FEATURES OF LAY MARIST LIFE

Features of lay Marist life
Brothers, when sharing the work with the children,
young people, teachers, parents and community.
When celebrating the Sacrament as the centre
of our Christian life. When we overcame the difficulties
and problems charac-teristic of any work
team. While we prayed the life illuminated by the
Word of God. When looking for and asking one
another: What does God want of us today? When
we went to Mary in trust every time we began a
new mission to commend it to her, to her protection.
When making an effort to live in a simple
and coherent way. When loving, more every day,
Jesus Christ, putting him at the centre of our life
and of our family. When leaving our house in S.
to go to C. to work with the Brothers, looking to
see that the education that we offer to our children
and young people is filled with love and is
of the best possible quality. When we visited the
families or shared with the children the student
dining room “Good Mother.” In the catechesis, in
the infant and youth groups, in the experiences
of solidarity, in the retreats and shared groups, in
the shared meeting that we had with the students
and teachers. (Bolivia)
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We discern the
Marist Life Option
Extended Bureau of the Laity
With time my personal identification with
the charism has grown and become more
personal; I have not depended so much on the
group I found myself in, but on my personal
choice to follow Christ in the style that the brothers
practiced and that Marcellin had set on the
way. (Spain)
Given that spirituality is about everything we
do, it is reasonable to suggest that at particular
times we are more aware of our spirituality
than at other times. One such experience occurred
during our time at the Hermitage when we
spent the day visiting sites of Marist significance
with Br Gabriel Michelle, an 83 year old Marist.
We stopped at Le Basset, the hamlet of Montagne.
This was the place where Champagnat had
met the boy who was dying in complete ignorance
of God. It proved to be a moment of grace for
Marcellin in strengthening his resolve to found
a congregation of teaching Brothers who would
be able to teach children both a knowledge and
understanding of God.
Bro Gabriel’s prayer alongside the farmhouse on
that cold afternoon in April was as follows, “We
thank you, Mary, for giving Champagnat a sign
through a young man, a boy, at this place, of your
vocation for him. Help us to read the signs in our
lives in order to be true to the vocation given to
each of us. Hail Mary full of grace… “
As we walked back to the bus I pondered on my
own vocation, my love of Champagnat and the
influences that had brought me to this moment
in time on my own journey. (Australia)
Lay Marist? What would I have been able to understand
if, when I started to study in a Marist
school at the age of thirteen, someone had asked
me this question? Surely, I would not have been
able to respond to it. Neither did I realize that
at that moment I was being made to enter one
of the first pieces to form the puzzle that today
constitutes my adult life. Today my dream is to
continue to complete this puzzle of love and of
life piece by piece, to make it grow and to unite
it to many other puzzles of dreams and of hope.
(Spain)