The process of the International Forum on the Lay Marist Vocation has ended

Read more about the Forum

We have reached the end of 2024, after four years of a journey shared by lay women and men, and brothers, reflecting and discerning together, at different times, in the process that we have called the International Forum on the Lay Marist Vocation.

We can affirm that the Forum has been, above all, a gift of the Spirit. The Ruah has been the central protagonist of this adventure that we began on March 19, 2021. It has involved hundreds of people who vibrate with the Marist charism in many parts of our world.

Little by little, we have tried to discover the intuitions that we felt as inspiration of the Spirit for this concrete moment of our history as Marists of Champagnat. Specifically, for those who want to continue exploring and deepening their Lay Marist Vocation.

In previous issues of this bulletin “Sharing” (nn. 19, 21 and 25) or in the magazine “Message. Marists of Champagnat” (n. 52), we have shared the experiences and the steps we have taken during this experience of ‘walking together’, as a synodal pathway, listening to the Spirit.

In these lines we will report on the Virtual Forum (Phase 5), the last stage of the International Forum process, which took place during the months of November and December 2024, with four online sessions.

Phase 4 came to an end in July 2024, with the work entrusted to a group of 23 delegates from different Administrative Units. They met for a little over a year, in different working groups, in both face-to-face and virtual spaces. Their mission was to deepen and try to concretize the message “Ruah: Breaths of the Spirit for the Lay Marists”, fruit of the international face-to-face meeting of November 2022, in Rome.

We recall that these “breaths of the Ruah” were the following: 1) To deepen the understanding of the Marist vocation with particular emphasis on the lay Marist vocation; 2) To review and offer processes and pathways of formation and accompaniment of the lay vocation; 3) To reflect and propose possible forms of bonding to the Marist charism; 4) To know, reflect, explore and propose possibilities of juridical structures (civil and/or canonical) for the Marist laity.

After the conclusion of phase 4, more concrete clues were offered for each of the topics addressed, being aware that we were facing a new inspiration of the Spirit, which was expressed in a single “breath of the Ruah”, which integrated and connected the reflection of the working groups. This “breath” was concretized in the creation of an “International Association of Lay Marists of Champagnat”.

The images of a house built on rock, of a tent that allows to welcome, to be flexible and to move easily, or that of a home where life and relationships are cared for and where the dreams that drive the Mission are shared, have been inspiring all the reflection on how this Association could be. We have also been inspired by the image of a great Marist square, our Global Charismatic Family, which makes us better understand its diversity and the richness of those who are part of it, with different ways of being in this family, of living and expressing the charism of Champagnat.

Phase 5: virtual Forum

In four different connections, the virtual Forum has had most of the participants in the face-to-face phase of November 2022. It combined times of prayer and celebration, the presentation of the different themes for reflection and discernment, conversations in small groups, assembly with open speaking time and a survey in each connection to take the pulse of the acceptance of the proposals presented. 

The participants were provided with a previous document elaborated with the contributions of each working group, which integrated and connected them. This document consisted of the following sections: 1) Presentation; 2) Context and historical background; 3) The Breath of the Spirit: the creation of an International Association of Lay Marists of Champagnat; 3) Identity, vocation and life of Lay Marists of Champagnat; 4) The formative paths of belonging; 5) Public commitment: the promise of fidelity to the charism; 6) Associative organization, governance, financial sustainability and connections with the Institute of the Marist Brothers. 

1. In the first session of the virtual Forum, a brief review of the process from the beginning was made and the global proposal to create an International Association of Lay Marists of Champagnat, its purposes and the type of activities it could develop were discussed.
2. In the second part, the reflection on the identity, vocation and life of the Lay Marists of Champagnat was presented, from the point of view of the three dimensions of the charism: Mission, Spirituality and Shared Life. A characterization of the different ways of being in the Charismatic Family was also presented, which made us aware of the great diversity that exists.
3. The topics of conversation in the third session were the formative pathways and processes of accompaniment, as well as the promise of fidelity to the charism as a public sign of commitment and associative belonging.
4. Finally, the fourth session dealt with everything related to the organization, the forms of associative government, economic issues and the relationship between the Association and the Institute of the Brothers. The next steps to be taken during 2025 and 2026 were also presented: the presentation of the proposal to the General Council and the XXIII General Chapter, requesting their support; the beginning of the drafting of the Statutes of the Association with legal advice, both canonical and civil; continuing the accompaniment and dialogues with the Administrative Units.

We make a very positive assessment of the Virtual Forum. There has been a high level of participation and commitment from the participants, as well as a serene, fraternal climate of deep listening and consensus on the main lines presented. There is still a need for further deepening of some issues and better definition of some details, but the overall validation of the proposal has reached a high level of support with more than 95% support in all the questions posed.

Another aspect to highlight has been the support, closeness and involvement of Brother Ernesto and the Brothers of the General Council. This shows us that the conviction that a future of communion and co-responsibility between Brothers and Laity is already a present reality.

Broadly speaking, the main consensuses have been the following:

• To ask the Institute for approval to promote the creation of an “International Association of Lay Marists of Champagnat”, with a double expression: canonical and civil. This would imply the recognition of the Institute and the Church, on the one hand, and of civil society, on the other. The principles on which the Association would be based would be, at the same time, the autonomy of the laity and communion with the Institute of the Marist Brothers.
• That the fundamental purpose of this Association be “to care for and promote the lay Marist vocation and mission, in communion and co-responsibility with the Marist Brothers”.
• That the members of the canonical entity be men and women who, from their baptized condition, have explored paths of discovery and deepening of their Marist vocation, as lay people. After a process of discernment, at some point along the way, they would express a public sign of commitment to live the following of Jesus inspired by the traits of the Marist charism. This sign would be a promise of charismatic fidelity which would also imply associative membership. They would be people with a clear awareness of their vocation as Marists and as lay people.
• That it is very important to design flexible and processual formative pathways that allow the vocational journey, from the keys of personalization, community reference and accompaniment for discernment.
• That the existence of this International Association would imply several important aspects: 1) an associative organization at all levels: global, regional, national and local; 2) its animation and government; 3) its viability and vitality, for which economic and financial support is necessary.
• Finally, the experience of communion with the Marist Institute is considered fundamental, for which the Association must have channels of connection and mutual collaboration with the communities of Brothers and the works where the Institute is present.

What now?

Now it is time to take the road to implement this great shared dream. It is the time of concreteness and details. This will mean continuing to walk together, synodically, in permanent listening to the Spirit. It will imply giving answers to what today are only intuitions, which have remained as open topics and for which there is not total clarity at the present moment. Among others, it would be necessary to highlight some of them:

• How to adequately articulate the canonical and civil entities at all levels.
• How to make possible the forms of belonging to the civil entity, welcoming the existing diversity in the lay world, with a special call to the encounter with people of non-Christian spiritual or religious traditions.
• The reflection around the understanding of our Charismatic Family, together with other areas and teams of the global Institute and the Administrative Units: Mission, Management, Animation or Government.
• The need to have a document-guide for the formative pathways and the accompaniment of the vocational processes.
• All the practical aspects at the legal, organizational, government and financial levels.

It is time, then, to continue to make possible what prompted us to design the International Forum. That is, how to “welcome, live, care for and share the lay Marist vocation”. We are living in a time of uncertainty, of few certainties, of profound change at all levels. In our world we continue to discover people in search of the meaning of life, struggling for survival and the improvement of their rights and dignity, with longings for peace and fraternity, with a deep desire to meet God. The Mission urges us and it is expected of us, Lay Marists of Champagnat, a close, significant and transforming presence of the reality according to God’s project.

In Mary we find a clear reference to live our lay vocation, as the first follower of Jesus, welcoming God’s plan for her life and being sensitive to the concrete needs of the people. May She continue to encourage our hope and our commitments.