Champagnat Movement of the Marist Family
The Champagnat Movement of the Marist family in its long history of 30 years has wanted to help each member to discover and carry out his/her personal mission in the construction of the Kingdom of God. The new Project of Life which is being prepared within the process of updating of the Movement continues to include this dimension of the Marist mission, which seeks to develop the Marian face of the Church, that is to say, a Church that is humble, that serves and accepts, committed with those in greater need.
In our site we will be sharing some witnesses of Marist Fraternities which are projected in social centers, parishes, schools… with a strong dimension of solidarity that integrates it with their family and professional obligations. Today we present the Fraternity Fraternity Nossa Senhora da Assunção – Fortaleza (Province Brasil Centro-Norte)
Solidarity Projection in the spirit of Saint Marcelin
The Fraternity Our Lady of the Assumption was founded on December 8, 1988. At present it is formed by 13 members, 8 women and 5 men. Most of them have worked or maintained some type of identification with the ancient Marist School Cearense. Today not one of them works with the Marists. Nevertheless, we can see that they continue to be firm and much more committed. And therefore, this proves that they are imbued with the spirit of Saint Marcelin and that they remain faithful to his Charism.
From the beginning of this historical journey of 27 years of lived experience of the Christian and Marist dimensions, the members of the Fraternity have felt the need to commit themselves with concrete gestures of solidarity, at the level of the group as well as individually. The majority of them are committed in the Parishes and religious communities of the neighborhood where they reside. It is well to mention that their apostolate is permeated by the spirituality of the Champagnat Movement. Another fact that can be pointed out is that among the members of the Fraternity, there are six Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. We can also mention other activities carried out by the Fraternity: care of the elderly; presence, support and distribution of food to communities in need; financial help to those in need; material help taking care of children with cancer; help and presence in pastoral ministry with destitute people on the street; decisive participation in the creation of new fraternities. At present, the concrete objective of the Fraternity is the support to two entities in need and every time they have the occasion to do it, they speak about the importance of being a Marist Brother.