Mary at Nazareth

A simple family existed in Nazareth yet from this place would come the Saviour of the world. Nazareth teaches us that many great things begin quietly, hidden and unknown and without fuss. Jean-Claude Colin spoke of Nazareth as the home where: "I place myself in the home of Nazareth and from there I see all that I must do."

Nazareth is the place where Jesus lived with his parents, Mary and Joseph, during his early years. Little is known of this time and this is what makes it so significant. The Son of God began his life on earth quietly and humbly, encountering his Father in heaven through quiet prayer and through the example of His parents.

Nazareth is also the place where Mary and Joseph watched their son Jesus grow up. As Scripture says, "she pondered all these things in her heart". Nazareth then, is a place of the heart, a place of silence and faith, a place of stillness and tranquillity, a place to be with God.

And so Marists look to Nazareth as a chance to ponder anew the person of Jesus. Just like Mary their mother, Marists look to find God in this quiet and simple home waiting for his time, not ours. "We are so often blind to our own dark motives, and these motives blind us to the true nature of the world, human persons, and our own existence. But how do we get out of ourselves and beyond ourselves? As long as we stand in our own place, we risk being caught in our own interests and ulterior motives. But if we could see things from another point of view . but whose?

Father Colin suggests one that he felt was most reliable - Mary's. And so he tells us to go to Nazareth and see thing as Mary does." - Edwin Keel s.m.

Mary at Pentecost

If Mary at Nazareth is about contemplation, then the image of Mary at Pentecost is about action. Mary first encountered the Holy Spirit at Nazareth, when she conceived Jesus and proclaimed, "I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word." She would encounter this same Spirit again at Pentecost, where surrounded by the apostles she was bathed in the fire of the Holy Spirit.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Mary is placed at the centre of the Apostles. She was the support of the early Church yet she was not its leader; that was Saint Peter's place. She was the visible witness that Jesus had existed, and through her faith and discipleship, that he was God.

Mary was present at the beginning of the Church and remains it support to this day. Jean-Claude Colin speaks of Mary at Pentecost as the archetype of prayer and action:

"She did more than the apostles for the new-born Church; she is Queen of apostles, but she did it without any stir, she did it above all by her prayers.Let us therefore unite silence and prayer with action. The Society of Mary desires that we, her children, should be missionaries of action, and missionaries of prayer"