Actors Pierre Grandry and Raphael Maillet are performing the play “Sherlock and the Case of the Marists” at various schools in France.
The Marist Fathers and Brothers sponsor Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy's Catholic identity and manage its educational program.
(The Fourvière Pledge is reproduced below.)
The approximately hour-and-a-half show is giving school-age children throughout France a real history lesson on Marist founder Fr. Jean-Claude Colin and Marist missionary St. Peter Chanel as well as the various branches of the Society of Mary. One student commented after the show: "Really good! Not boring at all. I did not know the Marists had traveled so far, like to Oceania. There are even lay Marists.”
The branches of the Marist family have been dedicating the bicentenary of the Fourvière Pledge from July 23, 2015, to July 23, 2016.
For centuries, Fourvière—the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière—in Lyon, France, has been and continues to be a place of pilgrimage where believers come to place their future in Mary's hands. It was to this shrine on the morning of Jul 23, 1816, that twelve young men came to pledge their commitment to form the Society of Mary.
The Fourvière Pledge
(July 23, 1816)
All for the greater glory of God and the greater honor of Mary, Mother of the Lord Jesus.
We the undersigned, striving to work together for the greater glory of God and the honor of Mary, Mother of the Lord Jesus, assert and declare our sincere intention and firm will of consecrating ourselves at the first opportunity to founding the pious congregation of Marists.
That is why by the present act and our signatures, in so far as we can, we irrevocably dedicate ourselves and all our goods, to the Society of the Blessed Virgin.
We do this, not childishly or lightly or for some human motive or the hope of material benefit, but seriously, maturely, having taken advice, having weighed everything before God, solely for the greater glory of God and the honor of Mary, Mother of the Lord Jesus.
We pledge ourselves to accept all sufferings, trials, inconveniences and, if needs be, torture, because we can do all things in Christ Jesus who strengthens us and to whom we hereby promise fidelity in the bosom of our holy mother the Roman Catholic Church, cleaving with all our strength to its supreme head the Roman pontiff and to our most reverend bishop, the ordinary, that we may be good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished with the words of faith and of the wholesome teaching which by his grace we have received.
We trust that, under the reign of our most Christian King, the friend of peace and religion, this institute will shortly come to light and we solemnly promise that we shall spend ourselves and all we have in saving souls in every way under the very august name of the Virgin Mary and with her help. All this is subject to the wiser judgment of our superiors.
May the Holy and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary be praised. Amen.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." The Marist Fathers and Brothers sponsor NDPMA's Catholic identity and manage its educational program. Notre Dame is accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools, the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.