“Despierta” is the new educational slogan of the four Marist Provinces with establishments in Spain
“Wake up” is the motivational motto for the 2020-2021 academic year, developed by the Spanish Marist Conference (CME) for the four Provinces with establishments in Spain: Compostela, IbĂ©rica, L’Hermitage and Mediterránea. The motto has as its central theme the promotion of ecology in Marist educational institutions.
The initiative is in keeping with Pope Francis’ ‘Laudato Si’ which calls for “protecting our common home (…) uniting the whole human family in pursuit of sustainable and integral development”. The proposal also includes the fifth call of the XXII General Chapter which asks us to respond boldly to emerging needs: “to awaken in us and around us an ecological awareness that commits us to the care of our common home”.
Through the slogan “Wake up” the Institute of the Marist Brothers in Spain seeks to create ecological awareness throughout the academic year 2020-2021 and to contribute to the care of the planet, the environment, sustainability, the fight against pollution, desertification, recycling, monitoring our seas, and other ecological issues.
CME has provided classrooms with various teaching materials and resources around the theme. You can find more information about the theme and availability of materials (poster, motivation, videos and music), at this link.
The CME’s explanatory document on the subject reads as follows: “AWAKE is an important imperative, an SOS message to a Planet that is dying if we do not take care of it. We don’t want to be alarmist, so the other suggestions that we are going to explain below send us a message of hope. It is still in our hands to wake up and get “down to business” with the great gift of creation”. https://maristas.es/sites/maristas.es/files/archivos/obras_sociales_castellano.pdf
“To our concern for sustainability and the environment, we will add our commitment to all the inhabitants of the planet, starting with those who are most in need,” said the Brother Provincial of Compostela, Tomás Briongos during the meeting of the principals of schools, social works and colleges, coordinators of the Local Animation Team (EAL) and of projects held at the Champagnat Marist Residence of Valladolid.