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The Newborn Church

Introduction

Gathered here are all the texts in which Colin or other early Marists speak of the early Church, with the exception of those already contained in the above dossier on “Mary, the Support of the Church,” and in the dossier “At the End as in the Beginning,” to be found further below. The texts here are presented in two sections: “Our only model: the early Church” and “Our models: Mary and the apostles.”

Our only model: the early Church

Text 21

April 8-14, 1838. Colin. Conversation at table. [Mayet 1, 29 = OM 425, 1-6]:

[1]

“Twelve of us signed a brief formulary.

[2]

“The Society does not take any other as a model. The beginnings of the Society are like those of the Church. Those who began it were without learning, without talents.

[3]

“But it is necessary that the others seek to become educated.

[4]

“An educated man will produce more fruit than one who is holier, provided however that he has the spirit of God, because God wants us to use the ordinary means.” (Another time he said: “Of two men who are equally holy, the more learned one will produce more fruit.”)

[5]

“Oh! you young men, you must seek an education; use every opportunity; but don’t rely on that, otherwise!...

[6]

“Only four persevered.”

Text 22

September 18, 1838. Colin. To the Marists of Belley. [Mayet 1, 9 = OM 430 = FS 10]:

On his return from that retreat, he said, “Nevertheless, it is to Belley, this little corner, that the most important letters arrive from Rome and elsewhere, and it is from this little spot among the mountains that they go out. Who would have believed it? Who would have believed that the Society would come to birth in this corner?” Someone remarked, “No order has ever begun like this in a small town.” “Yes there was one,” he said, “but only one: the order of the Church. Nazareth was its cradle. Jesus, Mary and Joseph: there you have the Church coming into being. It began there.”

Text 23

1838-1839. Colin. Context not indicated. [Mayet 1, 19 = OM 453, 1 = FS 20, 1]:

“The early days of the Society are like those of the Church. At one moment circumcision is permitted, later it is forbidden; at one moment eating of meat sacrificed to idols is permitted, later it is not. Little by little things become established, and discipline is worked out and becomes uniform only with the passage of time. It is the same in the Society.”

Text 24

May 18, 1840. Champagnat. Spiritual Testament. [OM 417, 3]:

I also beg you, my very dear Brothers, with all the affection of my soul and by all the affection you have for me, keep ever alive among you the charity of Christ. Love one another as Jesus Christ has loved you. Let there be among you but one same heart and one same spirit. Let them say of the Little Brothers of Mary as they said of the first Christians: “See how they love one another!” ... That is the most ardent desire of my heart at this last moment of my life. Yes, my dearest Brothers, hear these last words of your Father; they are those of our most beloved Savior: Love one another.

Text 25

Spring 1841. Colin. Remarks to Mayet. [Mayet 1, 286 = FS 42, 3]:

“If the world speaks against us, we should not be surprised. The apostles were not liked by the rich, or those with power: they turned to poor people like themselves. Then God raised up a Saint Paul, full of magnanimity and afraid of nothing, who turned his attention to everyone. They were right in saying that he was not lettered, that he did not speak well: it did not matter... He did not concern himself with what people said about him. As for ourselves, we do not take any congregation for our model, we have no other model than the new-born Church. The Society began like the Church; we must be like the apostles and those who joined them and were already numerous: One heart and one soul. They loved each other like brothers. And then, ah! no one knows what devotion the apostles had for the blessed Virgin! What tenderness for this divine mother! How they had recourse to her! Let us imitate them: let us see God in everything.”

Text 26

March 1842. Mayet, summary of his findings to date on the origins of the Society of Mary. [Mayet 1, 735 = OM 535, 24 and addition k]:

[24]

“The clergy was opposed to the Marists, and so they ought,” Fr. Colin used to say with humility. There were those who said: “It is the second volume of the Jesuits bound in ass’s hide.” Others accused them of being Jansenists. People mocked them and no one reproached the mockers.

[Addition k]

In effect, the first members were quite poor. “The Society began like the Church,” Fr. Colin used to say.

Text 27

April 1842. Colin, at the end of the chapter meeting. [Mayet 1, 723m]:

[1]

“It is a great consolation for us to see how the good God blessed us during this meeting. We were: one heart. Behold a great sign that the good God was with us.

[2]

“This will be a model for the future; we can say as did the apostles: ‘It has seemed thus to the Holy Spirit and to us.’ We were here as in a cenacle, Mary was at our head.”

Text 28

September 27, 1846. Colin, conversation in the refectory. [Mayet 4, 250 = FS 119, 9]:

Then returning to the first article, as if unknown and hidden, he said: “Really in actual fact, Messieurs, it is the way to take over everything. It was the approach that the Church followed, and you know that we must have no other model than the early Church. The Society too is beginning with simple men, poor men, but see what the Church achieved later.” Father Eymard then said, “A man of great judgment told me, ‘Your Society is really beginning in the way the Church did.’”

Text 29

1846. Colin. Context not indicated. [Mayet 4, 45m = OM 652]:

He repeated in 1846 that he had composed his whole rule without having read that of the Jesuits. He said that the Church which was founded by Jesus Christ is the model for all religious societies and communities.

Text 30

September 11-18, 1849. Colin, speaking to a meeting of preachers. [Mayet 4, 467m = FS 178]:

During the general retreat of 1849, at a special meeting for preachers, Father Colin said, “My consolation is that the cradle of our Society had no model in any society. It was copied only on the model of the Church. The Society did not have the time for training and learning in the beginning. The apostles, as soon as they received the Holy Spirit, were obliged to go their separate ways without having time to prepare themselves further. It has been the same for us. But now we must lay down solid foundations.”

Text 31

1850-1851. Eymard. Rule for the Third Order of Mary of the Interior Life. [APM, Third Order collection = LM 173, 20]:

A holy and generous charity ought to reign among all the members of the Third Order. Like the first Christians, they will have but one heart and one soul in the service of Jesus and Mary.

Text 32

1850-1851. Eymard. Spiritual rules for the perfect tertiary in the world. [APM 921.147, Cahier C, #7, pp. 67-69 = LM 174, 74]:

A tender and holy charity ought to reign among the members of the Third Order, in the love of Mary, their common mother, having, as did the first faithful, but one heart and one soul in the service of Jesus and Mary, encouraging one another and supporting one another in virtue and in the spirit of their vocation, loving to offer service, being pleased to visit sick or afflicted members, and never forgetting in their prayers those whom God has called to himself, and who may be suffering in purgatory. A tertiary must be recognized everywhere by his christian and fraternal charity; each must work at his own sanctification in the spirit of the rules, and must make them the frequent subject of his meditation; he must practice it with simplicity and with confidence in Jesus who only demands good will of him; he must measure his progress less in the fruits of virtue than in his generous constancy until the end.

Text 33

July 18, 1867. Colin to Mayet. [Mayet ND 2, 14 = Coste, Nazareth T32]:

[1]; “If the Society has not its original spirit, I would prefer that it did not exist.

[2]; “Without its own spirit, it no longer has any raison d’être.

[3]; “The Society’s first intention was to imitate the life of Nazareth, the life of the apostles.

[4]; “The spirit of poverty should animate us.” [There follows a development on poverty].

Text 34

Spring, 1869. Jeantin. Extract from “Account of the origin and foundation of the Society of Mary,” drawn up by Fr. Jeantin on the basis of reminiscences of Fr. Colin. [OM 819, 40 = Coste, Nazareth T35. This text is the basis for texts OM 820, 74; OM 821, 61; OM 827, 6]:

From his arrival in Cerdon until 1821, he was busy drawing up the Constitutions of the Society of Mary. For this work, he had no other help than what the Gospel has left us on the life of the Holy Family at Nazareth and on the first missions of the apostles.

Text 35

1869. Colin. Words of Colin reported by Jeantin as an addition to the above “Account...” [OM 819, 41a]:

He said in 1869: “I received the order to consider only the apostles and no other religious society.”

Our models: Mary and the apostles

Text 36

c. 1823. Colin. Fragment of primitive Rule. (See parallel texts in later editions of the Constitutions.) [AT I, g, 5]:

In council, the superior shall always express his opinion last, that is after all the others, and the opinion which has more votes shall prevail. The superior himself, however, shall propose subjects for the various offices or works of the Society; he may even say what he has it in him to say so that the councilors might go along with these nominations. If the votes are equally divided between both sides, it is lawful for the superior to choose the side he wants, but he is invited and even beseeched, for the sake of humility, to choose the side which is contrary to his own. For, Mary always followed the will of others rather than her own.

Text 37

1833. Colin. From the “Summarium Regularum S.M.” (See parallel texts in later editions of the Constitutions.) [AT I, s, 23]:

In their hearts and in their works, let them obey the superior as though it were Christ commanding; their obedience is to be so prompt and complete that they may be surpassed in this virtue by no one and may truly be called sons of Mary, who always subordinated herself to those with whom she was living.

Text 38

1838 or 1839. Colin speaking to the Marists of Belley urging the practice of modesty. [Mayet 1, 232f]:

“Oh! Messieurs, look, then, at the blessed Virgin, she who was the Queen of Heaven: she was employed in lowly tasks, in the kitchen: there is our model. I like very much what a very holy nun said, that the blessed Virgin had so much respect for the apostles, the successors of her son, that when they entered her house to consult her on the affairs of the Church, she knelt before them and spoke to them only out of obedience, when they ordered her to do so. Ah! Messieurs, let us respect, let us respect the other bodies.”

Text 39

1838-1839. Colin. Discussion on politics, in the refectory at the Capucinière. [Mayet 1, 467-469 = FS 31, 3]:

Father Colin said, “What do you see in the Gospel to support your answer?” “What do you see which condemns it?” replied the theologian. Stirred by this, Father Colin quoted the passage of Saint Paul: ‘Let everyone be subject to the higher authorities’. “Scripture,” he said, “does not distinguish between de facto power and power by right. It is to the de facto power that we must submit. Otherwise public peace would be disturbed. How could anyone in conscience give approval to the undertaking of a man who, in order to restore a prince, even a legitimate one, to the throne intends first of all to create turmoil, stir up rebellions and cause great bloodshed? Let people offer prayers and devotions for the prince’s return, for a new flourishing of good principles, all well and good! That is the way, the acceptable way, the best way and even the most effective way. Yes, if a quarter of France, or rather — since there would after all be fewer than that — if only a small part of the population entered into fervent prayer, they would obtain all they wanted. But for the rest, we must submit. What did the first Christians do? During the first three centuries, were there many legitimate princes? Is not theirs still the conduct of the Church, and what do they say in Rome?”

Text 40

1838-1839. Colin. Spiritual identification with Mary in her actions. [Mayet 1, 509 = FS 33]:

He often said that people do not pay sufficient honor to the blessed Virgin in the services she rendered her son during his childhood. He recommended this practice to the Marists and to the boys in the college. He had obtained many consoling results from it.

Text 41

February 22, 1839. Colin. Extract from a letter to Champagnat. [LColin 390222.Cha, 1f]:

[1]

Four or five times now I have invited you, or have had someone ask you, to send a brother to Fr. Chanut in the diocese of Bordeaux.

[2]

My demand, so often repeated, shows you the importance that I attach to this act of obedience that I expect of you. Remember that Mary our mother, whom we ought to take as a model, after the ascension of her divine son, busied herself entirely with the needs of the apostles. There we have one of the first aims of the congregation of the brothers and of the Marist sisters, in regard to the priests of the Society, so that these latter, entirely free of temporal cares, might give themselves more freely to the salvation of souls. A brother at the service of the priests of the Society does twenty times more good, in my opinion, than if he were employed in a municipality where, thank God, the means for instructing young people are not lacking today.

Text 42

January 2, 1842. Colin. To some confreres. [Mayet 1, 534]:

On January 2, 1842, he brought the Rev. Frs. Jallon, Favre, Dussurgey, Lagniet and Eymard together in the so-called house of the Capuchins and spoke to them in words burning with zeal, saying to them that zeal is the essential quality of priests, of Marists; that Marists must be like the apostles; that the apostles were only 12 in number and that they had converted the world, “and we, Messieurs, we already number 40!”

Text 43

September 27, 1842. Colin. Conference during the general retreat. [Mayet 4, 138 = FS 60, 1]:

“Let each one work for the good of the Society by his conduct and his prayers. Look at the blessed Virgin! See how she hastened the coming of God by her burning desire. When she learned that she had been chosen to be his mother, what an effort she made to cooperate! When Jesus Christ was born, he was the object of all her thoughts and affections. After his death, her sole thought was the extension and development of the mystery of the Incarnation. That is the sign by which, precisely, you can recognize a Marist. But this desire must be prudent. He does not turn away vocations, but encourages them. If he sees about him someone who could profitably work in the Society of Mary, he will perhaps say a word or two, but without departing from the spirit of the Society. This concern, Messieurs, this interest and attachment, should extend to the other branches of the Society: we all form one body. Without any collusion, everything appeared at the same time and without effort. Let us then love the family that God has given us.”