Mary Mardel, RSCJ, a longtime moderator of the Adult Children of
Mary Sodality in San Francisco, recently conducted a survey of Adult
Children of Mary groups presently active in the United States. Mary
Blish, RSCJ, of New Orleans, has written an article giving a brief
history of the sodality and the result of Sister Mardel’s survey. The survey shows that the groups continue to attract new members. “That which is life-giving continues to attract,” she said.
In
the early 1830s, young women who belonged to the Children of Mary
Sodality in the academy in Lyon, France, wanted to continue their
association with the sodality after they graduated. One of them wrote
to Madeleine Sophie with three questions: can we establish a sodality
separate from that of the boarding school? Can others who did not go to
a Sacred Heart school but who have the same spirit join us? And can
these receive the same official approbation as the school sodality has?
The Foundress blessed these beginnings, requested canonical
approbation, and on March 25, 1832, the delegate of the Archbishop of
Lyons officially established the adult Children of Mary Sodality.
Mother Barat continued to follow the development of the Sodality,
seeing it as an important aspect of the mission of the Society.
The
growth of the Sodality followed closely the establishment of academies
and colleges of the Sacred Heart throughout the world up to the time of
the Second Vatican Council. Across the years, there were changes at
the official level of the Sodality’s affiliation. Then in 1967 the
Fourth Assembly of the World Federation of Marian Congregations changed
the name and emphasis of the group to the World Federation of Christian
Life Congregations.1
Whether as a result of this, or inevitably following the general
upheaval among students in the United States in the 1960s, sodalities
no longer had a place in the schools and some adult sodalities did not
thrive since there was no group of alumnae adding to their number as
the years passed.
However, that which is life-giving
continues to attract, and a survey of existing Children of Mary groups
in the United States conducted by Mary Mardel, RSCJ, this year shows
that presently there are eleven groups of adult Children of Mary.
These are in Albany, Atherton (CA), Bloomfield Hills, Grosse Pointe,
New Orleans, Omaha, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco,
Seattle/Bellevue, and Washington (DC); all have an RSCJ as Moderator.
Without any formal coordination and virtually no informal contact, they
all follow remarkably similar patterns: monthly meetings with a
liturgy, sometimes with a regular chaplain and usually on the First
Friday or First Saturday; annual days of recollection or retreats; and
minimal dues ($15-$30) to cover expenses.
Some of these
groups have collective activities such as tabernacle sewing for mission
churches, a Braille society, Scripture study groups, a library
emphasizing prayer, Scripture, and Church history. All have members who
work for and contribute to the charitable and mission activities of the
Church. The mailing lists range from 60 to 383 names with older members
retaining their interest even when not able to attend meetings;
attendance varies from 15 to 70, and new members make their Act of
Consecration and receive the traditional Child of Mary medal after a
period of
aspirantship.
1. Rausch, Thomas P., S.J. “Christian Life Communities for Jesuit University Students?” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 36/1 (Spring 2004) 19-21.
|
