Last week, Br Ernesto Sanchez, the Superior-General of the Marist Brothers, released his first Circular, “Homes of Light.” It is number 420 in the history of these unique documents. You can find it here: https://champagnat.org/en/brother-ernesto-sanchez-presents-Circular-420-of-the-marist-institute/. Its release inspired me to answer the questions, what is a Circular, and what are they about?
The Circular is a type of message to a group of people. They are situated in a tradition going back to Saint Marcellin Champagnat, whose first Circular was composed in 1828. Since then, in the style proper to each person and each period, we find them, in thousands of pages, with news about family, information, instructions, recommendations, reflections on our life and mission. The other unique element about them are they are written by a Superior-General: it is a tradition reserved for this position, although a number of them had some help, and traditions are always malleable!
As mentioned, we have over four hundred of these messages, but they vary in length, content, context and style. Each Superior-General has put their own flavour in their Circulars or used them for specific purposes. In addition, they are changed over time, as technology and contexts has amended their purposes. For Champagnat, getting a message to the Brothers with specific instructions and practical news was his major concern, as sending letters in the post was the most effective means of mass communication. In more recent years, the Superiors-General have shifted to more philosophical and reflective ground. The Circulars have been more focussed on setting and communicating vision, reflecting on history, theology and the mission as key themes. Again, others have focussed on a specific topic, setting the tone for detailed action, as Br Benito Arbués, the eleventh Superior-General did in his Circular, “Concerning Our Material Goods.”
To give you a glimpse of their depth and breadth, here are some of the Circulars that continue to inform our Institute:
One of the first Circulars from Marcellin was short, concise and still full of richness. The Circulars started as short letters to the brothers. Here is an example:
Marcellin Champagnat
1830-08-15
This letter was no doubt a Circular intended for all the communities. The original, in fact, shows traces of another letter which was placed on top of it before the ink had dried. From these traces we can see that the other letter, at least in its opening lines, was identical with this one. We can therefore conclude that in the beginning Fr. Champagnat himself wrote out copies of his Circular letters to the eighteen communities which then made up the Institute, except perhaps for those he was going to visit within the next few days, to whom he would deliver the message in person.
As for the vacations, after the community moved down to the Hermitage, they had been and still were two months long, as before (Avit, AA, p. 98). We also know that the schools reopened around All Saints, so the vacation normally began in early September. Given the disturbances taking place in the country at that time, why was it thought better to delay the start of the vacation by two weeks? We have no way of knowing for sure. To get some idea of the climate of French society at this time, see the Introduction, above, and also Life, pp. 174-176; Avit, AA, pp. 96-98; O.M., I, pp. 481-482.
Jesus, Mary, St. Joseph
My dear friends,
I’m afraid I didn’t inform you that the vacation would begin only on 15th September. All the parish priests want it this way, and they say that the glory of God is involved here.
Don’t be frightened; Mary is our defender. The hairs of our head are all counted, and not one of them can fall without Gods permission. Let us be totally convinced that we have no greater enemy than ourselves. Only we can hurt ourselves; no one else can. God has said to the wicked, you can go just so far and no farther.
I leave you in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We do not forget you in our prayers. Pray for us, too.
I have the honour to be your very devoted father in Jesus and Mary,
Champagnat, sup. of the M.B.
Marys Hermitage, 5th August 1830
There have been many Circulars that reference or centre Mary, but this one marked one of the most challenging, renewing and visionary of Br Sean Sammon’s Circular. It offered a contemporary interpretation of the person of Mary, as well as invited the reader to take courageous action to move to new and confronting spaces. It also offered questions for reflection, marking a shift in style that invited personal and communal consideration. Check it out here: https://champagnat.org/en/Circulares/in-her-arms-or-in-her-heart/
Br Charles Howard, the only Australian Superior-General, was a man of tremendous presence and intellect. One of his great insights was the Circular “The Champagnat Movement of The Marist Family.” Written in 1991, the letter was ahead of its time: The Church, and many provinces of the Marist Institute, have been very slow to honour the longstanding vocational call and promise of the “laity.” This Circular outline many of the invitation and visions that we are only now still enacting and growing with our Marist Associations, and other movements of Marists around the world. It is also one of the first that explicitly addresses all members of the Marist family, not only the Brothers. Check it out here: https://champagnat.org/en/Circulares/the-champagnat-movement-of-the-marist-family/
Four down, four hundred and sixteen to go!