7/12/2021
https://dev.lb.marist.edu/archives/prayerAndWork/pages/firstMaristMissions.htm
https://dev.lb.marist.edu/archives/prayerAndWork/pages/firstMaristMissions.htm
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First Marist Missions
This was my very first opportunity to visit some of the first Marist missions that had been established at the time
of our saintly Founder. These were the missions he himself had so desired to serve as a missionary, but was
unable to do so due to the need for him to supervise a very young congregation of Brothers, a job that took up
most of his time from the very beginning. He had been satisfied with choosing carefully the Brothers that he sent
and gave them all the preparation that he could. As he had so often said, “All the Dioceses of the world fall
under our eagerness to serve.†As I had been asked to form part of our Marist Mission Committee, I was keen
in my desire to visit one of the very early missions. Besides, at the time we had two American Brothers helping
the French Provinces. This would be a precious occasion, and that was why I stopped in Australia for a quick
visit, since Sydney was the closest point to most nearby missions. This was the place to come for all who wanted
to visit our early missions. Our Brothers in Australia were well-acquainted with procedures and the best and
safest way to visit these missions.
The two American Brothers referred to above were stationed in New Caledonia and that was where I wanted to
go for my first stop to a Marist mission. Our two Yanks were completely taken by surprise and most pleased.
Bro. Charles Raymond and Bro. Henry Firmin were both from New England Franco-American families and
were happy to serve in one of our earliest Marist missions. But theirs was a five-year pledge quite different from
the early missionaries of our congregation. I admired the many old Marists still living and very well-occupied
each place I went and they wanted to know if more would be coming to help them out. They took me to some of
the nearby islands where some of our other Marists were active such as Isle des Pins. They took great pleasure at
meeting someone from the Mother House, especially if he could talk French.
I had wanted to visit with more than just two Yanks. What always put me in touch with our Marist roots was a
visit to the cemetery. No matter where I went, I wanted to see the cemetery, and I spent a long time praying
there. I spent some time in our cemeteries, marveling at the various graves where many of the deceased had
lived beyond ninety years of age. They’d come as young missionaries to work and die in a foreign land and
had never once returned home for a visit. In those days that was the rule, and it was accepted in that type of
service of the Lord. I knelt and prayed for these valiant Marist missionaries and asked the Lord to give me some
of that same spirit in this new mission or assignment that I had received at our Chapter.
I knew that we were assigned for nine years, little knowing that my service would eventually be for eighteen
years. I had always wanted to go to the missions, and I recall when we started the mission of the Philippines on
June 20, 1948. I was at the college then, and had asked the Provincial to please consider me as a candidate at any
time. His answer was direct and sincere: "You have a mission to do right here; do it." He was right, of course,
but the Lord had an even greater mission in mind for me at the time that I did not and could not realize. It was
the vastness of the territory that I was to cover as Assistant General of the Marist Brothers, and specifically
working on the Mission Commission. This assignment would take me to a greater part of the globe than I could
ever imagine. There have been so many concrete examples for me to realize that it is always better to do your
best and leave everything in the hands of the Lord. He has a greater and certainly better vision!