Mary’s life challenges us to put God first, responding to others with generosity, simplicity, humility, and to work at building communities where Mary’s virtues thrive. The world is crying out for this. Being Marist means to find our home in God every day, strip away our masks and be real with God, ourselves and others. This dependence on God means we begin again each morning.

Stabat Mater
Help me, with my last breath,
In my body bear the death
Of that dying Son of yours.

Although Scripture say little about Mary, we do know that she was there in the early church, and we know that she was there as women and mother.

Stabat Mater
Virgin of all virgins blest!
Listen to my found request:
Let me share your grief divine.

Today we remember the 153rd anniversary of the Approbation of Fr. Jean-Claude Colin’s Constitutions of 1873.

Fr. Colin was the founder of the Society of Mary – priests and brothers. Born at the close of the 18th century in revolution-torn France, Fr. Colin was convinced that the Blessed Virgin wanted a group of men and women to do her work in the world at a time of turmoil and challenge. In 1836, Fr. Colin obtained from Pope Gregory XVI canonical approbation of the Society of Mary with simple vows, and in the same year Fr. Colin was chosen superior general. Two years before his death he had the joy of seeing the Constitutions of the Society of Mary approved by the Holy See on February 28, 1873. With this inspiration he forged the way for a new family of consecrated religious and laity in the Church – the Marist family.

Life is messy, ordinary, sometimes tragic, joyful, yet filled with the presence of Christ and Mary’s guidance. When Mary acted, it sprang from deep encounter with God. She invited the Holy Spirit to work through her. Mary’s witness calls us to accept that our true value is not in what we do, but in who we are before God.

Stabat Mater
By the Cross with you to stay
There with you to weep and pray,
Is all I ask of you to give.