Thought for the Day – 6 June – The Memorial of St Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) Founder of the Marist Brothers and St Norbert (c 1080-1134)
Today’s 2 Saints certainly confirm, once again, that there are two sure ways to sanctity – through the Holy Eucharist and the Mother of God. These are the absolute totality of our Faith, these are the Source and the Heart, these are the only ways we will achieve our goal!
The relationship of Marcellin to Mary was deeply marked by an affective and total trust in her, as the “Good Mother” because it was her work that he undertook.
He wrote once:
“Without Mary we are nothing and with Mary we have everything
because Mary always has her adorable Son within her arms or in her heart.”
This belief remained constant all through his life. Jesus and Mary were the treasure on which Marcellin had learned to place his own heart. This intimate relationship helped shape the Marian dimension of the Marist spirituality. In the Marist tradition, the phrase “Ordinary Resource” has come to encapsulate our constant reliance on Mary. The motto attributed to Champagnat by his biographer, All to Jesus through Mary, all to Mary for Jesus, captures this close relationship between the Son and the Mother and our Founder’s attitude of confidence in Mary, which we are invited to live.
Mary, Mother, Intercede for us!
St Marcellin, Pray for us!
Excerpt from the Thought for the Day last year:
St Norbert was 33 years old before he took God seriously and during the next 20 years he made up for lost time. He did not stop to bewail lost years but gave everything he had to God. It is never too late to begin and God is always waiting for our service. We do not need a bolt of lightening to get started.
Unswerving loyalty to the Church and fervent devotion to the Eucharist, as practiced by Norbert, will continue immeasurably toward maintaining the people of God in accord with the heart of Christ.
Let us get going!
AnaStpaul 