Mary and Marist Spirituality

Everyone has heard of the Franciscan spirituality and the Benedictine spirituality. Franciscans try to live the gospel as embodied in the life and teachings of St. Francis, and Benedictines strive to live out the spirit of the rule of St. Benedict. These spiritualities are valuable not only for monks and sisters, but also for the laity.

A Marist Spirituality

There is also a Marist spirituality, a Marist way of approaching the gospel valid not only for Marist priests, brothers or sisters, but also for lay people in the world. Our founder, Fr. Colin, left a spiritual legacy for the world. He often exclaimed: "The whole world Marist." His spirituality is centered on Mary as a major force that God will use in our modern age to gather together His doubting sensitive children. The Marist approach to Mary is different from many others. Marists do not propose a special devotion to Mary based on an apparition. Their principal aim is not to make Mary an object of veneration. In fact they are fearful of turning Mary into a graven image, an idol, a superstition replacing the Father. And so, though Marists certainly do try with all their strength to take on Mary's attitudes, they do not treat her primarily as an object of imitation, as a mere symbol for some cluster of virtues, like self-abnegation, humility or simplicity.

For Marists Mary is more than this. She is a person. She is an active presence in today's world. She is a dynamic force leading, encouraging, coaxing, gracing people to the Father. And because Marists assume her name, they want to open themselves up in a special way to her influence and action. They strive to identify themselves with her, get caught up in the sweep of her grace, and aid her in carrying out her work in the Church. Marists do not so much stand before Mary with heads bowed in veneration. Rather they stand side by side with Her and look out upon the world. They strive to be extensions of Mary, to think, act and feel as Mary, and through their lives and actions, make her present to the world. Marists offer to Mary their minds and hearts and bodies in the service of the Father. They lend themselves to her project.

Mary's Project of Mercy

And what is this project? It is a project of mercy. At this delicate moment of history Mary wants to go to today's people with an invitation of mercy. She wants to go to the sensitive, alienated, earthbound, freedom-jealous people of today and gather them all under her mantle of mercy. She wants to say to everyone, no matter how marginal or apathetic, no matter how indifferent or stiff-necked, that the infinite God loves them and that He understands their doubts and fears, and even their desire for liberation. Like Mary, Marists are a soft touch, a pushover for anyone in trouble, for anyone involved in divorce procedures, or whose baby has been born retarded, for all who were old or young or naive or boring, for anyone who was an outsider because of the color of his skin, or who was an outcast due to public or private sin. A Marist loves the proud, the gluttonous, the lustful, the avaricious, the lazy, the envious. He hates the seven deadly sins but loves the seven deadly sinners. With Fr. Colin, he says: "I will win over the sinner by submitting myself to him," and " I will convert sinners with the law or without the law."

The Whole World Marist

"The whole world Marist," said our founder, Fr. Colin. What does it mean? It means that for Fr. Colin all of God's people were invited to be caught up in the sweep of Mary's action. They would do this mainly through contact with those who call themselves Marists by vow, and whose whole life and profession is dedicated to carrying out "Mary's work". It is hoped that through contact with professed Marists, through a type of contagion, lay people might themselves become afire with the zeal to do the work of Mary, the work of mercy.

So the Marist spirit, the Marist charism, is not a static asceticism carried out in secret and in hiding. It is more like a roaring wind, a dynamism beginning from above into which Marists are caught and transformed and through them the whole people of God. "The Society (of Mary)," says Fr. Colin, "must begin a new Church over again. I do not mean in a literal sense, that would be blasphemy. But still, in a certain sense, yes, we must begin a new Church".

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