Keel015

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 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]:

Text

“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.”