Marist Education

"Discipline is the body of education, religion is its soul." This maxim of St. Marcellin is still visible in any Marist school around the world. St. Marcellin placed the teaching of religion as the main purpose of the schools he opened. Jean Baptiste Montagne's ignorance of the faith was the catalyst which precipitated the recruitment of the first two "Little Brothers of Mary" to help prevent this ignorance from keeping others from the relationship with God for which we are all created. Therefore, the catechism was the hub around which reading, writing, and arithmetic spun. And in order to insure an orderly and exemplary atmosphere in the schools, an outward structure of rules based on respect and the living out of Christian moral values became the hallmark of these early schools, the skeletal and fleshly framework in which the soul could be effectively nourished and grow to its full potential. Happily, our Marist schools today continue to thrive on this primal concept. It is amazing to go around the world and see how it is lived in various cultures, and how it achieves its end: a fully rounded, happy graduate, whose faith is at the heart of all he or she does.
Discipline and faith...not a bad model for our own personal lives. Structure: to guarantee daily prayer, the presence of God, study of our faith, and service to others to put that faith into practice. With discipline, structure, the faith reaches full maturity. The body cannot live without the soul, yet the body helps the soul to reach its full potential.
Bro. Rene