When they meet you
Marist Moment: When they meet you
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.
A popular Marist Book called ‘Marist Laity’ offers some thoughtful ideas on the Marist Way of looking at and living life.
When they meet you
Pope John Paul II spoke of two faces of the Church: the Petrine — its structure, teaching, and authority — and the Marian, which he said comes first in the designs of God, 'in profundity and pre-eminence.' Frank McKay argues that the special Marist calling is to help bring out this Marian face: a Church with the compassionate heart of a mother.
Many of our contemporaries experience the Church as authoritarian, constrictive, or remote from their lives. Marists are called to draw out from the Church's own inner resources a new freshness and graciousness — a tenderness that bridges the gap between the Church and the people of our time. McKay recalls how, for a brief moment, the world glimpsed this Marian Church in Pope John XXIII, and it listened to him as it had not listened to the Church for centuries. Even his fiercest opponents respected him. Gentleness, it turns out, is not weakness; it is the Church's most persuasive voice.
This is where lay Marists matter so much. Most people will never meet a bishop, but they will meet you — at the school gate, in the office, over the fence. Every patient word, every act of unhurried kindness, every refusal to condemn, shows the world the face of a mother. Colin dreamed of a Church that people could approach without fear. You can be part of the answer to that dream, starting today.
Marist Reflection Question
When people meet me — in my family, workplace, or parish — what face of the Church do they see? Where am I being invited to show a more motherly, merciful face?
Marist Practice
Choose one relationship where you tend to be sharp, hurried, or critical. For one week, respond there with deliberate gentleness — a mother's patience — and notice what changes.
Marist Resources Download
This resource comes from a Marist Spirituality Series: ‘Marist Laity’ by Fr Frank McKay SM. Click here for the full reflection guide.
