“Luke the evangelist describes Mary as: one who hears the word of God and accepts it wholeheartedly (1:38); one who believes that what she has heard will be fulfilled (1:42,45); one who treasures what she has been told and ponders it (2:19-51) …”

(~ “The work of Mary”, The Marist Way pamphlet, Sharing the Marist Way)

He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever. Amen.

“Sustainability Covenant (adopted by the Marist General Administration on July 19, 2022) is founded on three Principles: …, Incarnational, and Marian.
“Our Marist covenant is Incarnational. It celebrates God-with-us in the very matter of our earthly dwelling. Jesus Christ, the embodiment of life and love Divine, raises the web of creation into a new realm. Immersed into this new realm by our baptism we labor with all creation to ‘bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.’ (Eph. 1:10)
As Marists our sustainability covenant will be enfleshed and lived out through the Spirit of the Society of Mary. Marists are called to be Mary, to think, judge, feel and act as her. Mary nurtured the vulnerable Incarnate Son of God at Nazareth and embraced his dead body at the foot of the cross; she was at the heart of the Church when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. Empowered by this same Spirit we are called to care for the most vulnerable, and the poor of our common home who are always the first to be affected by our ecological crisis. (Laudato Si’ 241)”

(~ Sustainability Covenant by Marist Ecological Commission coordinated by Fr. Ben McKenna, SM)

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

“Sustainability Covenant (adopted by the Marist General Administration on July 19, 2022) is founded on three Principles: Trinitarian… .
Our Marist covenant is rooted within the ‘ecology’ of an ever-generative love and compassion that is the Holy Trinity. This dynamic of relationship and communion is the source and inspiration for the life and love of the human community and all of Creation, which we are called to through our baptism. In this way we make our own the Trinitarian dynamism which God imprinted in us when we were created. [Laudato Si’ 240] …”

(~ Sustainability Covenant by Marist Ecological Commission coordinated by Fr. Ben McKenna, SM)

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.

“When Pope Francis launched the synod on synodality …, I immediately thought of Fr. Colin’s prophetic intuition of the action of Marists in the Church, inspired by the short phrase ‘all these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus …’. (Acts 1:14) Like Mary, Marists of all branches are invited to be present and actively engaged with the whole Church in prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit, the world and each other as we seek a new way to reveal the Reign of God today.”

(~ Sister Michelle de Silva, smsm, Society of Mary USA Vocation E-Newsletter, June 2022)

He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.