.

Then Fr. Colin (Founder of the Society of Mary, the Marists) remarked that despite their unity, even among the apostles there were little troubles:  some wanted to be seated on the right hand, and may well have prompted their mother to make such a request; others were presumptuous like St. Peter.  “All the same, “he added, St. Peter is a fine and noble character:  there were no political views in him, no second thoughts, no turning back.

He was of an upright spirit. For that our Lord rewarded him well, and if he allowed him to fall, it was because he was to exalt him above the others, and he wanted to lay a firm foundation for his exaltation: that of his own lowliness.”

Tuesday following First Sunday of Lent, February 23

Ps: 34 “From all their afflictions God will deliver the just.”

Fr. Colin the Founder of the Marists, said “Come, Gentlemen, my sons, (he corrected himself, saying: Gentlemen, my brothers) let us take courage.  Look, sometimes you will find yourselves at loggerheads with one another.  Ah, good Lord, are any of us perfect, myself least of all?  You will have to put up with the failings of others, and they will have to put up with yours.

Well, so much the better!  That is the way to heaven.  Let us thank God.  Yes I would even say that we should thank God for having sown our path with contradictions.  That will teach us any store by creatures, to look to God alone, to act for God alone.

Wednesday following First Sunday of Lent, February 24

Ps: 51 A Broken, humbled heart, O God, You will not scorn.

In their life and apostolate Marists will often be aware of their own limitations and the resistance of those to whom they minister. The temptation is to blame themselves and others. Anxiety, bitterness and cynicism are ever-present snares capable of reducing the Society (of Mary) to powerlessness. Humility frees them from such crippling attitudes; it gives them courage to rely on God rather than themselves alone, to seek not their own interests but those of Christ and Mary.

In this way, liberated from undue self-concern, they will be useful to others and do great things for God, and so the Society will achieve its goals. They leave it to the Lord to say the healing word that brings inner peace and the freedom to serve their neighbor.

Thursday following the First Sunday of Lent, February 25

Ps: 138, Lord, on the day I called for help, You answered me.

In a tone, half serious, half-joking, Fr. Colin, the founder of the Marists called for silence. “Gentlemen, I am going to publish a decree, consisting of three articles. Article One : We can do nothing of ourselves. Article Two: We can do anything by prayer, because God has promised everything to prayer. ”He has no need of our prayers. We do not make him any the richer by praying to him. But as St. Francis de Sales said, the gifts of God are worth asking for. God can do all things through us. Article Three: Everyone will spend an hour each week in adoration.”

Friday following the First Sunday of Lent, February 26

Ps: 130 If you O Lord, laid bare our guilt who could endure it?

Prayer by itself is incomplete without penance. Penance directs us toward our goal of putting on the attitude of Jesus himself. Because we are all capable of violence, we are never totally conformed to Christ and are always in need of conversion. The twenty – first century provides adequate evidence of out violence as individuals and as a nation.

The present nuclear arms race has distracted us from the works of the prophets, has turned us from peace making, and has focused our attention on a nuclear buildup leading to annihilation. We are called to turn back from this evil of total destruction and turn instead to prayer and penance toward God, toward our neighbor and toward the building of a peaceful world.

Saturday following the First Sunday of Lent and the

Second Sunday of Lent, February 27 & 28

Ps: 119: Happy are they who follow the law of the Lord

The first sign of hope is that Marists of all ages seem once again eager for a shared vision and a unified mission. Many Marists, going back to the sources and tasting the excitement of the men of Fourviere, want to now to take up the challenge of Colin that we must all be founders. They want to imagine the Society of Mary in new metaphors recently recovered from our history. They want once again to create a Society which, in the words of Colin, is an “Instrument of divine mercy” for the church and the world.

The new Constitutions (of the Society) present the Society as a dynamic apostolic body: Their call is to be truly missionary,” They will renew the Church in the image of Mary, a servant and pilgrim church>” The Society of Mary is most true to is vocation when it experiences itself primarily as a body of pioneers, when it finds itself at the cutting edge of the work of the Church.

Monday following the Second Sunday of Lent, March 1

Ps: 79 Lord, do not deal with us as our sins deserve

One day (around February 1845), Father General began to speak a great deal of the goodness of God toward sinners. He told us that the Revelations of St. Brigid had been very useful to him in forming a true idea of the mercy of God. She had seem souls who, when accused before the judgment seat of the Lord by the devil, had merely replied, “It is true that I committed that sin, but I confessed it.”

Yes, he said, "someone who makes his confession with sincerity is not far from conversion.  For myself, I am a Roman, and in the confessional I follow the same approach as they, the Romans, do.  I am very fond of those principles:  All for souls and Salvation before law.

Tuesday following the Second Sunday of Lent, March 2

Ps: 50 To the Upright I will show the Saving power of God

I am writing to all our confreres in Oceania.  I tell them that they will not bear fruit except insofar as they march like the apostles to the conquest of souls.  The apostles had left all things, they relied on nothing human, but on the grace and strength of their good master.  Yes, and with that as their only help, they changed the world.  Let us remind ourselves that we who remain in France are of the same family:  we must, then the same spirit.

Only saints, then, can do good - saints, that is to say missionaries who will lead a life of sacrifice, of death.  But we must die completely.  If you only half die, you will achieve nothing and be tossed about, dragged this way and that, without securing any fruit.  You must, then be dear - not to learning, but to yourselves.

Do not emerge from this cenacle except as men dead to themselves, living the life of Jesus Christ, the life of the apostles, a life of renunciation and of the cross.

Wednesday following the Second Sunday of Lent, March 3

Ps: 31: Save me, O Lord, in your steadfast love.

Following the Lord's command to love his neighbor as himself, the Marist manifests to others that same compassionate love with which he himself is loved by God.  In loving all those who God has given him - his confreres, his family and friends and those to whom he is sent to to proclaim the Gospel - his chief concern must be their good.  A life so lived will bring the joy which comes from an intimate relationship with God and from loving one's brothers and sisters.

Thursday following the Second Sunday of Lent, March 4

Ps: 40 Happy are they who hope in the Lord

A young man who used to come to confession to Fr. Colin and who was no longer a child, was constantly falling back into bad habits which he could not shake off, despite all Fr. Colin's efforts.  "Ah, my son," Fr. Colin said to him one day, "that will not do"  "Father, I can see that," said the young man.  "Do you think there may still be hope?"

"My son, what are you saying?  Of course, there is still hope.  If you want to, you will shake off your habit.  God has great plans for you"  Surprised, the young man asked, "Could that be true?"  To this question, which was, as it were, a first cry of hope, Fr. Colin replied with all the kindness and encouragement of a good father, adding in a tone of conviction:  Yes, I tell you , and you must remember it - God will do great things through you."  The young man seemed to emerge as from a deep sleep and said to him, Well then, I do wish it."  From that moment no one recognized him any more; he changed completely.

Friday following the Second Sunday of Lent, March 5

Ps: 105 Remember the marvels the Lord has done

The human person is the clearest reflection of God's presence in the world; all of the Church's work in pursuit of both justice and peace is designed to protect and promote the dignity of every person.  For each person not only reflects God, but is the expression of God's creative work and the meaning of Christ's redemptive ministry.

Because peace, like the Kingdom of God itself, is both a divine gift and a human work, the Church should continually pray for the gift and share in the work.  We are called to be a Church at the service of peace, precisely because peace to be a Church at the service of peace, precisely because peace is one manifestation of God's word and work in our midst.

The final age, the Messianic time, is described as one in which the "Spirit is poured on us from on high."  In this age, creation will be made whole, "justice will dwell in the wilderness,"  the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the people will abide in a peaceful habitation and in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places (Is 32:15-20)

Saturday following the Second Sunday of Lent, March 6

Sunday, The Third Sunday of Lent, March 7

Ps: 103  The Lord is kind and merciful

We must continue to foster throughout the Society of Mary the sense of our mission as a Society.  We are not destined to be a group of brothers and priests simply doing good works and living under a broad and easy rule.  The call of Fr. Colin is to an adventure.  It is not to launch a special devotion to Mary, nor even so much to imitate her and present her as a model of sanctity. 

It is to enter into her work, a work designated for her by divine providence in these "last" times, the work of gathering in mercy and compassion all the people of God into a Church which is not triumphal and legalistic but attentive to the fears, doubts and allergies of women and men of our time.  We are to be extensions of Mary in her work of renewing the Church into a kingdom of mercy. 

Monday following the Third Sunday of Lent, March 8

Ps 42-43  My Soul is thirsting for the living God; when shall I see him face to face? 

To pray well, you must first of all make a firm and generous resolution to belong completely to God, to set yourself aside.  Then you must turn to the good Lord with abandonment and with the simplicity of a child.  You must not get worked up, because then you will achieve nothing.  You will only get tired and will not be able to keep it up.

If you have distractions and your imagination is at work, you should not pay attention to them.  Just carry on, stay in the presence of God and say to him, "Lord, you have make all things and you see all things.  You see what I am like, how I am nothing at all.." and so on, but always with the same self-abandonment.  You have also to taste God - yes, taste God and that is to feel your heart wounded.

Tuesday following the Third Sunday of Lent, March 9

Ps: 25  Remember your mercies, O Lord

His Excellency, the Bishop of Belley has been of great help to me for theology, cases of conscience, ways of dealing with things in the confessional.  My way of doing things is very close to his.  They even say I am more broad minded that he is.  In the Society of Mary we shall profess all those opinions which give greatest play to the mercy of God, on account of the great weakness of poor human nature, without however falling into laxist theology.

Wednesday following the Third Sunday of Lent, March 10

Ps: 147 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

On July 23, 1816, at the shrine of Our Lady of Fourviere, Lyons (France), twelve priests and seminarians pledged themselves to found a congregation bearing the name of Mary.  Those who worked for the next twenty years to carry out this promise were convinced that they were responding to a wish of the Mother of Mercy, which found expression for them in the following words: I supported the Church at its birth; I shall do so again at the end of time."

Jean-Claude Colin and his companions were challenged by these works to make their own the concern of Mary for the Church of their time, which was threatened by new dangers.  The new congregation would be made up of several branches so as to reach all classes of people.  It would be at once universal and diocesan, prepared to go wherever it was needed, but closely identified with the local Church.  It would learn from Mary's presence among the apostles how to be present in the Church in such a way that the more hidden it was the more effective it would be.  Finally, it would gather all believers under Mary's name into a Third Order open to all.  And so, there would be seen in the Church at the end of time what was seen at the beginning a community of believers with one mind and one heart.

Thursday following the Third Sunday of Lent, March 11

Ps: 95  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

We must see to it that religious life above all is preserved among us.  And after that...holy freedom.  No one turns to God by constraint.  A family spirit, no pretension, great openness of heart.  I will guarantee the salvation of the one who opens his heart.  Nothing must be concealed, but told simply: "I failed in such and such a thing."  So not imitate our first parents, Adam and Eve.  He put the blame on his wife, and she on the serpent, instead of turning to the goodness of God and asking his pardon.  The humble man...tells all, and then goes.

Come dear brothers, let us love one another, let us support one another, let us embrace one another in hold charity.

Friday following the Third Sunday of Lent, March 12

Ps: 81  I am the Lord, Your God: Hear my voice

If Israel obeyed God's laws, God would dwell among them.  "I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people" (Lv. 26:12)  The right relationship between the people and God was grounded in and expressed in a covenantal union.  The covenant bound the people to God in fidelity and obedience: God was also committed in the covenant, to be present with the people, to save them, to lead them to freedom.  Peace is a special characteristic of this covenant; when the prophet Ezekiel looked to the establishment of the new, truer covenant, he declared that God would establish an everlasting covenant of peace with the people (Ez 37:26).

As Christians we believe that Jesus is the messiah or Christ so long awaited.  God's servant (Mt 12:18-21), prophet and more than prophet (Jn. 4: 19-26), the one in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, through whom all things in heaven and on earth were reconciled to God, Jesus made peace by the blood of the cross (Col 1: 19-20).

Weekend of the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 13 and 14

Ps: 51  It is steadfast love, not sacrifice, that God desires.

But along with being loyal to the charism of the founder, evangelization demands that we read the sings of the times in order to be in touch with the real needs of the world.  It must listen for what the Lord is already doing in the world in terms of true liberation and must creatively further His work.  It must discover ways of bringing the gospel to the roots of life and to the heart of culture, a task which presupposes personal conversion to the gospel and a profound assimilation of the culture.

Inspired by the gospel and a profound which it preaches, evangelization will give special attention to the marginal and oppressed.  In our day evangelizers will cater especially to those suffering economic and social injustice, to people of developing nations, to the victims of prejudice, to minorities in all parts of the world.

Monday following the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 15

Ps:  30  I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Times are bad, but Mary who consoled, protected and saved the new-born Church will save it in the last days.  I am not saying that Judgment Day is almost upon us - but still, it will be soon  enough when it does come.  When you have meditated on these words:  Do you think that when the Son of Man comes, he will find any faith left on earth?"  you cannot be afraid, for there is so little of it to be seen these days.  Mary will make use of us her sons.  Let  us make ourselves worthy of that trust.  Through us, she will struggle with the devil and the world, and through us she will overcome, if by the purity of our lives, and our innocence of heart, we become worthy of her favor and graces.

Tuesday following the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 16

Ps: 46  The mighty Lord is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge

What is a tool by itself?  Let us place ourselves in the hands of God like the tool in the hands of a workman.  As long as you rely on yourself, you can expect nothing.  But in addition, you will have a great feeling of confidence.  You must say to God, "Lord, you can do great things through me.  You made the world out of nothing, and from a persecutor you made a great apostle.  With me you have everything to gain, for whatever you do through my ministry, no one will ever say that it was I who did it."  Come, let us take courage! Consider yourselves like the apostles, gathered together with the blessed Virgin in the cenacle.  Make good use of this time (Fr. Colin was speaking to novices)  Warm yourselves at the fire of God's love.  Have courage!

Wednesday following the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 17

Ps:  145  The Lord is kind and merciful

To choose Mary's name is to enter into a special relationship with her, which teaches Marists to relate to their neighbor in such a way that through them Mary can be present to the Church of today as she was to the Church at its birth.  Mary did not press her privileged position as the mother of Jesus, but was ready to be first and foremost his disciple, one who "hears the word of God and keeps it." (Luke 8:21).

Their call is truly missionary:  they are to go from place to place, announcing the word of God, reconciling, catechizing, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, and doing the works of mercy.  They attend especially to the most neglected, the poor, and those who suffer injustice.  They are ready to carry out those tasks anywhere and at any time.

Thursday following the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 18

Ps: 106  Lord, remember us, for the love you bear your people

Alas, Gentlemen, as I look at this little new-born Society of ours,  I cannot help recalling our divine Master in the midst of his disciples, giving them his fatherly instructions before his Ascension.  We see the Good Shepard with his sons.  Then he ascends into heaven.  But he had previously told them: As the Father has sent me, so do I send you. (Jn 20:21)  What a mission that was!  It involved changing the face of the earth, going everywhere on earth.  The apostles did not argue; they divided the world among themselves and went their separate ways.  You know the rest.

Friday following the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 19,

Feast of St. Joseph

Ps:  34  The Lord is near to broken hearts

Because we have been gifted with God's peace in the risen Christ, we are called to our own peace and to the making of peace in our world.  As disciples and as children of God, it is our task to seek for ways in which to make the forgiveness, justice and mercy, and love of God visible in a world where violence and enmity are too often the norm.  When we listen to God's word, we hear again and always the call to repentance and to belief:  to repentance, because although we are redeemed we continue to need redemption: to belief, because although the reign of God is near, it is still seeking its fullness.

All the values we are promoting in this letter rest ultimately in the disarmament of the human heart and in the conversion of the human spirit to God who alone can give authentic peace.  Indeed, to have peace in our world, we must first have peace within ourselves.

Saturday and the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 20 and 21

Ps: 89 The son of David will live forever

The Society of Mary has a family spirit and functions as a family.  Each Marist carries this conviction in his heart and in his experience.  It is more than a principle of conduct.  It takes us back to a source so dear to the Founder, the "one mind and one heart" of the first Christian community, whose inner and exterior dynamism we must imitate.  It recalls also the image of the body with different members which St. Paul applies to the Christian community, and the more contemporary expression of the Church as "communion", an image which bears deep significance for our Society.

Monday following the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 22

Ps: 23  Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me

(To the General Chapter of 1842, two weeks after announcing the martyrdom of Peter Chanel):  Let us go, we who are so weak, to the divine heart of Jesus.  The more aware we are of our weakness, the closer we are to God and God to us.  If, on the other hand, we think ourselves to be something, everything will go badly.  It is from this feeling of confidence, of humility, and of abnegation that all our strength derives.  That was the attitude of Fr. Chanel, of whose martyrdom we have just heard.  Look at the apostles: they sold everything.  Jesus Christ called them to follow him only to use them in hard work.  They did not hesitate.

Tuesday following the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 23

Ps: 102  O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

To his fellow Marists, Fr. Colin said you must not think that I mean to reproach you if I tell you so often to pray.  Personally, from the very beginning I formed the habit of praying for everything, and I say that it is the best way, that we must do that always and in everything.  At the start of our enterprise, things were very hazy.  The whole of creation was against us, we lacked everything.  We had to rely on God alone; there was nothing but him.  On the other hand, I felt impelled to this work, not by the ardor of youth, such as you often see, but by an impulse that I felt from above.  It was that which gave me the habit of praying always and for everything.

Wednesday following the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 24

Dn: 3:52 Glory and Praise for ever

Marist seek inspiration in the traditional phrase, "hidden and unknown in the world"

Fired with apostolic zeal for the Kingdom of God, they follow the Lord in emptying themselves of all self-seeking so that nothing will prevent the word of God from being heard.  It was by coming into the world in obscurity and poverty that Jesus drew women and men to His Father. 

The spirit of "hidden and unknown" leads Marists to embrace a life of simplicity, modesty and humility.  Nothing is their personal life or behavior, neither pride nor personal ambition, must cause people to resist salvation offered them by God.  Like Mary they are to be gentle with others, respectful of their freedom, and sensitive to their point of view.  In this spirit they are able to hear the longings of the people of God and discern the signs of hope present in today's world.

Thursday following the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 25

Ps: 105  The Lord remembers His covenant forever

We worry and fret, and we have good reason to worry if we do not seek God.  Indeed, who can guarantee that we would succeed in the tasks assigned to us?  Is there anything in ourselves which can give us to hope for ourselves?  But if we say to ourselves, "I am only a staff in God's hand," then we will have confidence, and with this faith may we not say, "I can do all things in him who strengthens me (Phil 4:13)  Courage, take courage!  But true courage can be rooted only in God.

Friday following the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 26

The Annunciation of the Lord

Ps: 40 Here I am Lord; I come to do your will

Let us have the courage to believe in the bright future and in a God who wills it for us - not a perfect world, but a better one.  The perfect world, we Christians believe, is beyond the horizon, in an endless eternity where God will be all in all.  But a better world is here for human hands and hearts and minds to make.

Respecting our freedom, (God) does not solve our problems but sustains us as we take responsibility for his work of creation and try to shape it in the ways of the kingdom.  We believe his grace will never fail us.  We offer this letter to the Church and to all who can draw strength and wisdom from it in the conviction that we must not fail him.

Saturday following the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 27

Palm Sunday, March 28

Jer: 31  The Lord will guard us, life a shepherd guarding his flock.

We recall the insights, dedication and faith-filled courage of the first Marist companions.  Recognizing our Marist vocation as a "gracious choice" and cherishing our tradition and heritage, we can say with Peter on the mountain of the Transfiguration: Lord, it is good for us to be here."

We live in a time of cultural transition and turmoil.  It is a time which tests our faith but more especially our capacity to hope.  If we turn to the first Marists in memory, it is not to copy the customs and attitudes of their times, but to breathe of their spirit and share in their sense of hope.

Monday of Holy Week, March 29

Ps: 27  The Lord is my light and my salvation

Let us work toward a true piety, solid and firm.  Our vocation is not the contemplative life.  There may perhaps be some among us whom God will call to that, but it is not the general vocation of the Society.  The work we do is the most acceptable to God.  What is more wonderful that to save should after the example of Jesus Christ, who first left the bosom of his Father to come and redeem us?  Let us fix our gaze on his divine model.  What means did he take?  He knew well how to adapt himself to the needs of human nature, and to take the means necessary to restore it to health. For he did not become rich, nor did he choose fame and glory.  Let us take this divine Savior of ours for our model.

Tuesday of Holy Week, March 30

Ps: 71  I will sing of your salvation

Poverty, my friends, is not a virtue that is well known.  It is a divine virtue that people do not care to taste.  It must be a very fine virtue since the Son of God embraced it in so complete a manner that he did not even choose to have a place belonging to him or his parents to be born in.  During his life tradition tells us that he had only one tunic which grew with him.

He deigned to work that miracle for poverty's sake.  And when he died, what did he have on the cross?  He was stripped of everything; the cross itself did not belong to him.  Only one thing was left him, his mother.  She was there.  Nature repelled her from Calvary, for it is not natural that a mother be present at the agony of her son.  Quite the contrary.  But while nature repelled her, love impelled her.  And so she was there.  She was the only possession left to him.  Yet, he stripped himself even of that:  Son , behold your mother."

Wednesday of Holy Week, March 31

Ps: 69  Lord in your great love, answer me

The Society (of Mary), like the Church, finds its model in Mary the woman of faith.  Its spirituality is simple and modest in its expression, close to the lives of ordinary people, apostolic in character, and marked by spontaneity and joy.  It tries to make its own the Christian experience lived by Mary.  By his profession every Marist commits himself anew to the conversion begun at baptism, a daily dying and rising with Christ.

He is not alone.  By his Marist vocation he has the responsibility to see that his actions taken individually and with his brothers help form a communion for mission.  Thus, to enter truly into the mission of the Society, every Marist has a two-fold responsibility:  to develop his spiritual life and to build us community.

Holy Thursday, April 1

Ps: 116  Our blessing cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ (I Cor 10:16)

"When someone humbles himself, he does himself honor.  Since the time that Our Lord knelt at the feet of the apostles and St. Peter said to him 'Wash me, Lord, not only my feet, but also my head,' there is no more humiliation in it for anyone.  The world revolts and is indignant at it because it does not understand the things of faith.  But what does the world matter to us?  Come, Gentlemen (fellow Marists) for my consolation, allow me..."

Saying this, he threw himself on his knees.  We were all seated.  Someone made as if to kneel down, but he said do not move."  The he said, "I ask your forgiveness for the scandals and the occasions of distress that I have given you."  Then dragging himself on his knees to each one of us, he kissed our feet.

Good Friday, April 2

Ps:  31 Father, I put my life in your hands, (Luke 23: 46)

Jesus Christ, then, is our peace, and in his death-resurrection he gives God's peace to our world.  In him God has indeed reconciled the world, made it one, and has manifested definitively that his will is this reconciliation, this unity between God and all peoples, and among the peoples themselves.  The way to union has been opened, the covenant of peace established.

Why do we address these matters fraught with such complexity, controversy and passion?   We speak as pastors, not politicians.  We are teachers, not technicians.  We cannot avoid our responsibility to life up the moral dimensions of the choices before our world and nation.  The nuclear age is an era of moral as well as physical danger.  Why do we address these issues?  We are simply trying to live up to the call of Jesus to be peacemakers in our own time and situation.

Holy Saturday, April 3

Ps: 104 Lord, send out your spirit, and renew the face of the earth

The delegates (at the General Chapter in 1985) moved beyond a national or provincial perspective to a sense that despite differences of opinion we were brothers together from every corner of the globe.  They wished that each Marist could share their experience.  They longed for the day when provinces and communities would collaborate together in days of celebration, in formation and in the apostolate.  They know that international cooperation in the Society would make more plausible the famous call of Fr. Colin for "the whole world to be Marist."

Easter Sunday, April 4  

Ps: 118 Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

The first Marists were convinced that the work of Mary was of her own initiative.  Hers were the words of the revelation of Le Puy which gave birth to the Marist movement:  I was the support of the Church at its birth,  I shall be so again at the end of time."

Now when a new epoch is dawning, when a new style of Church is being born, and the Society of Mary strives to deepen its way of renewal, let us rekindle the conviction of the first Marists that the Society is a work of God, desired by God through Mary.  The signs of hope which today are present in the Society strengthen our confidence and overcome possible weariness and discouragement.

It is not confidence in ourselves which gives us strength, but the will of God and Mary which from the beginning have sustained the humble and generous efforts of thousands of persons who have aspired to live like Mary and breathe her spirit in the service of the gospel.  To Mary, "sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim people of God" (Lumen Gentium, 68)  we commend our journey of this day and of tomorrow.

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