Keel008

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 8

September 23, 1846. Colin. Table talk at Puylata two days after the general retreat. [Coste text G (+) = Mayet 4, 520f = OM 631 = FS 117, 2f]:

Text

[2]

“As for miracles, ah, nowadays miracles are useless; the world does not believe in them. Prince von Hohenlohe worked a great many a few years ago. What notice did anyone take of them? Nowadays people do not talk about them, because unbelief and indifference are everywhere. As the end of time draws nearer, the faith is disappearing. Would you not say that we are in the days of which our Lord said, ‘Do you think the Son of Man will then find much faith on the earth?’ Messieurs, I am no prophet, but it seems to me that the end of time is not far off. The human race appears to me today to be like an old stump, one whose roots have been eaten into by a worm. That worm is the unbelief, the indifference which has made the world pagan for a second time.”

[3]

“As for us, Messieurs, we must reproduce the faith of the first believers. That is precisely what was foretold from our very beginning (he uttered these words in a somewhat mysterious and uneasy manner). It was foretold that the Society of Mary was not to model itself on any of the bodies which have preceded it; no, nothing of all that; but that our model, our only model, must be and was the early Church. And the blessed Virgin, who then did such great things, will do still greater ones at the end of time, because the human race will be even more ill.”