Keel007

Mary, the Support of the Church

Introduction

Jean-Claude Colin often spoke of Mary as the support of the Church at the beginning and at the end. This seems to be his way of referring to the inspiration Courveille experienced at Le Puy. Presented here is the dossier of texts gathered by J. Coste, S.M., in Acta Societatis Mariae, vol. 5, pp. 264-271. In several cases a wider context is offered than was needed for Coste’s purposes. These are marked with a (+) in the apparatus. At the end of the dossier is added a text of Fr. Peter Julian Eymard that also speaks of Mary as the support of the Church.

The support of the newborn Church and at the end of time

Text 7

December 1845. Colin. Conference to scholastics preparing for profession; items recorded by one of them. [Coste text F (+) = Mayet 5, 6942-695]:

Text

[1] “Just as Jesus spent three years forming his apostles, so Mary takes three years to form us during the time of our theological studies.” [2] “Jesus left his mother with his newborn Church to form it in its cradle. She reappears at the end of time to call in those who have not yet entered its bosom and to lead back to it those who have left.” [3] “We should not be astonished if Mary takes a lot of time to make her Society numerous. Jesus Christ, who was God, had only five hundred disciples when he left the earth, after having traversed Judea, after having given sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and done so many miracles.”