Montagne Day

Our Gospel passage for today, the Feast of the apostles Simon and Jude, recalls the calling  the Twelve Apostles and fittingly applies to the event that triggered the foundation of the Little Brothers of Mary, AKA the Marist Brothers.
Father Champagnat, newly arrived curate in the parish church in LaValla, was called to the bedside of a dying 17 year old, believed to be Jean-Baptiste Montagne.  Appalled by the boy's lack of knowledge of the Faith, Fr. Champagnat gave him a quick catechism lesson to prepare him to meet God, which he did later that day.  Determined from that event to put his plan to start a congregation of teaching brothers, he recruited two young men from the parish to help him in the task of making Jesus known and loved.  They moved into a house renovated by Fr. Champagnat himself on January 2, 1817, just about two months after this encounter.
Jesus chose twelve , Marcellin chose 2, but the ripple effect has reached billions. We pray and hope that we might help contribute to this "tsunami" by responding generously to the call to discipleship we might be hearing in our hearts.
Bro. Rene