|
|
|
A Marist Way of Living The Founder today! If he could speak today, we might imagine Jean-Claude Colin saying something like this: They were searing times, especially for someone of a sensitive and timid temperament. Yes, I attended Masses said secretly in barns at night, or in houses where the priest without vestments said Mass into a cupboard, while the people were ready to act as if they were playing cards if the police came. I remember the priest disguised as a shoemaker hearing confessions in the cellar of a house. You know my village was probably the one most torn apart by the split between those who supported the schismatic priest and those who supported the priest loyal to Rome. That's how I lost my parents; that's how our family was divided. It's no wonder that 'the world' was not a friendly place for me. The world after all had killed our gentle King; it had killed my father and mother; and it would have liked to kill my God. You can see why I wanted to be unknown, to be hidden from the world..... To be alone with God alone was more important to me than anything else. But there was another idea that kept coming back to me like a constant master-thought. What did Mary do in the Church after the Ascension? And what if we copied her way of life in the Church? Gradually, I came to realise that my call was not to be hidden from the world, but in the world. There were worlds to conquer, souls to save, and the best way to do it was by not imposing myself, by being unobtrusive, by putting myself inthe shoes of others. How I came to this understanding, I'll never know. Only the grace of God, on which I depended all my life, could ever explain it.
|
|
|
|