Marcellin Champagnat lived among children and young people, loved them with passion, and devoted all his energies for them. As his disciples, we also experience a special joy in sharing our time and our persons with them, we resonate with their aspirations, we are filled with compassion for them and we reach out to them all in their difficulties.

In the same way that Marcellin was thinking especially of the least favoured of young people in founding the Marist Brothers, our preference is to be with those who are excluded from the mainstream of society, and those whose material poverty leads them to be deprived also in relation to health, family life, schooling, and education in values. (In the Footsteps … 53-54)

The core of Marcellin Champagnat’s vision of mission was “to make Jesus Christ known and loved”. His saw education as the way to lead young people to the experience of personal faith and of their vocation as “good Christians and virtuous citizens”.

As his followers, we assume this same mission, firstly, by helping young people, whatever their faith tradition and wherever they are in their spiritual search, to grow to become people of hope and personal integrity, with a deep sense of social responsibility to transform the world around them. This work of promoting human growth is integral to the process of evangelisation. In promoting Gospel values, all Marist educators contribute to the mission of every Marist project to build God’s Reign on earth. (In the Footsteps … 69-70)

Our style of educating is based on a vision that is truly holistic, and that consciously seeks to communicate values. While we share such a vision with many, especially in Church circles, we use a distinctive pedagogical approach which Marcellin and the first Marists initiated and which was innovative in many of its aspects.

We share their intuition that “to bring up children properly, we must love them, and love them all equally”. From this principle flow the particular characteristics of our style of educating: presence, simplicity, family spirit, love of work, and following the way of Mary. We seek to adopt these attitudes and values as our way of inculturating the Gospel. It is their sum and their interaction which gives our Marist style its Spirit-inspired originality. (In the Footsteps … 97-98)

A Marist school is a centre of learning, of life, and of evangelising. As a school, it leads students “to learn to know, to be competent, to live together, and most especially, to grow as persons”. As a Catholic school, it is a community setting in which faith, hope and love are lived and communicated, and in which students are progressively initiated into their life-long challenge of harmonising faith, culture and life. As a Catholic school in the Marist tradition, it adopts Marcellin’s approach to educating children and youth, in the way of Mary.

The circumstances and profiles of Marist schools around the world vary greatly, depending on their social, cultural, political and legal settings. They are to be found in the rural world as well as in urban areas. They include all three levels of education: primary, secondary, higher education and teacher training. There are day schools as well as those that offer boarding. They may belong wholly to the Institute, or be conducted by Provinces on behalf of a diocese, parish, or government. (In the Footsteps … 126-127)

Moved by the compelling needs and aspirations of today’s young people, especially those who are most deprived or disturbed, we seek to multiply our ways of entering into their lives and their world. With a missionary spirit, we are open to all young people irrespective of their faith background. We know we cannot walk the same path with each of them in our mission of evangelisation. (In the Footsteps … 169)

We seek opportunities to be with young people in the places and activities where they gather in their free time, for example, sports, places where they relax, artistic and cultural pastimes within the local area or parish, camping, and movements such as the Scouts. Where necessary, we assist them to organise such activities after class, on weekends, or during vacations. We make particular efforts to be present as pastoral workers among deprived young people, for example, on the street, in slums, and in detention centres. (In the Footsteps … 172)

For those who express a desire to deepen their faith and sense of belonging to the Church, we make available opportunities for more intensive experiences of prayer and of Christian community, and for joining in apostolic activities. We initiate these ourselves or link with those that exist in the local Church. We take steps in the local Church to ensure that all young people find a welcome, are listened to, and are able to exercise initiative there. We establish centres devoted to this ministry for our own programmes or as a service to the wider Church. (In the Footsteps … 179)

We work with groups of young people in deprived areas and marginalised situations whose needs are not being addressed by formal education structures. With them and their local communities, and with government and non-government bodies, we study the situation to identify their felt needs and develop possible responses. Through our contacts with these groups, we ensure that our intervention is part of an integrated project of community development.

The programs in which we engage can be either long-term or short-term, for example, basic literacy, remedial classes, language skills for immigrants, personal development, health education, substance abuse, human relationships, pre-school care, workshops with social or cultural themes, community development skills, vocational skills training; artistic expression, and leadership training. (In the Footsteps … 190-191)

For some young people, especially those “at risk” or on the fringes of society, our point of entry into their service has a more clearly social character than the approaches mentioned above. With them and their families and, where possible, in collaboration with other groups and government programmes, we establish suitable programs and projects.

The services we offer include: homes for "street children"; institutions for the protection of minors and orphans; centres for young people in critical family situations; centres for helping broken families; projects for the disabled; services for ethnic minority groups, immigrants, and refugees; rehabilitation centres and programs for young people who are drug addicts or suffering from AIDS; and programs for helping youth who are imprisoned, who are former prisoners, or who are in trouble with the law. (In the Footsteps … 195-196)