TMSept2013Alter_Layout 1 - Society of Mary, Marists in the US

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Today’s
MARISTS
Published by the Society of Mary US Province
In This Issue:
Fall 2013
Reflection: Year of Colin, Education and Our Mission
By Fr. Ted Keating, S.M.
Provincial’s Reflection - 1
Provincial’s Letter - 2
Hispanic Ministry Photo Spread - 4-6
Education Ministry Around the
World starts on page 7
Senegal & Cameroon - 7-8
Solomon Islands - 9
Oceania - 10
Vocations and Education - 11
African Educational Ministry:
Sr. Santina, smsm, visiting
street children in their hiding
place. See accompanying
article on page 7.
D
uring this Year of Colin being celebrated throughout the Marist world, it
is useful to begin this Today’s Marists
edition devoted to education with a brief reflection on the centrality of the education of
youth to the sense of mission of Fr. Colin.
Having been involved in the education of youth
in his own youngest years before the approval
of the Society, he spoke not only from the depth
of his spiritual vision for the Society, but from
his own experience.
The context of his times was critical to his vision and goals for the education of the young.
The institutional aspects of the Catholic Church
had collapsed in France during and in the aftermath of the French Revolution. By the time
Fr. Colin was giving thought to the mission of
education it was some 25 to 30 years after that
Revolution. A whole generation had been
born, raised, educated and were then in adulthood in France. Moreover, the rural areas of
France had provided few options for education
at all, never mind education in the faith before
the Revolution. A number of religious congregations were being formed (including the
Marist Brothers as part of the Marist Family of
Founders) to face a crisis of Catholic education
in France.
This important work was not to reform a program of education but to establish one in a
very different time for the Church after the
revolution. It was so critical that Fr. Colin
quotes the belief of the bishops at the time that
the work of education was the critical foundation for rebuilding the Church in France forming a new generation that would solidly
understand and live their faith. Thus the goals
of Colin for education: formation in a strong
www.societyofmaryusa.org
sense of faith, the development of solid virtue
for being good Catholic citizens in a new
France, and as well educated in the humanities (“Letters”) and sciences.
Colin was always quite aware of the particular
social and cultural context of his times and it
weighs heavily into his sense of the mission of
the Society. On one occasion he is quoted as
saying: “I think a hundred times more highly
of the education of youth in our own countries,
which are also pagan, than I do of the foreign
missions”, this from the mouth of one of the
great foreign missionary Founders of the 19th
Century. This reflects similar concerns of John
Paul II in one of his missionary Encyclicals
(Mission of the Redeemer): “Over there is
over here now” in our modern world in regard
to missionary activity. It is the source of the
New Evangelization of the Church in Europe
and the US, and the whole newly secularized
parts of the world. Education in our time is the
advance guard of that New Evangelization.
Many leaders in the Church today also perceive that we need to rebuild the Church from
the bottom up by intensifying our efforts at
educating generations of young people who,
once again, can stand up against the currents
of secularism with a solid foundation in an
examined and thoughtful faith rooted in
lived virtue. This also requires a solid foundation in the sciences and humanities that demonstrate the solidity of faith to what some
consider an ever more secularized world than
the time of Colin.
A recent Pew Research poll has shown that
our contemporary young adult generation has
doubled their turning away from churches and
Provincial’s Reflection
continued on page 3
Education
and our
Mission
Fr. Ted Keating, S.M.,
Provincial
Fr. George Szal, S.M., Immaculate Conception parish
in Revere, MA, with a group
heading to World Youth Day
2013 in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. Additional moments
of celebration can be enjoyed
on pages 4-6 of this issue of
Todayʼs Marists.
p. 2
Provincial’s Letter September 2013
T
he US Province has a Chapter every
four years where it evaluates its life
and ministries and makes policy decisions and writes legislation for the province.
At its 2013 meeting in late June, it declared
that for the next four years, one of its key priorities will be a continuing outreach in ministry to the Hispanic peoples of the United
States. If you look at pages 4 through 6 of
this edition, you will find that we already
minister in six of our communities to the Hispanic peoples of the US. If you have been
reading the Today’s Marists of this year, you
know from our history that we came here
from France in 1863 to minister to the growing population of French speaking Catholics
who, at that time, had not
settled into the society and
culture of the US being
both Catholics and foreign-language speakers.
We came to Louisiana
ministering to Acadian immigrants who had entered
Louisiana a number of
generations earlier, working with Jefferson College
to provide them easy access to education and taking on the parishes of the
Mississippi River to
strengthen and stabilize the Church there.
We soon took on French center city parishes
in San Francisco, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and
Boston for similar reasons.
In the late 1800 to early 1900’s, upwards of a
million French Canadians immigrated across
the Canadian border with the US for manufacturing jobs (textile mills, shoe manufacturing, etc.) unhindered and unregulated. They
settled in a number of the northeastern States.
The Marists took on not only Our Lady of Victories in Boston as the French parish of the
city, but spread up and down the Merrimac
valley and outlying parishes around Boston
forming French speaking communities. They
were then invited into Maine by Bishop James
Augustine Healy (the first African-American
priest and bishop of the United States) estab-
lishing and staffing parishes in Brunswick,
Van Buren, and other parts of the State.
So ministry to immigrants on the move who
speak other languages has been part of our history since our arrival here in the United States.
More recently our ministry has been to immigrants and people who speak other languages
around the country. We have been ministering
on the US border with Mexico in the
Brownsville Diocese since 1987. Our work in
St. Francis/St. Blaise parish in Brooklyn has
been with Haitian people, Caribbean peoples,
and Hispanics since 1984. We arrived at Our
Lady of Perpetual Help in 1986 and have been
ministering to Filipinos and Hispanics, and
also Haitians in the community there. At the
request of Cardinal O’Malley of Boston, we
accepted Immaculate Conception Parish in Revere in 2005 with a Hispanic community. In
2007 after some shifts in Hispanic ministry in
Atlanta, the Marists invited a large community
of Hispanics, mainly Guatemalans in Our Lady
of the Assumption Marist parish there and established a ministry in their language and culture. Marist School in Atlanta early this year
opened up its Hispanic Center for what they
thought would be a small GED program for
young Hispanics who were covered by President Obama’s Dream Act. To their shock, the
school buildings were being used on one
evening a week for more than 600 young adult
Hispanics and the program is still growing.
The school also hosted a large meeting of
young Hispanic leaders in the local faith communities of Atlanta to consult about offering
the school’s facilities to host formation programs for young adult Hispanics.
So we are happy to be able to set as a priority
for us this ministry that is not at all new to us
except for the language and culture. The Chapter also mandated that our vocation recruitment
needs to shift its language and culture to reach
Hispanics. We also will likely need to shift
how we form these young people should they
wish to join us as Marists. We hope you enjoy
the moments of celebration and felicidad in the
photo-spread.
Fr.Ted Keating, S.M.
www.societyofmaryusa.org
Provincial’s Reflection
(from page 1)
religious participation (from 20 to 40%). As
in Colin’s time, education of the young is a
central concern of the Church even just to
maintain its own strong existence and mission
in the surrounding society.
forth and bring about this kind of Church and
world.
Colin’s three goals for education may not
seem so unique to the Marists but rather a
generally useful way of articulating the
Church’s mission for his own time, and for
our own. What makes Colin’s views of education fairly unique was his general sense of
the need to respect the unique culture that had
emerged after the French Revolution and
lives still in our own days—the strong sense
of independence that modern people exhibit,
their love for liberty, their focus on equality
and justice. These values also permeate his
pastoral approach for ministry in our times.
Commenting on the “Hidden and Unknown”
style he set out for his fellow Marists, he said:
“Hidden and unknown is the only way to do
good, because our time rejects everything
which does not appreciate human freedom
sufficiently. To have respect for the freedom
of others is a tremendous help in the apostolate.” A fairly remarkable comment, considering the traditional and authoritarian culture
in which Colin lived personally. The bywords
of the revolution – liberty, fraternity, equality
– had not yet been well accepted by the
Church, and would not be until Vatican II.
Colin envisioned a new future for the Church
in a new culture that would have little regard
for threats, authoritarian edicts, shaming, a
more Marian Church. In such a culture, people have the freedom to walk away and do so
in large numbers. He wanted students who
would be formed by this witness of a very different model of leadership and who can go
“Let the teachers’ hearts be filled with a religious respect for the boys and (one) that is exclusively pure and supernatural , and let them
beware lest they hurt their students either by
harsh words or much less by beatings . . . . ”
So we can understand better Fr. Colin’s directives for teachers in Marist schools:
“Let them remember also that not a little patience is to be exercised with boys, a firm
kindness, …let them also be aware that
faults due to the restlessness of adolescence
they should more often than not pretend not
to notice, and that not everything needs to be
exacted down to the detail.”
“And indeed the boys who live in our colleges
are to be regarded as placed under her
(Mary’s) protection in a special way. Therefore let the teachers to whom the care of these
boys is entrusted realize that they take the
place of this holy and sweet Mother; following her as leader and protector they shall
strive to form Jesus Christ in them….”
Fr. Colin never gets far from his over-all vision that to educate in a Marist Way is to do
so by “thinking, feeling, judging, and acting
as Mary”. How else would one educate a
young person for Colin’s image of a “new”
Church, a Marian Church, for this time? In his
context and our own, we might say that a
Marian Church may be the only kind of
Church that could respond to the needs of our
times. Now that is a creative and inspiring
philosophy of education.
Fr.Ted Keating, S.M.
You are cordially invited to join with the Marists as they celebrate their
150th Anniversary year at events scheduled across the U.S. For a listing
of upcoming eventsin your area, please go to
ww.societyofmaryusa.org/about/celebrations.html
Use your smart phone to view these events by scanning this QR code.
Todayʼs Marists
p. 3
Marist ministries to the Hispanic peoples of the US.
Fr. Juan Gonzalez, S.M. and the parish Hispanic community, St. Francis-St. Blaise Parish, Brooklyn, NY.
Fr. Jim Duffy, S.M. addresses young Hispanic leader
of Atlanta at workshop.
Young Hispanic leaders gather for the national
summer workshop attended by Paul Frechette, S.M.
and Fr. John Bolduc, S.M.
Fr. John Bolduc, S.M. (second from left) at national
young adult leaders workshop.
p. 4
Marist Provincial Fr. Ted Keating, S.M. celebrates
Eucharist for Fe Y Vida young adult leaders workshop.
Moments of Celebration and Felicidad!
OLA retreat group
Fr. John Bolduc, S.M. and OLA first communicants
Fr. John Bolduc, S.M. encourages attendees at
national young adult Hispanic leaders workshop.
OLA Atlanta Bautismos (baptisms)
Fr. Charles Girard, S.M. celebrates Our Lady of
Guadalupe with others gathered for the feast
day at OLA.
OLA Virgen Peregrina (Virgin Pilgrim)
Location Color Guide:
St. Francis-St. Blaise Parish, Brooklyn, NY (Page 4) – Fr. Juan González, S.M. – Pastor
Fe y Vida, National Young Adult Hispanic Leaders Workshop, Atlanta, GA (Page 4 and Page 5)
OLA – Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Atlanta, GA (Page 5) – Fr. Jim Duffy, S.M. – Pastor; and Fr. John Bolduc, S.M. and
Fr. Charles Girard, S.M. serve the Latino Community
OLPH – Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Tampa, FL (Page 6) – Fr. Roland Lajoie, S.M.– Pastor
Immaculate Conception Parish, Revere, MA, (Page 6) – Fr. George Szal, S.M. works with youth of the parish
Marist School, Atlanta, GA (Page 6) – Fr. Bill Rowland, S.M. holds a GED class at Marist Hispanic Center housed at Marist School
San Felipe de Jesús Parish, Brownsville TX and Our Heavenly Father Mission, Olmito, TX (Page 6) – Fr. Héctor Cruz, S.M. – Pastor
p. 5
Moments of Celebration and Felicidad!
OLPH Spanish-Philippino choir
Fr. George Szal, S.M. with parish
youth at Immaculate Conception
in Revere, MA.
OLPH feeding the residents of the
haciendas.
OLPH Fr. Roland Lajoie, S.M. with
sweet 15-quincinera-celebrant.
GED class and Fr. Bill Rowland, S.M.
Fr. Héctor Cruz, S.M. sharing his faith with the
San Felipe de Jesus Catechists at retreat .
p. 6
www.societyofmaryusa.org
Marist Educational Ministry
Around the World
Ed.'s Notes: While Marist schools are well known in the United States, not many of us are aware of the Marist educational efforts in Africa nor
in Oceania. In this edition of Today’s Marists, the history of the Marist educational efforts in Africa are profiled (Senegal and Cameroon) by
Fr. Damien Diouf S.M., who recently finished 6 years as the African regional superior. We also have a first look in a series on the Marists
educational efforts in the Pacific islands, beginning with this edition, the Solomon Islands.
Marists in Africa
By Damien Diouf, S.M.
Msgr. Marcel Lefebvre, C.S.Sp., then archbishop of Dakar,Senegal, called the Marist Fathers to Africa in 1948. (He later on headed
the traditionalist movement that rejected the second Vatican Council.) The Society of Mary came to Senegal to open and staff a
school for the local Church. Dakar was newly made the capital of
the French colonial empire of West Africa. After the 2nd World
War, the role of the city and of the colony of Senegal became more
and more important not only for administrative reasons but also
with the social and cultural changes that led to the independence of
the colonized peoples of Africa. The needs of educational institutions rapidly grew because the young French speaking African nations required services of qualified personnel and the training
institutions erected in Dakar drew important numbers of students
from all over French speaking Africa and Madagascar.
The French Marist Fathers started a multicultural educational institution, Cours Sainte Marie de Hann, receiving children from
various cultural and religious backgrounds, of European and
African origins. Marists Fathers, Sisters and smsm (Marist Missionary Sisters) worked also together in the formation of the local
clergy. Later on, about 30 years after the foundation of the school,
a lay personnel replaced the religious to staff the school, but the
Marist Fathers continued working as chaplains and teachers of
moral and religious instruction, ministering as pastors in Catholic
parishes in the surrounding areas. With time, they developed
other activities in villages and slums but the rapid development
of the city of Dakar and the needs of the local Church prompted
parish ministry in the Port and remote suburban periphery.
Yet, the reputation of the Society of Mary in Senegal is strongly
connected to the school Cours Sainte Marie de Hann which was
built in the middle of the dunes in a sandy and semi-desert area
now very populated and called “Les Maristes”. Streets, mosques,
restaurants, pharmacies, supermarkets in the area bear the name
“Marists”. The school offers programs of Education based on European or African backgrounds. Children and students are from
more than 60 countries. Since five years, it opened IMES – Institut Mariste d’Etudes Supérieures, an Institute of higher Education
belonging to the Catholic University of the French speaking West
Africa. The spirit and pedagogy of the school take into account
the great variety of the cultural and religious backgrounds, and
more than 80% of the students and lecturers are Sufi Muslims.
Working and living together as believers are facilitated through
Todayʼs Marists
The parish school of Teate receives more than 300 children.
moments of dialogue, discussions, encounters and faith celebrations in the school. One may feel in the school like being in a laboratory where living peacefully together is continually tested and
built up to fight fanaticism and ostracism between various religious
and spiritual traditions.
Recently, to promote the good of Childhood and family values, the
members of Marist family in Dakar – Fathers, Sisters, Marist Missionary Sisters and Lay – formed an Association called APEF now
legally recognized and caring for street children. Part of Ker
Nazareth, the Marist house in Grand Yoff, receives them once a
week for a bath, laundry, meals, medical care, counseling and contacts with their families. The Association accompanies those who
want to go back home to their original villages. APEF runs also a
Centre for illiterate girls of the area of Dalifort where they can learn
housekeeping, hygiene and health sciences and receive official
recognition from the State of Senegal. Marists in Africa were supported by Italian friends and confreres connected to Fabrizzio
Meoni, a motocross runner who won twice the Paris-Dakar Race
but died in the 2005’s edition in the Mauritanian Sahara. After his
death, we experienced a drop in the funds. The Marist Mission Center of Sydney financially sustained us. Most of the Marist ministry
with street children is to bring them back to their original villages
that they have left for bad retreatment imposed in schools where
they learn to memorize the Quran or in poor polygamist families.
By the end of the 1980s, when young Africans from various
countries joined the Society of Mary, for their needs in formation to become Marists, the Marist Fathers settled in Cameroon
Around the World
continues on page 8
p. 7
Fr. John Hannan, S.M., Superior General,
visiting the Marist community of Bambili and
the staff of BASDEC.
Around the World
Fr. Christian Abongbung, S.M., making seats
at the Our Lady of Consolation Centre,
Bambili – Cameroon.
Fr. Martin took back to his family a
street child.
from page 7
and later on developed pastoral initiatives with multicultural
agriculture. The Marists
groups and institutions to touch the lives of youth. This explains
continued in Teate with
the choice of missionary parishes in Obili and Bambili. By the
a kindergarten and a
middle of the 1990s, the Marists chose to work in both the
primary school for the
French and English speaking areas to minister populations made
children of the parish.
mainly of Catholic students in the area of the State University of
Villagers called for
Yaoundé and of higher Education institutions in Bamenda, in the
the erection of other
Dakar, Senegal, the kindergarten section
English speaking North West of Cameroon. The work has always of Cours Ste Marie.
schools in the forest.
gone along with efforts of reconciliation to lower tensions between
Recently, the Marists
ethnic groups and the shaping of parish structures where they can opened in – a populated village in the rainy forest in Cameroon
interact together as a Catholic community despite the diversity of newly erected as a parish – a small rural primary school named
cultural backgrounds.
after our founder, Ecole Jean Claude Colin in October 20012.
With the help of relatives, benefactors and Marist confreres in
Europe and Australia, in addition to the initiatives in Dakar,
the Marists in Africa set simple informal initiatives in
Cameroon such as
- the Foyer Ste Anne of Obili – Yaoundé – where illiterate and
poor girls who have not completed primary and secondary education can learn basic elements of housekeeping, tailoring and of
computer sciences.
- the BASDEC – Bambili Students’ Development Center – an interfaith initiative launched by Marists and leaders of Christian
churches to provide facilities for students and educators such as
library, computers, counseling and meetings rooms and other
equipment for activities in youth ministry. The Irish Marists help
financially to give allowances to the personnel: the needs are
increasing with the creation of a State University in the premises
of ENS Bambili. The Center located in a rented house too small
to host the growing numbers of students.
- and the Centre Our Lady of Consolation for disabled children in
Bambili created in 2007 with the financial support of the provincial administrations of Reggio Calabria in south Italy for the
reinsertion and socialization of children living with a handicap.
By the 2000s, the Society opened a parish in Teate in the diocese
of Bafia, in the rainy forest of the Central province of Cameroon,
to work with a population of cocoa farmers lacking health, education or any other welfare structure. Lasallian Brothers worked
in the area and built primary schools in the remote villages but
later on left and concentrated on a healthcare and on a school of
p. 8
The commitment of Marists in Education has received new light
and encouragement from Pope Benedict XVI’s post Synodal Exhortation, Africae Munus (AM). The Marists’ commitment will
certainly grow during the promising pontificate of Pope Francis.
Marists with the whole Church in Africa are encouraged in this
domain because Education is “a matter of justice for each child
and indeed the future of Africa depends on it” (AM 134). Ministering to students and personnel of academic institutions, we are
reminded that it’s our mission to shape the minds and hearts of the
younger generation in the light of the Gospel and (…) to help
African societies better to understand the challenges confronting
them today by providing Africa, through research and analyses,
with the light she needs (cf. AM 135). Pope Benedict helps find
a pastoral program as he states that “in order to make a solid and
proper contribution to African society, it is indispensable that students be taught the Church’s social doctrine. This will help the
Church in Africa serenely to prepare a pastoral plan that speaks to
the heart of Africans and enables them to be reconciled to themselves by following Christ.” (AM 137).
The lack of opportunities, bad Education and poverty are basic
causes of violence and injustice in Africa. We Marists are affected
by the disastrous conflicts where we live in Africa. Our friends
and benefactors help us to meet with the challenges of Evangelization and the promotion of human dignity in Africa by often
supporting our simple local initiatives. Of course, we Marists rely
on the intercession of Fr Colin and of our Marist pioneers.
www.societyofmaryusa.org
Marists in the Solomon Islands
Agricultural part of Naana...the small huts in the background
are the students dormitories.
After Sunday Mass at Naana.
I am grateful to Fr. John
Galvin, S.M. for the following
insights, reflections and photos on Marist education in the
Solomon Islands. Fr. John,
has for the past five years,
been working at the Stuyvenberg Rural Training Center at
Naana on the island of Makira
where about 60 young men
and women are learning agriTeacher James Makana with his
cultural and home-making
wife and children.
skills to prepare them for a life
in their village. The list is long on what they can learn: how to build
a house; how to prevent health issues like diabetes or malaria; how
to grow food for themselves, and eventually to develop their own
cottage industries to sell their own crops.
By Fr. Paul Frechette, S.M.
Graduation at Naana
Risiva Primary school, near Naana. These leis are awards
from the school.
young people to learn skills and develop an enthusiasm for village
life and so stay on the island of Makira. There are other such rural
training centers, as St. Martin’s in Tenaru (Honiara), and recently
Br. George van der Zant founded “San Isidro” Care Center to
help the deaf and mute who in the past have been treated poorly
and even abused. At this center they are learning skills to better express themselves, and thus lessen their frustrations, and are helped
to better communicate with others.
The above Centers are examples of Marist education and how they
are providing hope for many young people, in that they are learning skills to help prepare for life and skills that are preparing them
to be self employed in their own villages.
The Marists have also been collaborating for years with the Marist
brothers in one of their major schools, called St. Joseph’s in Tenaru
(Honiara). They have been doing this by either teaching in the classrooms or ministering to the student population as school chaplains.
Recently, “Urban Drift” has emerged as a common and troublesome social phenomenon in the Pacific islands, and the Solomon
islands are no different. What is Urban Drift and what are some
of its origins? If we look at the history of Naana Rural Training
Center we may understand something about the stopping of this
phenomenon . Many rural youth on the island of Makira are leaving their villages and travel to the nearest urban center looking for
jobs in the capital city of Honiara. There is no attempt to prepare
these young school drop-outs for jobs in the capitol city. But the
Marists and their staff have been able to help some of these rural
Todayʼs Marists
Fr. John Gavin,
S.M. (front row)
with some of
the students
at Naana.
Around the World
continues on page 10
p. 9
Around the World
(from page 9)
Marist Educational efforts in the
province of Oceania
By Fr. Pio Fong Waqavotuwale, S.M., 1st Assistant,
Oceania Marist Provincial Administration
In 2010 an Education Forum was held for all Marist educators in the province. The forum
was facilitated by a Marist Team from new Zealand led by Fr. Mark Walls. The Oceania
Provincial Administration will be holding a renewal program for our men in the colleges
on the second and third weeks of January 2014 in Bomana, Papua New Guinea. To help
facilitate this upcoming renewal program, we are now in the process of developing, articulating and sharing our Marist educational attitudes and values in the colleges that we
teach in and to share this educational charism with our lay collaborators.
Ed.'s Notes: Fr. Pio's detailed report on these and
other activities in Oceania will be featured in our next
edition of Todayʼs Marists.
Marists at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.
In addition to their studies, these Marists serve as a
Chaplaincy team for the University. Left to right from
the back: Fr. Valu Siua, S.M. (Tonga), Fr. Chris Ketsore,
S.M. (Bougainville, PNG). Left to right from the front:
Fr. ʻOfa Vaihu, S.M. (Tonga), Fr. Iowane Waqairapoa,
S.M. (Fiji), and Fr. Sipiliano Fakaʼosi, S.M. (Tonga).
Fr. Ben McKenna,S.M. teaching the Novices at
Tutu Novitiate. Novices in the photo are from the
regions of Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Bougainville.
Tongan, Fr. Soane Malia, S.M. at a Refugee Camp,
while a Seminarian, in SE Asia on a group exposure
for Young People called: "The Other Half".
Fr. Ben McKenna, S.M. baptising a child
of one of the Marist Lay Couples in Tutu
at the 2010 Easter Ceremony.
p. 10
Fr. Ben McKenna, S.M. celebrating Mass for
the First Year Seminarians of Marist College
Suva, Fiji, on Retreat at Tutu.
www.societyofmaryusa.org
Vocation and Education
By Jack Ridout, Director of Vocations
Education is so important that it is the major
focus of our youth and young adulthood. As
this is the Year of Colin (the founder of the
Marist Fathers and Brothers), I look to him for
inspiration. As Dr. Samuel Johnson had his
Boswell, the Marists had many who recorded
the sayings of Fr. Colin over his lifetime.
While speaking about education Fr. Colin said
“We contribute with God to forming a man in
a real way. We must make him into a man, form his heart, his
character, virtue etc….that is what education does. You give
him as it were a second creation.” From A Founder Speaks.
These words were spoken when he
was the head of a college in Belley,
France. He dealt with students who
were searching for their own identity during a difficult time in postrevolutionary France, and which is
not too different from today’s
young men and women.
Today we do not face the guillotine
for our beliefs, but we are faced
with many things that can affect our
beliefs. I speak with many young
men about what they believe, and
together we face Fr. Colin’s “second creation”. A vocational journey
is giving their hearts and minds a
new vocabulary and purpose; this is
what education provides.
God is continually calling us, but
it’s up to us to see where he is calling us: to remain single, get married, or living the consecrated life
of a sister, brother or priest. Each of
these states in life requires our full
attention, education and commitment.
College Belley (the minor seminary for the Diocese
of Belley) its name when Colin was appointed
superior. It is also been known as Lamartine, and
today is called Institute Lamartine. The statue of
Our Lady shown in the background was placed
there by Fr. Colin.
Fr. Colin once said to his fellow Marists “…almost all of us are
from the country. We lack education and we call that simplicity –
for convenience. We say too that is family spirit. Do you know
what we mean by that? – a lack of education…” which he said
very forcefully.
Anyone considering or discerning where God is leading them
in their life, it requires an openness to learn about themselves, and
how they can become instruments of divine mercy. Following the
“call” from God requires patience, prayer and above all education.
Todayʼs Marists
p. 11
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The Society of Mary US Province
Editors:
Jeanean Merkel/Sheila George
Illumicom
Editorial Board:
Ted Keating, S.M., Chair
Paul Carr
Tom Ellerman, S.M.
Paul Frechette, S.M.
John Harhager, S.M.
James Strasz, S.M.
Please visit us online at:
www.societyofmaryusa.org
In this issue:
Marist Educational
Ministry Around
the World
Seminarians, Marist College Bomana, part of the
Oceania Education Ministry,
playing traditional panpipes
to farewell for a Marist
Confrere.