OUR SPECIAL MARIST CHARACTER

All Marist schools live out these five characteristics: In the Way of Mary, presence, simplicity, love of work and Family spirit.

As we lead up to Champagnat Day, each week we are reminded about these characteristics.

This week we focused on the characteristics of “In the Way of Mary”. 

We, like all Marists, have Mary at our centre. The colour blue is noted as Mary’s colour, so every day we are “wrapped in Mary’s love”.

Some other thoughts that we have about Mary as our role model, protector and intercessor include:

We see Mary as a perfect model of a Marist life, an exemplar of the Christian life, as a mother, as one who praised God;
We see Mary as a woman on a journey of Faith;
We believe Mary had a difficult life and ‘dust on her feet;
We consciously bring a Marian dimension to our teaching by prayer, imitating Mary’s tenderness, strength and constancy of faith

In the upcoming week, we are focusing on Simplicity.

This Marist characteristic expresses itself in the simplicity of behaviour, most especially in our way of relating to God and to others. We strive to be persons of integrity - truthful, open-hearted and transparent in our relationships. 

Saint Marcellin was regarded as a first-class educator who related well to the young. His friendly personality and relational style allowed many children he taught to prosper in their learning because of the ease of the relationship they shared with him. Good teaching and learning demand the same relationships today. 

He lived with the young Brothers at LaValla with great simplicity and unity too. Their day was spent in learning how to write, read and teach, and in manual work that sustained them economically.

Some other features of this characteristic include:

We are genuine and straightforward
We say what we believe and show it
We are honest before God and ourselves
We seek humility and modesty, ‘to do good quietly’
We use simplicity in our teaching
We encourage simplicity as a value in our lives, not seduced by possessions and fame

 Howard Day

Today, Howard celebrated House Day. They took the time to reflect on their patron's name and their achievements. Howard House is named after Brother Charles Howard.

This was read out to those present:

We come together today to celebrate Howard Day.

Howard  House, our house, reflects the life of Brother Charles Howard.

He is warmly remembered for his energy, compassion, humour, unwavering commitment  to social justice and the poor as well as his profound faith.

In 1997, he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australian 

recognition of his service to the Catholic Church and the community, 

particularly in the fields of education, social justice and reform.

He was born on the 29^th October, 1924  and passed away on the 14^th January in 2012. He was 87 years old. He dedicated his life to being a Marist Brother. He was a School Principal several times. He was the Superior General of the Marist Brothers worldwide from October 1985 to 1993. At the centre of what the Marist Brothers do, is to make Jesus, Known and Loved. And they do this through education - schools - our School.

He was in this role as Superior General when Mount Carmel was being formulated. He would have known that there was a very strong demand for Catholic education of children in this area and he acted upon it, by allowing for Br Clarence, our first principal, and Br Jeff Barrington, to be part of the foundation staff. He has and will be always commemorated both in Australia and overseas as a visionary and Catholic education trailblazer.

He was the first Australian Marist Brother  to be elected to the General Council of the Marist Brothers in Rome.

He certainly portrayed all the qualities of Marcellin Champagnat by being aware of the needs of young people everywhere and reaching out to them to make sure that they were getting the best education possible. He led by example, “rolling up his sleeves and doing the hard work with others.”  He believed that education gave every child a chance to make a real contribution in life, whatever their chosen profession.

The Marist values which Marcellin initiated were lived out by  Brother Charles Howard in his life as a Marist Leader.