Vocation of Marist laity and consacrated life
On 17 and 18 December 2012 the Provincial Assembly of « Brasil Centro-Sul » was held, during which the participants – 98 brothers and 44 lay persons – studied the Agenda of formation of brothers, lay people and collaborators.
Commemorating 50 years since Vatican Council II, and heeding the call of the XXI General Chapter asking for a new relationship between brothers and laity in order to promote together a greater vitality of the Marist charism, the 2012 Provincial Assembly, seeing the growth and importance of the laity in the Province and the need for renewal of the consacrated life of the brothers, offered the participants an exposition and a debate on the future of the Church and the Marist Institute in the perspective of a common moving forward.
The Assembly began on 17 December with a presentation and a debate on « the Year of Faith – the new evangelisation for the transmission of the Christian faith », recalling the words of Br Emili : « The new evangelisation is an invitation not to remain with arms folded. »
In developing this subject in the Assembly, it was easy to see that brothers as well as laity and co-workers ardently desire to live a shared life. The Marist laity are not simply collaborators, it is clear, but participants, with the brothers, in the mission of Christ.
For us, laity and shared life should be expressions of the new land: brothers and laity, living the same charism and drinking the water from the rock springing from the tradition of Saint Marcellin Champagnat.
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Benê Oliveira, fms