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A Certain Way

  • A Certain Way
  • Origins
    • Consider the rock
      • Silent voice
      • An echo of what I heard
      • Six thousand pages
      • Such is the first step
      • I heard interiorly
      • The dispersal
      • Jeanne-Marie Chavoin
      • Marcellin Champagnat
      • Jean-Claude Colin
      • The project came from God
      • Unheard of … a monster
      • The finger of God
      • Consider the rock…
    • Something new for our times
      • It makes a difference
      • Something never thought of
      • The end times
      • New world – new church
      • The Work of Mary
      • In this world
      • Instruments of divine mercy
      • Useful instruments
      • The great No’s
      • The only way to do good
      • Flesh to the Word
  • Life from within
    • Life force
      • Icons
      • Least Marian yet most Marian
      • Woman, mother and disciple
      • Most hidden
      • Most present
      • I am watchful
      • A parent’s care
      • Care for the people of God
      • A Marian Church
      • Silence gives you perfect sound
    • Fire and rose
      • A place to stand
      • A place of the heart
      • Pentecostal fire
      • One in mind and heart
      • A bridge to souls
      • Losing itself in the church
      • Power bursting forth
      • Caught up
      • Life from within
  • On mission
    • Setting out
      • Any part of the world
      • An uncommon deed
      • A woman of great virtue
      • The Pioneers
      • Set out in haste
      • Buried in the rich soil
      • New language
      • Free people
      • Setting out again
    • On the fringe
      • The Bugey missions
      • The world as mission
      • A taste for sinners
      • Feel the pulse of the age
      • Leave the ninety-nine
      • At the margins
      • Beyond the margins
      • Compassion to the limits
      • Saved without the law
      • Do we hesitate?
  • Making it happen
    • Humble people
      • Tree and branches
      • Today the Society begins…
      • Family likeness
      • Power in the name
      • Marist spirit
      • Cornerstones
      • Take a second look!
      • Portraits and last words
      • A dream or a certain way
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You are here: Home / On mission

On mission

When the 12 seminarians began the Society of Mary, they didn’t have a clear idea of what exactly the group would do, but they said they would dedicate themselves “in every way” to help people “in any part of the world.” Marists prefer to work where others do not or cannot or will not work. They are missionaries, and they prefer to work on the margins of society, in the cracks where people have fallen, and outside the walls of the Church.

Setting out

In one way or another, every disciple of Jesus will experience these same moments of choice, testing and mission. It was the experience of Mary, the first disciple of Jesus, and it was the experience of the first apostles.

from the very start, the Marist project was to be a missionary venture, an enterprise which would push those who joined it to the boundaries of the church and to the boundaries of the world.

Within months of the first profession ceremony for the Society of Mary, Marist priests and brothers had set out to the very ends of the known world. They were soon joined by lay women and then by sisters. And since then, the history of the enterprise has been one of setting out and setting out again for wherever there is need.

Chapter five – Setting out

Any part of the world

An uncommon deed

A woman of great virtue

The Pioneers

Set out in haste

Buried in the rich soil

New langauage

Free people

Setting out again

On the fringe

One of the earliest descriptions of God in the Bible is found in the Book of Exodus. The words are God’s own words, and this is the self-portrait:

Yahweh, Yahweh, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness; for thousands, maintaining kindness, forgiving faults, transgressions and sin. (Exodus 34: 6-7)

This is the God who spoke to Moses as a friend, and who assured him: “I have seen the misery of my people”. (Ex. 3:7)

The first and abiding image God wants us to have, is of a God who is always and everywhere compassionate, merciful, forgiving, and tender.

The God who is revealed to us is a God who goes to the utmost limit to ensure that all will be saved.

So, Mary shares closely in Jesus’ mission to gather the scattered. Jesus himself went about doing good, having nowhere to lay his head, describing himself as the shepherd who leaves the 99 safe sheep to search for the one lost, and drawing close to all those who for one reason or another found themselves on the fringe of life.

The mission of Mary to give birth to the Saviour, and the mission of Jesus to gather all the lost who find themselves on the fringes of life, are deeply connected.

Chapter six – On the fringe

The Bugey missions

The world as mission

A taste for sinners

Feel the pulse of the age

Leave the ninety-nine

At the margins

Beyond the margins

Compassion to the limits

Saved without the Law

Do we hesitate

 

 

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A Certain Way – scanned originals

Chapter 1
Consider the rock

Chapter 2
Something new for our times

Chapter 3
Life force

Chapter 4
Fire and rose

Chapter 5
Setting out

Chapter 6
On the fringe

Chapter 7
Making it happen

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