Second day of the Marist Symposium
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On Tuesday, December 5, during the Marist Symposium “Sources and Streams”, three talks were planned, and, in the last session, the participants were able to choose one of the three seminars proposed.
The first talk was a continuation of the topic treated the day before by Brother AndrĂ© Lanfrey, “The Origin of the Marist Brothers in the Society of Mary”. The day’s reflection covered the period after the death of St. Marcellin Champagnat, the periods under the tutelage of Father Colin (1840-1852) and the affirmation of their own identity in the face of papal authority and the Marist Fathers (1852-1863).
In the second part of the morning, Angelo Ricordi, from the Province of Brasil Centro-Sul, spoke on the Spirituality of the Heart. He works as a researcher at the Marist Memorial of Curitiba and at the Ir. François Rivat Chair of the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná. His thesis “A certeaunian reading of the origins of Marist Spirituality” deals with the importance of the manuscripts of the Founder and of the first Marist Brothers in the construction of the spirituality of the Institute. With this conference, Angelo wanted to underline the importance of “going back to the sources” and their hermeneutics for the relevance of what we understand by Marist spirituality in our time. To this end, he showed that all the expressions used throughout the history of the Institute to understand its spirituality, such as “the spirit of the Institute”, “Marist apostolic spirituality”, “the spirituality of Father Champagnat” and, more recently, “the spirituality of the heart”, are historical and contextualized re-readings that can be included in what we call Marist spirituality.
In the afternoon, the participants attended the conference of Brother Manuel Mesonero Sánchez, who is a professor at Villalba College (Madrid) and delegate of MarCha Groups of the College. Brother Manuel has published 8 books on Marcellin. His talk was entitled “From darkness to light. The passage from Asceticism to Mysticism in Marcellin Champagnat”, presenting the figure of Marcellin in the transition from Asceticism to Mysticism. He placed Marcellin at La Valla and the Hermitage, showing the characteristics of his ascetical life, and then narrated the events that gave rise to the “Dark Night”. He ended by pointing out the impact that these events had on him, and the meaning he gave to this period when he came out of it.
The end of the afternoon of the second day of the symposium was marked by three proposals that took place simultaneously. Each participant chose to speak on one of them:
- Personal Letters of Brother François – Br. Antonio MartĂnez EstaĂşn (Province of l’Hermitage).
- Marist spiritual patrimony and institutional identity: visual and digital narratives and multisensory experiences – Dyogenes Philippsen Araujo (Province of Brasil Centro-Sul).
- Exhibition and explanation of material from the General Archives: Dorotea Cinanni (Director of the General House Archives) and Br. Colin Chalmers (District of West Central Europe).
The Eucharistic celebration concluded the last day of the Symposium.
