Keel004

The End of Time

Introduction

In this dossier are collected all the texts in which Colin or other early Marists speak of the end of time, with the exception of the texts already contained in the above dossier on “Mary, the support of the Church,” and in the dossier “At the End as in the Beginning,” further below. The texts here are divided between those that speak of the Society or its works lasting until the end of time, those that de¬scribe conditions or the work of the Society precisely in the last days, and two texts that give an evaluation of Colin’s thought on the end of time.

Until the end of time

Text 60

c. 1837. Colin. No context indicated. [Mayet 1, 5f = OM 444 = FS 3, 2]:

“The Society, I do believe, will be one of the last congregations before the Last Judgment. It must pass through most difficult times.”

Text 61

c. 1838. Colin. No context indicated. [Mayet 1, 11f = OM 450, 1 and addition b]:

[1]: One day he said: “I don’t think that the Society ought to last a long time: it has too many branches and is too composite a body. If it were to last a rather long time, I think that this body would be simpler.”
[Addition b]: Let us compare these words with those where he says that the Blessed Virgin will open her bosom at the end of time, in reference to the Society.

Text 62

1839. Mayet. Narrative based on information provided by Colin. [Mayet 1, 33 = OM 461]:

Having gone to Rome, he only asked for some letters of encouragement. When he learned that Fr. Trinchant was making some moves towards approbation, he promised God that, if it were obtained, the day when it would be obtained would be a solemn feast in the whole Society, until the end of time, so long as the Society should last.

Text 63

February 8, 1845. Mayet/Colin. Thoughts of Colin on the goodness of God. No context indicated. [Mayet 3, 418]:

[1]: He loved to remark on the goodness of God toward France.
[2]: “He has not treated England so; for he has inflicted the most terrible of all punishments on her. He let her fall into schism,” he said. “But he has had pity on France. He has chastised her in a striking way, and has weighed her down with evil times; but she has recovered. Eh! what! One sees France adoring a creature, and in a way revolting to all the senses! And, nevertheless, some years later, Catholic worship is restored; who would not admire the providence of God?”
[3]: Then, speaking of the way France abuses so many graces, and of some impious endeavors and outrages of irreligion, he said, “I can’t help believing that God is going to rise up, and that it is soon upon us.”

Text 64

September 19, 1845. Mayet/Germain. Extract from a talk at the closing of the annual retreat. [Mayet 6, 120-123 = OM 608, 3]:

“[...] Messieurs, you know the history of our modest origins; you all know how this name that had come from heaven was received by the representative of Jesus Christ on earth, and the remarkable favors that the holy pontiff wished to attach to it; but each knows especially how this holy name drew him to the Society. Oh! how many already owe their salvation to this holy name ‘Marists’! How many still, every day, embrace this sacred name as the miraculous plank that ought to lead them to a safe port! How many, until the end of time, will not cease to bless God for having called them to bear this name which is so great, so holy, and at the same time so humble and so sweet? Thus is fulfilled, and will be fulfilled every day, those inspired words of the successor of the apostles when, squeezing in those hands of his that bless the world the hands of our venerable founder, he said to him with emotion: ‘Crescite et multiplicamini. Increase and multiply and fill the earth.’”

Text 65

May - October 1853. Maîtrepierre. Notes on the beginnings of the Society. [Mayet ND 1, 70 = OM 752, 4]:

But the name of Mary was still to be taken; eighteen centuries hailed it and did not assume it; it was reserved to the nineteenth century, it was reserved to us until the end of the ages shall have come.

Text 66

c. 1854. Mlle Sophie David. Report on the origins of the Third Order of Mary in Lyons. [Mayet 10, 259 = OM 720, 11]:

What surprised them was the fact that they were only four in number. They kept looking at the door, still believing that it was going to open and that others, or at least some important person, would come in. This first meeting took place at La Favorite in the room of Mrs. Pichot. This lady had put out several chairs and armchairs; she had taken on the costs of moving all that furniture. When Fr. Pompallier was among us, she could not help but ask him, “Father, is that all?” Yes, indeed that was all. But I am quite sure that this gathering, however small and without interior or exterior means, was all that was needed to begin the first link of a chain of mercy and graces, fastened to the divine Heart of Mary to bind a countless multitude of souls to her holy love and that of her adorable Son, until the consummation of the ages.

Text 67

July 18, 1867. Colin. To Mayet. [Mayet B1, 189]:

“I do not think the world will last much longer. I believe the Society has been brought into being at the end of time.”

Text 68

1869-1870. Jeantin/Colin. Memorandum on the origins of the S.M. [APM 131.2 = OM 819, 115f]:

[115]: He often recounted that the most holy Virgin had said, speaking of the Marist Fathers: “I was the support of the Church in the beginnings; I will be so again at the end of time.”
[116]: Father announces equally as promises from on high: 1° that all those who will die in the Society will be saved; 2° that the Society will produce great saints and that it will have many martyrs, whensoever it may happen; the promise, then, is absolute. But the Society will only shine forth toward the last times; 3° that there will not be public scandals against morals. A failing is one thing and a scandal is something else.

Text 69

1869-1870. Colin. Jeantin, Memorandum on the origins of the S.M. [APM 131.2 = OM 819, 147]:

“I do not believe the world can last much longer. This is an idea I have always had. I don’t need to be a prophet to say it. Look! Our Lord said there may be no faith in the last times... I have made provision for the case where the chapter may be unable to meet.”

Text 70

February 6, 1872. Colin. Note written to the Chapter. [Minutes of the Chapter = OM 846, 7]:

“I regard this chapter as fundamental for the little Society of Mary, seeing that it has worked together for the achievement of the constitutions which ought to rule it, conserve it and increase it until the end of time.”

Text 15

June 20, 1866. Colin. Remarks at the end of the Chapter session, before taking leave of the capitulants. [Coste text N = Minutes of the chapter = OM 807, 4]:

“The more I think of it, the more I congratulate myself that I did not undertake to finish the Rule any sooner. The matter was not yet ripe. I needed the time to clarify my thought. And that is what makes me hope that our little Society will live and that it will live until the end. I have always thought that the Society is called to fight until the end of time. Mary was the support of the newborn Church; she will be so as well at the end, and she will be so through you. We must therefore fill ourselves with her spirit, and this spirit we must draw from her heart. The Apostles never did anything without consulting her, because she had the new law written in her heart and had been taught by the Holy Spirit even before the Incarnation.”

Text 16

September 1868. Colin. Thoughts on the S.M. and its destiny, recorded by Fr. Gautheron. [Coste text O (+) = Mayet B3, 2197-2199 = OM 811]:

[1]: “I have always had the idea that the Society was destined to work for the salvation of souls in the last times.”
[2]: “The blessed Virgin sustained the Church at its cradle; she is to assist it in a special way at the end of the world.”
[3]: “The Society of Mary as it is conceived in the rules ought to live in the Church; God wants it; were it destroyed at some time, it would revive. To be called to the Society of Mary is a special mark of predestination. I do not believe that any religious who dies in the Society will not be saved; I speak of the salvation of those who die Marist, but I fear very much for those who leave the Society.”
[4]: “I would like each Marist to set aside in a special way one day every year to thank God for the grace He has accorded him in calling him into the Society of Mary.”
[5]: “The Society will only accomplish its mission by taking the apostles as models; to return to the conduct of the apostles is the only way to do good today; one will not change the present age by seeking to captivate it by the wealth of the churches.”
[6]: “We ought to live united to Mary, to consult her, to love her in a particular way. We ought to become as nothing, to let God act, God alone. We spoil everything in wishing to act ourselves and in believing that we are something.”
[7]: “You will see what the Society will be like when it is as old as the Society of Jesus is today. A particular devotion towards the blessed Virgin is a necessary mark of vocation.”

Text 17

September 1868. Colin. Words recorded by Fr. Jeantin. [Coste text P = Note of Fr. Jeantin during his retreat in 1868 = OM 812, 4]:

“The blessed Virgin said, referring to the Society: ‘I was the support of the Church in the first times. I shall be so again at the end of time.’”

Text 18

February 6, 1872. Colin. Words of encouragement at the Chapter. [Coste text Q (+) = Minutes of the chapter = OM 846, 32]:

“See how the protection of the blessed Virgin on our behalf has been evident in these unhappy times. How many other societies have been put to the test and ours spared. This is a proof that we have nothing to fear for the future. It is true that the future does not belong to us. But, as the blessed Virgin supported the newborn Church, so she will be the support of the Church at the end of time. Let us cling to her spirit, and she will be with us always; let us hold her by the hand. To think as Mary, judge as Mary, act as Mary. By imitating the blessed Virgin, we imitate her Son, of whom she is the most perfect image. We are her beloved children. We want to be present to the Son through the Mother. The more wretched we are, the more we ought to have confidence.”

The support of the Church at all times

Text 19

February 8, 1846. Eymard. Extract from a letter to M. Frédéric Salvioni, professor at the major seminary of Milan. [Archivio Istituto Missioni Estere, t. 28, Corrispondenza, Religiosi, pp. 747-750, § 15f; for another extract from this letter, see OM 908]:

[15]: The blessed Virgin has been at all times the support and the protectress of the Church, but one might be tempted to say that perhaps never have her maternal feelings been more in favor of men than in the 19th century. What works of zeal and of salvation have appeared everywhere under her auspices! Not to mention many others, is it not a new proof of her tenderness, I dare say, toward the men of our unfortunate times that there appears in our days a society of Marist priests, that is, a society under the name of Mary, and of a third order of the same society that counts already more than 800 lay brothers who take vows approved by the bishops, have their own government, live in community and devote themselves, like the Brothers of Christian Schools, to the education of children, especially in rural parishes.
[16]: And there is also a Marist third order for people who live in the world, and this third order itself has been enriched with indulgences by the Sovereign Pontiff.


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