To help demonstrate humility, one of the Marist’s ”five habits of the heart,” Notre Dame Pastoral Minister Fr. Jim Strasz, s.m., on Monday washes the feet of sixth and seventh graders on the school’s main campus.
"We would like to invite people to follow the Marist way," says Strasz. "That is, the way of Mary, especially as she was present in the early Church. And in today's world, we would like our colleagues and students to learn to think as Mary, judge as Mary, and act as Mary in all things."
Strasz says that Fr. Colin, the founder of the Marists, believed the best way to form people as Christian people, upright citizens, and academic scholars was to form them in habits of the heart (virtues) which they would employ again and again in their lives until they become almost second nature.
There are numerous virtues that help one become Marist-like, according to Strasz, but for this year he chose five to focus on. He spoke to each class in the middle division and chose many volunteers to demonstrate each of the following five habits of the heart:
Humility: being comfortable in your skin; recognizing how God has blessed someone and learning from that experience to be the person God made you to be
Listening: as a virtue to help us help what God is asking of us through others and in the depths of our own hearts
Caring (mutual charity): reaching out to others and realizing that the journey of our lives is something we share with all people who come across our path. There is no person who isn't here for a reason.
Mercy: feeling with others in their pain and distress—not pity, but a genuine caring for others where they are. This come from realizing God's great merciful care us as people.
Forgiveness: to let go of revenge and grudges in our heart. This is a process where we move through a series of steps to let go of past hurts and to build a positive relationship with another. At the heart of the process is letting God forgive us and going from that experience to help resolve conflicts with others.
"In all of these, we look to how Notre Dame, our mother, would have done them," Strasz said. "In the process of learning them, we become co-workers with her in bringing others to her son Jesus (Christian people), we help to build a world based on peace and justice (upright citizens), and we develop our talents (men and women of letters in the arts and sciences) as life-long learners."
He says his hope is that those who are part of the Notre Dame/Marist experience "become people who work in Mary's way for the kingdom throughout their lives."