128 Jair Batista de Souza, MIC Helping the Pastors: The Marians’ Apostolic Commitment “Since the contemplative life is not binding you so strictly, although you are founded in the eremitical status, those gifted with such talents will not be prevented from humbly helping pastors in their church work, if they would be called upon by pastors, and have previously obtained faculties from the Ordinaries and the Superiors.”1 A wide array of pastoral actions carried out by the Marians in the Church and the world can be fi tted within the domain initially defi ned as helping the pastors. From the Congregation’s beginning, the Norma vitae instructed appropriately gifted confreres to help the pastors, thus opening a wide fi eld of pastoral work for us. In reality, along with helping the pastors, running confraternities and teaching the truths of faith to the poor (particularly the villagers), the Marians gave parish missions and retreats, took care of their churches, administered the sacraments, delivered sermons, and ran charitable works.2 Today we fi nd the Marians ministering in many countries and being directly involved in parish ministry and many other apostolic works. It has become so wide-spread that our modern laws, referring to this manner of commitment, open before us a large fi eld of action, which can practically embrace the entire evangelical work of the Church in our day.3 For this reason, we need a deep refl ection on our beginnings to discover in Father Founder’s original intention the profound sense of our own commitment to the apostolate, as well as the model through which our own charism and Marian specifi city would show up clearly in this vast fi eld of work. To evaluate of our own commitment to pastoral ministry, it is important is to ask ourselves about our charism and our specifi city. To understand clearly its mission in the Church, each religious institute must always stay on the path of 1 NV, I, 3. 2 Cf. W. Makoś, MIC, Frei Estanislau de Jesus Maria Papczyński—Pesquisas e refl exões (Tradução para uso interno), Curitiba 2001, p. 255. 3 Cf. C, 3; D, 1.
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