Stand firm in your faith! To you too I entrust this motto of my pilgrimage. Be authentic in your life and your ministry. Gazing upon Christ, live a modest life, in solidarity with the faithful to whom you have been sent. Serve everyone, accompany the new movements and associations, support families, do not forget the link with young people, remember the poor and the abandoned. If you live by faith, the Holy Spirit will suggest to you what you must say and how you must serve. You will always be able to count on the help of her who goes before the Church in faith (Benedict XVI, 25.05.06).

Faith is contact with the mystery of God because to believe means ‘to abandon oneself’ to the truth of the word of the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing ‘how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways’. Faith is the gift, given to us in Baptism, which makes our encounter with God possible (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

With faith, however, we can open up a way through concepts, even theological concepts, and can “touch” the living God. And God, once touched, immediately gives us his power. When we abandon ourselves to the living God, when in humility of mind we have recourse to him, a kind of hidden stream of divine life pervades us (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

Faith has a place, not only in our state of soul and religious experiences, but above all in thought and action, in everyday work, in the struggle against ourselves, in community life and in the apostolate, because it ensures that our life is pervaded by the power of God himself. Faith can always bring us back to God even when our sin leads us astray (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

When we abandon ourselves to the living God, when in humility of mind we have recourse to him, a kind of hidden stream of divine life pervades us. How important it is to believe in the power of faith, in its capacity to establish a close bond with the living God! We must give great attention to the development of our faith, so that it truly pervades all our attitudes, thoughts, actions and intentions (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

Dear men and women religious, dear consecrated persons! Whatever the mission entrusted to you, whatever cloistered or apostolic service you are engaged in, maintain in your hearts the primacy of your consecrated life. Let it renew your faith. The consecrated life, lived in faith, unites you closely to God, calls forth charisms and confers an extraordinary fruitfulness to your service (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

My friends, this brings about a question: “How do we build this house?” Without doubt, this is a question that you have already faced many times and that you will face many times more. Every day you must look into your heart and ask: “How do I build that house called life?” Jesus, whose words we just heard in the passage from the evangelist Matthew, encourages us to build on the rock. In fact, it is only in this way that the house will not crumble (Benedict XVI, 27.05.06).

My dear friends, we need a moment of silence and recollection to place ourselves in her school, so that she may teach us how to live from faith, how to grow in faith, how to remain in contact with the mystery of God in the ordinary, everyday events of our lives. With feminine tact and with “the ability to combine penetrating intuition with words of support and encouragement”, Mary sustained the faith of Peter and the Apostles in the Upper Room, and today she sustains my faith and your faith (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

But what does it mean to build a house on the rock? Building on the rock means, first of all, to build on Christ and with Christ. Jesus says: “Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock” (Mt 7:24). These are not just the empty words of some person or another; these are the words of Jesus. We are not listening to any person: we are listening to Jesus. We are not asked to commit to just anything; we are asked to commit ourselves to the words of Jesus (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

To build on Christ and with Christ means to build on a foundation that is called “crucified love”. It means to build with Someone who, knowing us better than we know ourselves, says to us: “You are precious in my eyes and honoured, and I love you”. It means to build with Someone, who is always faithful, even when we are lacking in faith, because he cannot deny himself (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

I wanted to be called Benedict XVI in order to create a spiritual bond with Benedict XV, who steered the Church through the period of turmoil… The name "Benedict" also calls to mind the extraordinary figure of the great "Patriarch of Western Monasticism", St Benedict of Norcia venerated, also in German… At the beginning of my service as Successor of Peter, I ask St Benedict to help us keep Christ firmly at the heart of our lives. May Christ always have pride of place in our thoughts and in all our activities! (Benedict XVI)

Building on Christ means basing all your desires, aspirations, dreams, ambitions and plans on his will. It means saying to yourself, to your family, to your friends, to the whole world and, above all to Christ: “Lord, in life I wish to do nothing against you, because you know what is best for me. Only you have the words of eternal life”. My friends, do not be afraid to lean on Christ! Long for Christ, as the foundation of your life! Enkindle within you the desire to build your life on him and for him! Because no one who depends on the crucified love of the Incarnate Word can ever lose (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

Dear young friends, the fear of failure can at times frustrate even the most beautiful dreams. It can paralyze the will, making one incapable of believing that it is really possible to build a house on the rock. It can convince one that the yearning for such a house is only a childish aspiration and not a plan for life. Together with Jesus, say to this fear: “A house founded on the rock cannot collapse!” Together with Saint Peter say to the temptation to doubt: “He who believes in Christ will not be put to shame!” You are all witnesses to hope, to that hope which is not afraid to build the house of one’s own life because it is certain that it can count on the foundation that will never crumble: Jesus Christ our Lord (Benedict XVI, 26.05.06).

Our Institute today resembles in many ways this half formed man struggling to free himself from the rock that confines him, longing to be whole, and what he was meant to be (Seán Sammon, 05.09.05)

Brothers I offer this challenge: it is time, once again, to reclaim the spirit the Hermitage. To do so, we do not have to physically rebuild that house another time but we must make our own all that surrounded its construction. We know the story well (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05).

The founder and his young brothers worked steadily throughout the six months of summer and early autumn of 1824. These were days of sacrifice and hard work. They were also heady days for all involved: the young men found support in one another and were proud of their achievement. As we plan today for the future of our Institute and its mission we must make our own their spirit of hope, their enthusiasm, their willingness to be bold and audacious (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05).

To begin with, you and I must heed the first call of the Chapter and make Jesus the center and passion of our lives and the life of our communities. Brothers, this call strikes at the heart of the matter. If our works and life together do not have Jesus Christ as their foundation, they are not the works and community life about which Marcellin Champagnat wrote and spoke. Without both, we will fail to find the courage to do what must be done to bring about the new Pentecost for which we all long (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05).

We must address more straightforwardly the challenges of solidarity and service to the poor. Hopefully we have matured enough over the course of the last several years to be able to undertake a fearless evaluation of our works in light of what we say about ourselves regarding solidarity and service to the poor (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05).

If our stated option for the poor is to be authentic, it must have two dimensions: one of solidarity and another having to do with analysis and action. The dimension of solidarity involves a deliberate choice on your part or mine to enter in some degree into the world of those who live on the margins of our society and to share in their experience of being maltreated, by-passed, or left helpless (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05).

Brothers, we have come a distance in our efforts to promote justice for the poor, but we still have a long way to go. My hope is, however, that discussions in this area and whatever action we take as individuals, communities, provinces and districts, and ultimately as an Institute are the fruit of an exchange that is marked by careful listening, respect for the beliefs of others, and a fearless reading of the Good News of Jesus Christ (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05).

The promotion of vocations and an evaluation of our programs of formation. We have just concluded a year set aside for the promotion of vocations. In those provinces and districts that have embraced the spirit and work of this year, the fruits of their efforts are already becoming evident. These brothers and lay partners are calling for additional steps to be taken to solidify the “culture of vocation promotion” that has been planted and taken root (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05).

God’s grace is with us, Mary–our Good Mother and sister in faith—accompanies us on our journey. We need but simplicity of heart and mind that Marcellin saw as our distinguishing characteristic to accomplish the task entrusted to us (Seán Sammon, 05.09.05)

Entrusting you to Our Lady of Fourvière, who presided over the birth of your Institutes, I am happy to grant you, and the whole Marist Family, a special Apostolic Blessing (John Paul II, 17.09.01

Other administrative units, however, have been less enthusiastic in their response to the work of the vocation year or have left its implementation solely to those designated as vocation promoters. This indifference must stop; vocation promotion is the responsibility of each of us. As a General Administration we will take the steps necessary in the months ahead to ensure that what must be done is done to promote vocations in all regions of the Institute (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05)

We need to give greater attention to the developing movement of Marist laity that has been such a blessing to our Institute and its mission in recent years. Vatican II was a defining moment for Roman Catholic laity as well as those of us who are brothers. The Council’s proclamation about the universal call to holiness, addressed to both groups, was an unambiguous statement that all Christians are baptized into mission: the mission of proclaiming God’s Kingdom and its imminence (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05)

The foundation of partnership between Marist laymen and women and Marcellin’s brothers, then, lies in the common mission and prophetic call that we share as a result of the sacrament of baptism. Partnership runs much deeper than participating in a common work; it is about the sharing of faith, being in love with Jesus Christ, and the collective experience of having Marcellin Champagnat capture your heart and seize your imagination. We must continue to work together as a General Administration in cooperation with our provinces and districts to insure that what needs to be done is done to foster the growth of our Marist lay and partnership movement (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05)

Let us set out together, then, to reclaim the spirit of the Hermitage and in so doing let us invite others to join us as brothers and also as lay partners in our Institute. And as we do so, let us console ourselves with these words of our founder, spoken to his fellow priests in the Society of Mary but equally applicable to us today: “Brothers, we who are at the commencement of our work are but raw stones thrown into the foundation. One does not use polished stones for that. There is something marvelous in the [renewal of our Institute]. What is marvelous is that God has wished such people to accomplish his work” (Seán Sammon, 30.09.05)

The charism of Marcellin Champagnat belongs to the entire Church and not just to his Little Brothers. Subsequent to the Council, Pope Paul VI described charism as an indwelling of the Holy Spirit pure and simple. And so, this coming week during your deliberations, you might find yourself coming face to face with this challenging question: Do you believe that the Spirit of God that was so active and alive in Marcellin Champagnat longs to live and breathe in you and men today? And, if so, what are the consequences? (Seán Sammon, 02.11.05)

I cannot imagine a better time in history to be alive or to be a member of our Church and Marist family. At our recent General Conference in Sri Lanka those gathered spent a significant amount of time talking about the future. A sense of hope, expectation, and deep faith surrounded those deliberations. There was no doubt on the part of the 60 or so brothers who gathered for the Conference that the years ahead will require hard work, sacrifice, and most of all the quality of zeal. They seemed more than willing, however, to move ahead, knowing full well the costs entailed because they believe that our call to evangelize poor children and young people is as urgent today as during the lifetime of that simple country priest and Marist Father who founded us (Seán Sammon, 02.11.05)

Marcellin was a man of practical vision, an innovator. And so for him, education was more than a process used to pass along some facts and figures or even points about our faith. Rather, he understood it as a powerful means for forming and transforming the minds and hearts of children and young people. Education was a means for evangelizing, not an end in itself (Seán Sammon, 15.06.06)

These challenges go out to all of us associated with the Institute, brothers and lay partners alike. And so, we must ask ourselves: are the institutions and other works in which we serve committed to helping young men and women to make Jesus the center and passion of their lives. And to do so to such an extent that they can do little else but take his gospel message seriously? We can only achieve this end if we are in the midst of young people, willing to give them our time without counting the cost, and doing it in Mary’s way: with simplicity (Seán Sammon, 15.06.06)