A new form of being brother

A formation session in the French language is being held in Rome for Brothers of the third age. It began on 1 September and will end on 31 October 2014. There are 22 participants, religious between the ages of 65 and 80, from various countries: 7 from Quebec, 8 French, 3 Greeks, 2 Belgians, and a Carmelite priest. The session is being held in the General House of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

With the theme « a new way of being Brother », the course is a time for “updating” of Brothers of the third age who freely abandon their everyday rhythm of life in order to respond to the call of the   General Chapter of 2009: “With Mary, to set out in haste for a new land.” For this reason, the session offers the opportunity for seeing how one can live this call personally and in community.

The program, therefore, follows the broad lines suggested by the General Council, consisting of promoting a form of conversion to the new situation presented by the present age in its world   context. 

Professional persons and specialists have been invited to help each participant journey at a good pace towards this new horizon which covers all the aspects of our commitment in the following of Christ. 

These are the topics:

1 living brotherhood as prophets and mystics

2 celibacy and sexuality, affectivity and religious chastity

3 Marist and Marian spirituality of the Marist brother

4 prayer and interiority

5 one Church dies and another is born: a horizontal Marial church

6 desert in the city and the places of pilgrimage (our Marist places – Lourdes and Assisi)

7 when one grows older…

8 towards 200 years of existence of the Institute of the Marist Brothers, in 2017.