The Marianist Mission
The Marianist Mission’s purpose is to promote the Catholic Church’s apostolic ministry, to assist in the spiritual development of our friends and benefactors, and to provide financial resources for the ministries and missions of the Society of Mary and the Daughters of Mary Immaculate.
Since 1960, the Marianist Mission has operated a prayer and religious card ministry. This ministry offers healing and sympathy perpetual prayer enrollments as well as seasonal and other messages of faith. This ministry is called The Marianist Spiritual Alliance (see below).
The Marianist Mission has also been a means to dialog with persons interested in what Marianists do and a way to receive their ideas, comments and gifts. Donations given through the Marianist Mission help fund Marianist ministries around the world.
--Uniting people in the power of prayer to work wonders in the world
An alliance is a group of individuals united by a similar vision or purpose. When fully alive, it is a partnership whose fruits offer a united, stronger energy that uplifts and transforms.
What better way to build or reveal love and light in each other and the world than by a spiritual alliance? Through your faith--prayers and other loving intentions--you form a partnership with God and bring greater joy and healing to people. The Marianist Spiritual Alliance, at the heart of the Marianist Mission, was formed for those reasons.
We, at the Marianist Mission, regard our role in this alliance as a sacred trust. We are happy to be engaged in the work of promoting and supporting prayer, and to unite persons of faith who are working to fulfill the meaning of Christ.
As a supporter of and participant in the Marianist Spiritual Alliance, you share in the prayers and good works of all Marianists and in every mass offered by Marianist priests.
We receive and attend to your prayer requests in a variety of ways. These come to us through the mail, telephone and Internet. We then send cards and other special types of messages to you for your loved ones (or we will send directly to them as you request), letting them know that they are being remembered in prayer by you and our brothers and priests. We also, at your request, will place prayer intentions on our chapel altar.
We are happy to listen to your needs and concerns over the telephone and to assist you in determining which sacred messages and materials you may wish to send for healing, sympathy, holidays, birthdays and other times of remembrance.
Wherever we are sent
we invite others to share in Mary's Mission
of making Christ present in every age and culture
by forming persons and communities of apostolic faith
that advance justice and reconciliation.
Committed to education,
we minister with youth and in solidarity with the poor.
The Society of Mary (Marianists), an international Catholic religious order of brothers and priests, was founded in 1817 in Bordeaux, France, by Blessed William Joseph Chaminade. His aim was to help restore Christianity to France after the French Revolution. The Society of Mary, together with a religious order of women, the Daughters of Mary Immaculate, and numerous affiliated lay groups, form the Marianist Family.
Marianists seek to imitate Mary's loving heart and steadfast witness in prayer and service, as well as her courage in being the channel for bringing Christ’s transformative message into our earthly existence.
The Marianists first settled in the United States in 1849 in Dayton, Ohio, which was part of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. In 1908, this American Province was divided into two: The Province of the Cincinnati and the Province of St. Louis. The Cincinnati Province was divided in 1948 to form the Pacific Province and again divided in 1961 to form the New York Province. On July 1, 2002, the four provinces united as the Province of the United States, headquartered in St. Louis. The new province also includes mission regions in India, Bangladesh, Mexico and Eastern Africa.
More than 600 professed members comprise the new province. Religious brothers make up approximately three-fourths of that total, and priests about one-fourth. There are almost 60 novices in the United States and four regions. The Province of the United States includes three universities, almost a score of secondary and middle schools, more than 10 parishes, six retreat centers and numerous ministries in areas such as social justice, spiritual formation, art and the environment.
|
