Marist Spirituality: Action 60

It was in Greece that the 60th action of animation on Marist Spirituality directed from Rome (Fr. Teofilo Minga) was held. On the occasion, Brother Mathieu Lévantinos, Director General of our schools in Greece, gave this welcoming address to Brother Provincial, to the Brother animating the session and the 240 participants in the seminar.

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I feel very happy indeed to welcome you to our establishment of the Lycée Léonin in Néa Smyrni for such an important meeting.

You certainly know the lively interest our schools show for the formation of their personnel, administrative, technical, and teaching, in matters of pedagogy but especially in aspects of Marist spirituality. For the important thing for all those working in a Marist school is not only professional competence, duty fulfilled or diligence, but also and above all, the deep and sincere agreement to live the principles of presence, simplicity, humility, availability, family spirit, and love of children, of all children, and more particularly neglected children. These are the principles our founder, Saint Marcellin Champagnat, promoted, and which constitute the identity of our schools, and which we are intended to apply in our daily teaching and to cultivate in the hearts of the children for whom we are responsible.

It is, therefore, indispensible to study and become more familiar with the sources of our spirituality, to be baptised again in the principles which compose our particular identity and the role which has fallen to us. In the framework of this effort, we began last year in February our common research of the contents of «Water from the Rock». During this meeting at the Lycée Léonin of Patissia, we exchanged points of view, and discussed in depth our experiences of life in the Marist schools. The balance of this meeting was a credit one, and the spiritual profit such that many colleagues asked that there be another.

And so here we are today living this follow-up. All those who have wished to take part freely in this encounter of meditation, exchange of view points, and expression of personal thoughts on the important question of the relationship of collaboration and love between Brothers and Laity and the feeling of co-responsibility with regard to our common mission. All the same, this co-responsibility does not come by itself. It grows with the feeling of belonging to a family in which each of us can find fulfillment, encouragement, and support.

By giving and receiving love, we can fight individualism, egoism, the refusal of generosity. Thus, at the heart of the community of Brothers and Laity we link our personal history with the quality of our community life. We share the struggles, the successes, but also our disappointments and our defeats. So it was also with Marcellin Champagnat and the first Brothers. That is the way it is and the way it must be with us. Living like sisters and brothers, we acquire a stable and precious grace for enriching ourselves, despite our differences, our communication and our mutual respect, improving even more our relationships and the base on which they are founded: love.

Let us not forget Saint Marcellin?s commandment to the Little Brothers of Mary: « Keep ever alive among you the charity of Christ. Love one another as Jesus Christ has loved you. Be of one heart and one mind. Have the world say of you what they said of the first Christians: See how they love one another! »

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Br.Mathieu Levantinos
Néa Smyrni, (Athens), 17-4-2010