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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 / Origins

Origins

There’s only one Gospel: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But there are different ways of living the Gospel. Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Ignatius of Loyola and many others found different ways of applying the Gospel of Jesus to the needs of their times.  In 19th century France, a group of people found a way of living the Gospel that answered some of the spiritual needs of their post-Revolution world. This was new and refreshing in their day. It’s still fresh today.

Consider the rock

This is the story of a certain way of living the Gospel. There is only one Gospel of course, and that is the Person of Jesus; He is God’s ‘Good News”. But the life and words of Jesus recorded in the written Gospels, are different for all times and all generations; and each person each time, and each generation.

So there will be different ways of living the Gospel according to the personality of individuals, their place of origin, and the times in which they live.

Chapter one – 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

Marcelin 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

In Scripture, God’s choice of human beings for a particular mission often seems to have been a mystery quite beyond the laws of human logic or reason.

Certainly, this choice hardly ever seems to have had much to do with personal talent or worthiness.

Moses’ first response to God’s choice of him was, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh? I am slow of speech and a stammerer.” God chose David, the youngest of Jesse’s eight sons, and the last one that Jesse would have thought would be chosen. Isaiah protested against God’s call, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips.”

The first Marists had no illusions about the unlikely material that they were; but after all, that wasn’t the point. What was more important was that they had been chosen, and chosen for a particular task. They were prepared to let themselves be shaped and formed into something they would never have imagined for themselves.

Colin never envisaged that Marists would be a breathtakingly beautiful or delicately refined ornament in the Church’s showcase, but he knew that the Society of Mary would be something new and, above all, something “useful” for God, for the Church and for their times.

Chapter two – Something new for our times

It makes a difference

Something never heard 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

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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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