It is my pleasure to
welcome you to the international Web site of the Society of Mary. I
invite you to spend some time with us and to wander through these pages in a
prayerful and reflective way.
Reading these pages will give you an insight into the special
contribution that the priests and brothers of our Marian congregation
make each day, through their dedicated ministry, to the lives of
countless men and women throughout the world.
Our
distinctive spirituality aims at living the Gospel in the spirit of Mary,
Jesus' first and foremost disciple. It has enriched our lives and I
strongly believe it can enrich your life as well.
I invite you to share "Mary's Way" and live with us "the
spirit of Mary."
Fr Jan Hulshof, SM,
Superior General
Letter
from the SUPERIOR
GENERAL
2008-1 ♦ March ♦ Vocations
Dear
confreres
Last
December 28 thirteen novices of Oceania made their profession in
Tutu. Andrea, Alfred, Borger, Fabian, Glenfort, Godfrey and again
Godfrey, Iosefo, Patrick, Raymond, Richard, Samuel and Tuiaki took a
decisive step on their journey toward freedom, love and joy, to use
the words of our Constitutions: ‘Freed by God’s love from all
self-seeking, they become faithful servants of the Father’s will and
come to know the joy promised by Christ’ (94). The profession
came after several years of pre-novitiate training and a year of
intensive initiation into religious life under the direction of
their master of novices, Ben McKenna, and his socius, Milikiade
Raiyalu. It was an encouraging event for Marists not only in Oceania
but beyond.
Outside
Oceania the news of a group of over a dozen young men joining the
Society may have caused some amazement. ‘Why do Oceania, Mexico
and the districts have novices and why do we have so few vocations
in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand?’ The question
is bothering for many of us and I hear all kinds of answers: ‘We
don’t get vocations because we don’t deserve them.’ -‘Young
people are so occupied with money, career and leisure activities,
that they can’t think of religious life.’- ‘In western societies
religious life is no longer a lever for social advancement’.
I don’t
believe that Marists in one part of the world are of lesser quality
than in another nor do I believe that young adults within the
tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are more generous than those
outside. But it makes a difference whether a young person in his
religious quest feels supported by family, school and friends or has
to sort out things alone. It makes a difference whether becoming a
religious means moving up or rather coming down the social ladder.
Here we have some hints for an answer. Although in secularized
cultures faith in God has not disappeared, it certainly has lost
much of its social support. And since there is no religious life
without faith in God, in many parts of the world religious life
likewise has lost much of its social support.
We should not lament about
this. What appears a difficulty might turn out to be an opportunity.
Religious life is by nature a highly personal enterprise. Like Jesus
himself, his disciples had to go against expectations of family,
clan and culture. The only motivation which counted for Jesus was an
uncompromising passion for God and his kingdom. A religious
profession is exactly that: a public expression of a person’s
passion for God. This is what attracts young people in religious
life. Anything else is available elsewhere. This does not mean that
Jesus wants his disciples to become ethereal and unworldly. When he
tells them ‘Seek first God’s kingship over you’ (Matthew 5,
33), he wants their hearts to be set on fire in love of God and love
of neighbour. Passion for God in the Scriptures involves
self-abandonment to prayer and contemplation, but is equally a
passion for humanity involving brotherly love. ‘And what does the
Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk
humbly with your God’ (Micah, 6,8).
All
this is important for the vocation issue. The first thing to do is
not to organize vocation activities, but to transform our
communities into places where some kind of passion for God is
palpable, Expressed in the way we organize our time, our common life
and our ministries. The recent Vocation Newsletter of Atlanta
and Boston has a report on the past seven years of vocation
ministry. I refer to two of its conclusions. The first one is that
for young adults of today inquiring about religious life, ministry
is a concern, but not the concern. ‘They want to know how
the vows, prayer, worship, and community living will make demands on
them that will be sufficient and worthy enough to elicit from them
the gift of their lives.’ The second conclusion is that in the
USA religious orders still receive vocations, but only ‘those
that present a clear picture of their religious life: one that does
not focus exclusively on their ministry but includes prayer and
community life.’
If we
succeed in re-establishing our priorities why should we not believe
that our Society has a future, not only in Oceania but elsewhere?
Recently an international English language novitiate has been
established joining the existing novitiates of Oceania in Tutu and
of Latin America in La Jordana, Mexico. It will begin in
April 2009 in the Philippines. I ask you in this time of Lent and
Easter to keep our present and future novices and their formators in
your prayers. In all this the life of each of us is at stake. After
all each novitiate is a symbol of every Marist’s life long journey.
There is no end to learning how to ‘live the mystery of Christ’s
death and resurrection’ and how to ‘die to this world and to
herald the new world inaugurated by the risen Jesus’
(Constitutions, 94).
I wish
you many blessings for Holy Week and Easter.
Jan
Hulshof Superior General
2007-4 ♦ December ♦
TO RENEW OUR MARIAN PRAYER
Dear Fellow Marists,
‘In the context of our life in Christ’ one of our first concerns
should be ‘to deepen our understanding of our relationship to Mary
and to renew our Marian prayer’. This statement of the Council of
the Society of 2005 is the subject of my letter. To say it straight
away, I can in no way maintain that this policy line has caused a
shock wave in the Society. True, the province of France is preparing
a collection of Marian reflections, prayers and witnesses as a
sequel to the fine publication of 1990 ‘Des Maristes parlent de
Marie’, but on the whole the statement did not set us afire. Is
this a sign of indifference?
Not necessarily. In July I stayed in La Neylière with confreres and
friends from the Netherlands. One evening, after the Eucharist, we
turned to Mary as she is depicted on the fresco of Chantal Dessirier
on the back wall of the oratory. A Marist commented: ‘Mary is at our
back and this is perhaps how it should be. She is an inspiration
behind us rather than an object of personality cult in front of us.
Instead of looking at Mary, we prefer to look at life with
her.’ These words reminded me of what Jean Coste noticed in 1973:
Marists seem more interested in following Mary’s approach to life
than in focusing on her person. He thought this attitude, rather
than indifference, might show a typical sensitivity for Mary’s way
of being present: ‘as it were hidden and unknown’.
Still, Coste also sounded a note of
warning. The day, he said, when Mary is no more than the symbol of
an ideal approach, without love of the person who has inspired that
approach…, on that day there will not be much left of our Society (The
place of Mary among Marists today, 1973). I think what Coste
pointed to was that in the end we don’t draw life from symbols but
from persons. The Scriptures speak of the Risen Christ as a person.
‘He loves us’ (Rev. 1, 5). Mary, taken up to heaven, cannot but
participate in his love for us. This is why Vatican II refers to her
as a loving and caring person (Lumen Gentium, 62). Our
Society always lived its relationship to Mary as a personal bond.
Marists felt they were responding to her call, trusted in her help,
and committed themselves to her work: to support the Church as it
comes to birth amidst the struggles of ‘these latter days’. Without
this personal relationship to Mary our Marian prayer would not make
sense. Together with innumerable Christians from East and West we
ask Mary to guide us to Christ, to support us in our journey, and to
show us her tenderness as Mother of Mercy.
But we should know the one to whom we address ourselves. We need to
deepen our understanding of our relationship to Mary. This means in
the positive sense of the word that by listening to Christ ‘as Mary
did’ we learn ‘to breathe her spirit’ and discern what she stands
for, so that we don’t ‘seek our own interests but only those of
Jesus and Mary’ (Constitutions, 228). At the same time we
need that critical sense, nurtured by faith, to discern distorted
forms of Marian devotion. Too often Mary has been used to serve
human interests and to drive people apart: to be a Catholic rallying
point against Protestantism, republicanism, communism and feminism,
and not to forget against Islam. Admittedly, it is now a long time
ago since the feasts of Our Lady of Victories (the Rosary)
and the Holy Name of Mary were established in thanksgiving to
Mary for helping Christians beat the Turks, but still today
nationalistic and religious ideologies find fertile soil at some
Marian shrines. How, for heaven’s sake, is it possible to serve the
interests of Jesus and Mary by praying the rosary against Muslims?
Vatican II points in a different direction. We should ask Mary to
‘intercede before her Son until all families of people, whether they
are honoured with the title of Christians or whether they still do
not know the Saviour, may be happily gathered together in peace and
harmony into one People of God’ (Lumen Gentium, 69).
In September 2008 we hope to start a year of spiritual preparation
for our General Chapter of 2009. Perhaps you know a Marian prayer –
apart from the traditional prayers - which you love especially. Why
not send it to us in Rome to help us compose a collection of Marian
prayers from various parts of the world to be used for the
preparation of the General Chapter? The collection should express
the richness of the cultural diversity of Marian prayer. In this way
we may help one another to renew our Marian prayer. I thank you in
advance for the attention you give to this request. We would need to
have your contribution before 1 May 2008.
Next week we celebrate Immaculate Conception. Marian devotion
in our tradition seems more a matter of gentle gestures than of
exuberant manifestations or massive pilgrimages. Our Founder loved
to keep things simple: ‘To implore the help of her
protection, let them, when they pass before any image of this kind
Virgin, devoutly salute her with the words: Hail Mary, conceived
without sin’ (Constitutions 1872, 198).
Jan Hulshof
Superior General
2007-3 ♦ September ♦
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION (FORMATION)
Dear confreres,
This letter is about
international collaboration in our Society, especially in the field
of formation. When Paul Frechette and I recently visited Melanesia,
we were impressed to see to what extent Marist life in Oceania is
international. In the Solomon Islands we met local Marists, but also
confreres from Tonga, Bougainville, United States, Great Britain,
Ireland and the Netherlands. In Bougainville we were welcomed by
Marists from Bougainville, but also from mainland PNG, Fiji, Tonga,
Solomon Island and the Netherlands. Marists from PNG, Tonga and Fiji
looked after the parish of Kanosia in PNG, one hour drive from Port
Moresby.
International
collaboration would have been impossible without international
formation. What struck us in Marist College Bomana was
the international composition of this formation community. Quite a
few students are from Bougainville, others are from Vanuatu, Fiji,
Tonga and the Solomon Islands, whereas their formators and lecturers
are from Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. This reminded me of my visit
of last year to the novitiate in Tutu and to Marist College
Suva where I had a similar experience of internationality. Students
and novices were from each of the eight regions of the Province
including a confrere from Cameroon. Formators and lecturers were
from Tonga, Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and
Bougainville.
Perhaps international
formation in Oceania was born out of necessity. However a virtue was
made out of necessity and a need was turned into an opportunity.
International formation has helped students prepare themselves for
mission in a rapidly globalizing world. Characteristic of this world
are migration, multinational enterprises, tourism and global
information technology, but also, on the local level, ethnic and
cultural tensions which are the reverse of globalization. In
international formation centers students experience that God’s
Kingdom goes beyond national borders. They learn to build community,
not by pressing for uniformity but by respectfully dealing with
differences and so they are challenged to ‘avoid all
discrimination which might arise from difference of race, nation,
region or culture and understand each other, to listen, to
communicate frequently in friendship, and to go beyond their own
views and interests for the sake of the Kingdom’ (Constitutions,
29).
The General Chapter of
2001 asked the Superior General to give priority to the
international dimension of formation. We spent a lot of time and
energy in charting the overall situation of formation in our
congregation. Craig Larkin, vicar general and in charge of
formation, visited every formation house of the Society. Looking at
his report in the light of the results of the Council of the Society
of Mexico we reached the conclusion that further
internationalization of formation is necessary for practical reasons
and desirable for missionary reasons. In November in Sydney the
general administration and the major superiors will discuss the
proposal that for the foreseeable future the Society will have
three international novitiates: one in Oceania, one in Latin America
and a third English speaking novitiate. It should also have three
international theologates: two in Oceania and one elsewhere.
These formation centers should develop relationships of exchange and
mutual support.
I have heard Marists
arguing that formation should take place within the proper culture
of the trainee. This objection can not adequately be dealt with in
this short letter. Nevertheless I make three comments. 1) We propose
to internationalize only two of the six stages of formation:
novitiate and theology. Pre-novitiate formation and philosophy,
year(s) of practical ministry, diaconate year and the first five
post-profession or post-ordination years remain the responsibility
of the home provinces. 2) International formation is not meant to be
a-cultural, rather multi-cultural. A student’s proper
culture should not be put between brackets so that inter-cultural
exchange will unavoidably be part of community life. 3) Contrary to
what many believe, being abroad is not detrimental to one’s cultural
identity and sensitivity. As Rudyard Kipling has put it: ‘And
what should they know of England who only England know?’ What I
heard a young Marist saying comes down to the same: ‘It is only
since I have been abroad, that I have understood what it means to be
Tongan’.
May the Holy Name
of our First and Perpetual Superior be a source of inspiration for
all of us and especially for those among us who are involved in
formation: students as well as formators, lecturers, major
superiors, formation committees and last but not least our
benefactors.
Jan
Hulshof
Superior General
2007-2
♦ June ♦
VOCATIONS
Dear Fellow Marists,
I begin this
letter out of a simple conviction: the rejuvenation of its personnel is a major
concern for any organization that believes in its future. Practically all
Marists whom I have seen over the past years shared this concern but many
admitted, all the same, that they seldom suggested to anyone to join us. When I
asked why not I received three kinds of answers:
1) ‘I
find recruitment outmoded since it is an infringement on a candidate’s freedom.’
2) ‘My
province lacks the soul and fire that we need to welcome candidates.’
3) ‘The
average age of my province makes it irresponsible to invite new candidates.’
Each of
these answers deserves consideration. What follows is no more than some first
steps in turning our attention to vocations and recruitment.
-
Is recruitment an infringement upon a candidate’s freedom?Of course, every vocation is part of a personal conversation
between God and the individual and no third party should tactlessly butt in. It
is God who calls. Still, He usually does so through human mouthpieces. The
Scriptures all full of stories of people who call or are being called. Often
they don’t like to call nor do they like to be called. Today this is more true
than ever before as our social life is very much governed by the principle of
noncommittal communication. ‘Please, don’t challenge me and I shall not
challenge you!’ A call breaks through such social decencies. Jesus did not
compel his disciples, but for sure he did call them. It may look
as if I respect someone’s freedom by not showing him a possible way to go, but
also by keeping my mouth shut I may infringe his freedom. I deprive him of the
chance of freely opting for a way he could possibly have chosen had I told him
about it. Recruitment is not against freedom. On the contrary it requires an
atmosphere of freedom and trust which has to be created by personal contact.
Damian Dempsey, until recently vocation promoter in New Zealand, said that his
experiences had reinforced his belief that‘when it comes to promoting
vocations, there’s no substitute for personal contact.’ The evaluation of
the promising discernment weekends in Boston and Berkeley, about which the
recent May Vocation Newsletter of Atlanta and Boston reports, points in
the same direction.
- Is my
unit unready to welcome vocations?I prefer to
approach the question from a more positive angle. So did Father Colin when he
said that the Marists of Lyons attracted vocations because they were working in
prisons and among the poor. “ People say: ‘The Marists go into the prisons,
look after the poor... that is truly a work of God’. They request admission to
the Society, and it is that which has won their affection” (A Founder
Speaks, 18:3). If Colin is right, we cannot content ourselves simply by
freeing a man for vocation ministry and providing him with a budget. We all need
to renew our lives and ministries. How else can we credibly pray for vocations?
At the same time, a community doesn’t need to be perfect to be ready to welcome
vocations. As a candidate once said to me that he was happy in his community,
not in spite of its deficiencies but with its deficiencies. ‘It
is more challenging to work together to improve things than to walk alone
behind brothers who are far ahead on the path of holiness.’ Anyway,
experience shows a kind of interaction between a candidate and his community. A
community helps a candidate in his spiritual growth and a candidate makes a
community aware anew of what it means to be called to follow Jesus in a band of
brothers.
-
Is the average age in my province or delegation too high for inviting new
members? I don’t play down the seriousness of
this question, but I would like to see it discussed in a broader context. The
age gap between the youngest members of a unit and a new candidate could be
reduced if a unit would become part of a bigger entity. The effect of the age
gap will also diminish if we train our candidates in more internationally
structured formation centers. I refer to the question raised by John Thornhill
in Forum Novum in November 2000: In how far does the dividing of our
Society into self-contained units make it difficult to share creative energies
to be found in the Society? Not for nothing our Decreta Capitularia begins by saying that by his profession a Marist belongs to the Society as a
whole (DC 3).
In the
months ahead of us, chapters and assemblies of provinces and delegations in
Europe and the USA will discuss more appropriate structures for our life and
mission. Today we need insight and wisdom, but even more so courage and fire.
Perhaps we too often just carry on studying questions not because we want to get
to the answers, but because we are afraid of what they might be. At Pentecost we
celebrate the founding of the Church. It came into being as the community of
those called from the nations(‘ekklesia’). What inspired Peter
and the eleven to stand up, raise their voice, address the crowd and so to begin
the Church (Acts 2:14) was not a feasibility study or an optimum condition
analysis, but the experience of the Holy Spirit. So let us pray with the
disciples of Jesus and with Mary, the mother of Jesus, for the coming of the
Holy Spirit over the Church and over our Society.
Jan Hulshof Superior General
2007-1
♦ March
♦ MISSION
Dear
Fellow Marists,
Our mission in Oceania and the
districts gets much attention, so much so that confreres at times wonder whether
the Society still has a mission in what I, for the sake of convenience, call ‘the western part’ of the world: Australia and New Zealand, Europe, USA,
Canada. This letter deals with this question.
It is true that some of us still
label specific geographic areas as ‘mission countries’ and associate ‘mission’ with third world, poverty and distant lands. But this way of
thinking is out of touch with reality. I remember an expatriate missionary who
had health problems. His doctor thought he should consider returning home, but
that was not what was wanted: ‘I dread returning home and taking up some
ministry in my home country. When I was there last time on holidays, I saw
mainly empty pews at Mass. Even the children of my nephews and nieces are not
all baptized! I want to die as a missionary!’ At that moment his doctor
couldn’t help remarking: ‘After all you told me, if you want to die as a
missionary, you perhaps better go home!’
Our constitutions do not single out
mission territories, but just say that we are all called to be missionary: ‘anywhere and at any time’ (12). Still, the question remains as to what we
mean by ‘missionary’, since ‘mission’ has become such a
key-concept in theology and doctrine that it defines the Church in its inner
being and all its activities. More concretely, in our constitutions to be
missionary means going from place to place to announce the Word of God,
reconciling, catechizing, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, doing the works
of mercy, attending the poor and those who suffer injustice (12). Special
attention is given to education (13) and to first evangelization and the renewal
of Christian communities (12-14). No specific territories are mentioned. The
chapter of 2001 does not single out specific mission regions either, but speaks
about global trends that condition our mission everywhere (SD 1-27). Finally,
the Council of the Society of 2005 explicitly states that evangelization and
re-evangelization are our priority in each of the five continents (30).
So, if there is a problem, it is
not in our texts, but rather in our heads, our mentalities and our practices.
With respect to mission today, we need to review our co-ordinate grid. We still
speak of the people on the margins of the Church, but the peripheral position
has become the norm. Catholics who don’t come to Mass no longer are the
exception which proves the rule, nor do they cause surprise. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
theologian, recently put it this way: ‘Jesus’ mandate is still there: Leave
the ninety-nine who haven’t strayed and go after the one who has strayed. Today,
however, the default seems to have shifted and it’s perhaps more a case of
leaving the one and going after the ninety-nine.’
This means that we have to start
from new assumptions. We
can’t at the same time say that we are in a mission situation and yet complain about empty pews and
religious illiteracy … Why be surprised and discouraged that a mission field
doesn’t look like a rose garden? With this respect our founder was remarkably
realistic: ‘There is no need to go to Oceania to find suffering and danger.
Are the majority of Frenchmen any better than the natives of Oceania? Have they
any more faith? Better morals? Those of you who have travelled through France
know well enough. Let us work then, all of us, Messieurs, with new zeal, some in
France, others abroad.’ (A Founder Speaks, 117,8). Instead of complaining
about our contemporaries, it would be better, in the best missionary tradition,
to set ourselves to work to learn their language. After all, missionaries always
had to announce the Gospel in the language of those to whom they were sent.
From 7–11 November major superiors
and general administration will meet in Sydney to evaluate how units implement
important policy lines of CS 2005 such as: ‘In each of the five continents
the Society will give special emphasis to evangelization and re-evangelization
and will regularly evaluate its ministries in the light of this emphasis’
(30). In June the joint assembly of Atlanta and Boston will deal with the new
missionary challenges in the USA. Between June and early September in Europe
extra-ordinary chapters and assemblies of the provinces and delegations will
define their position as to the best way to carry out our mission in Europe.
Marists in New Zealand and Australia have recently established working
relationships for the areas of adult education, youth, city ministries and inner
city parishes to explore together what ‘to be missionary’ means in their
secularized and individualistic societies of today.
All this suffices to answer the question that I raised at the
beginning of this letter. It is a straight forward ‘yes!’. Yes, the
Society always had, and has now more than ever before, a mission in any part of
the world, in Australia, New-Zealand, Europe, USA and Canada no less than
elsewhere. May our journey towards Easter, that we have just started on Ash
Wednesday, enlighten our minds, strengthen our wills and warm our hearts so that
we may become more generous and passionate witnesses of the Risen Lord.
Society of Mary
