When we set out on a journey - it is helpful to know the destination. In years past we used to make sure we took a map and consulted the compass - we needed to at least start facing in the right direction! Sometimes comfort can set our direction. We need to constantly remind ourselves to check our bearings. These series of Marist Way reflections can help us.

“Tasting God” was a special phrase of Colin. He would share insightfully to only want to help young people ‘taste God’. After that gift and experience, God could continue this work in their hearts. Marist’s are to first ‘taste God’ themselves so as to be able to truly give this experience to others. You cannot give what you have not got. If the heart begins each day and rests frequently in prayer with God, this would flow out into a fruitful life of leading others to God.

Our heart is revealed in its attachments. There is something striking about a person who lives simply and happily. Their heart seems to be at home with God; purpose seem to shine more than possessions. For Marists, living simply is also a genuine marker of being close to ordinary people and the poor; not seeking status above them but rather living among them. Possessions can create walls.

Division at home or work is so painful. It eats away at joy and brings a heavy sadness. Marist’s notice Mary was present in the early Church in such a special way that their unity shines through the experience and pages of the early christian community. Mary’s presence helped the disciples to be united.

Mercy is a word that has its root meaning in the Hebrew language for ‘womb’. It’s a word that describes the very nature of God toward us. It’s also the signature mark of a Mum and her love for her children. No wonder Fr Colin invites Mercy to be the signature of every Marist.

‘Doing good without noise’ is an image that sums up the Marist Way. It’s another way of exploring one of the most common phrases heard in Marist spirituality - being hidden and unknown. Another image is being like ‘light - helping others see - but itself remaining invisible. Practically it can look simply like getting out of the way so as not to become an obstacle between a person and their encounter with God.

The founding story of the Marist Way is that Mary really did jump into history in 1816 with an inspiration to 12 young priests saying: ‘this is what I want…..’ and from this point, doing ‘the work of Mary’ by living her presence began to spread and grow. It’s a striking thought - Mary really does have work to do - do we want to be available for it.

The world doesn’t need louder christians, its needs authentic christians who genuinely live for God alone, no pretending. And where you don’t find love, plant love - God’s absence is replaced with God’s presence. This way, lived quietly and joyfully, holds a spiritual practice of faith that can be extraordinarily fruitful.

Most people are out of reach of the church - or are they? Depends on your view. Many people are out of reach of the clergy - priests - but fully alongside lay people in every shop, street, office, cafe and workplace. Colin shared this vision with an image - the Society of Mary was like a tree with many branches - and the lay branch was the biggest and widest reaching branch of them all.

‘Your presence shouts at me and you haven’t even said a word’ is a phrase that recognises our presence arrives before our mouth opens. Perhaps we’ve always known that witness comes before words; we let our lives do the talking and we don’t need to promote ourselves. Mary’s life and witness reveals this in the striking fact we have only 4 times she says something in the scriptures. Marists call this attitude being ‘hidden and unknown’.

Imagine Mum welcoming you home……. you get the sense that the door is never closed. This attitude of Mercy and welcome becomes a signature of Marist ministry and the Marist Way. Practically it gets expressed as a ministry to the gaps; the forgotten, the absent. While mainstream ministry may be warming up the people in the church, a Mum’s attention is also concerned for those who aren’t coming home. There is work to be done. What is needed is a certain type of people who can become instruments of divine mercy.

The Marist Way exists as a solution to a challenge; people turning away from God, no longer able to find God, leaving the Church. The Enlightenment and French Revolution are simply technical words for a period of time where God became lost or irrelevant. The mission is not so much to a place but a time - an experience - and the world is waiting for a response.

Perhaps we are either surviving or thriving; coasting comfortably or pursuing passionately. We all inherit situations and circumstances, the difference is how we respond. Creatively living what we have received from our past and applying that in a new and fruitful way today is a call we are all invited to respond to.

Everything starts small - and then gathers momentum. Sometimes a movement stops - and then needs something to get going again. A vision needs to be seen and appreciated again. A spark needs to be fanned into a flame. Mary’s way and movement needs to get rolling again.

A common marist phrase is being ‘hidden and unknown’. But this is not really about hiding, being away from activity, being super prayerful and contemplative. We will be ‘hidden’ so that God is ‘seen’. It begins with an interior attitude grown in prayer and goes out with an external movement in mission. Marist’s really are both contemplatives in action; like Mary at Nazareth and Pentecost.

When Colin listened to his experience of Mary teaching him about her spirit, an key reflection was marist’s were to be ‘instruments of divine mercy’. Mercy was the priority. Nobody was too small, too late, or too lost!

For Colin, the dream was for the largest group of Marists to be Lay Marists. If Mary’s spirit and presence was to get into every home, street corner and workplace, it would be Lay people who would carry it there. This was a very radical vision during Colin’s time, so big in fact that it was unheard of for a religious order to include priests, brothers, sisters and lay people all together as one family. But such is the Marist vision. It became symbolised by a tree with many branches.

When people meet you - what is their experience? An interesting question. For Marists, the hope is a welcoming and joy-full presence that causes people to ponder a dream of a church and people who extend the welcoming arms of a Mother to her children.

What would it look like if Mary were actually present and living in our midst, in your family, in your parish, in your workplace? Marist spirituality takes this question seriously and personally; it becomes an idea that takes root in real life so that Mary becomes present through her sons and daughters - Marist’s. And it sparks an even bigger idea: what would happen if the world was Mary’s parish?

What will the end of time actually look like…… movies often paint a scene of disaster, but Fr Colin, aware of Mary’s presence as a Mother to the Church, shares an alternative; everyone is gathered home. This future vision shapes today’s hope and action. It forms the basis of a special marist phrase to be ‘one heart and mind’.