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.

A popular Marist Book called ‘The Age of Mary’ offers some thoughtful ideas on the Marist Way of looking at and living life.

A Tree with Many Branches

From the very beginning the Marist dream was strangely large. Colin spoke of a tree with many branches — priests, brothers, sisters, and laity — and even mused that “the whole world must be Marist.” Mary’s congregation, he said, “will be open to all kinds of people,” because she is the Mother of Mercy. The founders themselves hardly knew what to do with this vision; the structures of their century could not hold it. Snijders calls it prophetic: an idea waiting for its time.

Its time is now. Since the Second Vatican Council, we can finally say plainly what Colin could only dream: the laity are not “grateful objects of clerical ministry” but full subjects of the Church’s mission. And this matters enormously for the mission to the secular world, because the millions who have drifted from the Church are, almost by definition, out of reach of clergy. It is the lay Marist — living a sincere, joyful, unpretentious Christian life at work, at school, in the neighbourhood — who can be present where the Church cannot otherwise go: a reverent life that “wins over even without a word.”

If you are a lay person exploring Marist spirituality, hear this clearly: you are not on the edge of the Marist project. You are at its centre — a branch the founders always believed the tree must have.

Marist reflection question

Do I truly believe my ordinary lay life — family, work, friendships — is a real vocation and mission field? What holds me back from owning it?

Marist practice

Identify the one place you spend most of your week. This week, consciously “be Mary” there: present, encouraging, dependable — the quiet person who holds things together.

A Large Tree

A Tree with Many Branches

For God Alone

Doing Good Quietly