Marists of Brazil establish the Marist Day of Our Lady Good Mother

Celebration for May 4 (Portuguese) | Good Mother | Images of Our Lady, Good Mother

In a letter sent on April 22, Leonardo Soarez, Executive Secretary of the Marist Union of Brazil (UMBRASIL), announced the establishment, at the national level, of the Marist Day of Our Lady Good Mother, to be celebrated annually on May 4, starting in 2024. The proposal of the three Marist Provinces of Brazil was presented to the UMBRASIL Board, approved by its Superior Council and finally validated by the Ordinary General Assembly held last February.

UMBRASIL welcomed the proposal to create a day of the Good Mother because it saw in this initiative a significant pastoral potential for Marist life, in particular:

1. to highlight Mary as a Marist inspiration since the time of St. Marcellin Champagnat to the present day;
2. to stimulate the theme of vocation promotion;
3. to motivate the study and living of Marian Spirituality.

The choice of May 4 has a historical justification, because around this date in 1830, after Father Champagnat instituted the singing of the Salve Regina as part of the brothers’ daily prayer, the Congregation was preserved from dangers and persecutions that threatened its existence.

In the Letter addressed to the Marists of Brazil, Leonardo states that “with the institution of the Marist Day of Our Lady Good Mother, the Marists take a further step towards the realization of Champagnat’s desire, expressed in his Spiritual Testament, ‘that a tender and filial love for our good Mother never fail you in all the changes of time and circumstance’.”ista Champagnat – Taguatinga, transmitida ao vivo pelo Canal da Umbrasil no Youtube.