A Mission To Our Time
Marist Moment: A Mission To Our Time
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.
A popular Marist Book called ‘The Age of Mary’ offers some thoughtful ideas on the Marist Way of looking at and living life.
A Mission to Our Time
Here is the surprising heart of the book. When Jean-Claude Colin spoke about “the present age” and even “the end of time,” he was not ranting about the sins of his day. He was naming, with remarkable accuracy, a turning point in history: the Enlightenment — the birth of a world where public life no longer refers to God, where each person claims the right to think and choose for themselves. The Marist founders did not turn their backs on that new world. They accepted that it had come to stay, and they accepted the challenge: to announce the Gospel to the new world as it was, on its own terms.
Snijders then builds his hermeneutical bridge into the present: what the founders called the Enlightenment, we call secularisation. It is the same vast movement, now stronger and more universal. So the Marist mission is not to a place but to a time — and that time is ours. The secularised world is not an obstacle to Marist life; it is the very reason for its existence.
For anyone drawn to the Marist way, this changes everything. The friend who “just doesn’t know,” the family member who drifted from church, the honest and irreligious workplace — these are not signs of failure. They are the mission field entrusted to Mary’s people. We were, in a sense, made for this moment.
Marist reflection question
Do I see today’s secular world mainly as a threat to my faith — or as the very place God is sending me? What would change if I truly believed the second?
Marist practice
This week, listen to one “non-religious” conversation — at work, online, over coffee — for the hidden hungers in it: meaning, belonging, hope. Name them quietly to God.
Marist Resources Download
This resource comes from a Marist Spirituality Series: ‘The Age of Mary’ by Jan Snijders. Click here for full reflection guide
