Marist Sisters

Community Living

As religious women, Marists take simple vows and commit themselves to live in community. The secret of living in a unity that goes beyond differences of age, personality, culture, nationality has to be learned. It is built up day by day through the efforts of each Sister to create an atmosphere of mutual trust, forgiveness and support. Any wonder then that community life is one of the main sources from which Marists draw strength to proclaim Christ and the Gospel values by which they live.

 

Prayer

Prayer is the sap which feeds the tree and makes it bear fruit. ( J.C. Colin – Founder )

Service

The fruit of our community living and our prayer flows into joyful service in our ministries.  Marists are called to be contemplatives in action, sharing our time, our talents, and our spiritual riches with others.  We endeavour to work with people in the manner of Mary, being sensitive to their needs, especially the poor and underprivileged.

 

Marist Spirituality

The spirituality of a religious congregation is linked with its foundational story.  Marist spirituality has been defined as a certain way of living the life of the spirit given to us in Baptism. The Marist way of living out one’s baptism can only be learned from Mary herself.  Even though she was the mother of Christ, she never claimed any honours for herself.  After the Ascension of Jesus she was simply one of the believers in the group of disciples who kept alive the message he had given them.  Marists do not promote any Mariam devotion.  Instead of focusing attention on Mary, the Marist tries to identify with her, learning from her to relate to people in an unobtrusive way.  Marists strive to cultivate their devotion to Mary by reflecting her attitudes in their community living, and in their dealings with others.  A key theme in Marist spirituality is “hidden and unknown”.  It suggests a way of carrying out one’s pastoral work and ministry.  It avoids the pitfall of drawing attention to oneself.  On the contrary, Marists strive to be so sensitive to the needs of others that their personal goals don’t matter, as long as God and his people are served, after the manner of Mary, the perfect disciple.

We have already defined spirituality as a particular way of responding to and living the Gospel.  Now there is a striking  similarity between the secularized world of today and the post – revolution era in France, when the Society of Mary ( Marists ) came into being.  Awareness of our Marist origins can give us some of the same urgency for the coming of the kingdom today as that which brought the Society of Mary into existence.  The early Marists were inspired to see that the example of Mary’s unobtrusive presence among the apostles and early disciples could be a blue print for their lives and mission in the Church.  Marists today continue to believe that the spirit, which they have inherited, can enable them to provide some of the answers to the crisis of faith in today’s world. This belief is strengthened by exhortations of certain popes who give full credence to a marian vision of church, a church which manifests the “female dimension” of God.   Pope Paul VI exhorted the Church to strip itself of all that smacks of superiority and domination, and become instead a servant church.

Mary, handmaid of the Lord, is truly an image of a church that is called to serve.  Around the name of Mary, ie, quite simply the person of Mary, the grace of Marist vocation and the implications for life and ministry were emphasized by the Founders.  It seems clear then that the distinctive character of Marist spirituality, expressed through a way of life that is both authentic and compassionate, can meet some of the needs of evangelization in the world today.  “ Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses ”.  ( Evangelii Nuntiandi : Paul VI )  

 

The Marist Tradition: Relevant To-day? 

New Challenges in Ireland

Watch this space.