Marist Spirituality is about taking people where they are at. This is one of the strengths of the Marist Spiritual approach. It does not try to drag them kicking and screaming. It is about accepting in the first place. It is about building a relationship. It is about trying to understand a persons world view and respecting it.

In 1948 Aurora Marin arrives with her family at the convent of the Canossian Sisters of Schio, Italy, where Sister Bakhita has just died. Aurora was hoping to see her before she died. She gathers her children around the picture of Bakhita and tells them of the incredible life of the woman that had raised her as her nanny.

Father Brian Darcy argues that the Catholic Church urgently needs to recognise and restore women’s full and rightful role in ministry, particularly through ordination to the diaconate. He names the continued exclusion of women as a form of spiritual and human injustice that deprives the Church and the world of essential gifts at a time of great pastoral need. Drawing on Scripture, early Church history, and examples such as Phoebe and Mary Magdalene, he challenges claims that tradition or theology prevent change, noting that the Church has reformed many practices before in response to the Spirit and the needs of each generation. Darcy warns that by rejecting women’s vocations, the Church is failing its mission, losing gifted leaders to other denominations, and withholding healing from those who most need it. He calls for courageous reform so that the Church may truly proclaim the Good News with integrity, justice, and hope.

This leaflet is simply an outline guide for individuals and groups who are Marist according to the spirituality lived in the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers, Sisters Brothers, and Missionary Sisters). The name Marist is a family name belonging to a great variety of groups: the four religious congregations: Marist Brothers of the Schools, Marist Sisters, Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, Society of Mary and many lay groups.The Society of Mary is only part of something much greater. The first Marists called it 'the work of Mary'. This expression has a rich meaning: that Mary wants all people to experience the mercy of God. She calls others to share her concern: 'I will give you my name and you will do my work'. The work of those who live her spirit is to bring the gospel of love and mercy to the world. So when, as individuals or groups, we call ourselves 'Marist' we express a desire to live in a certain way and participate in this work of Mary.

The early Christian community was a faith community, sharing a common belief in a resurrected Jesus, a loving Father and an empowering Spirit. So strong was this belief and the power it had to draw its members together in true communion that it be­ came a counter-cultural and prophetic force, able to attract new members from every class of people and race, holding them together in a life of mutual love and service.

Every religious community modelled on the early Church com­munity is called to be a faith community with these and other similar characteristics.