When an individual makes their first vocational commitment as a Lay Marianist within the Marianist Lay Communities, they are officially recognized and welcomed into our association by a sponsor. Any active Lay Marianist in good standing may serve as a Lay Marianist sponsor.
The responsibility of the Lay Marianist sponsor is to affirm that an individual who is making their first vocational commitment as a Lay Marianist is doing so in good faith and with enough formation to prepare them to live out the Marianist mission. Through this affirmation, the sponsor officially recognizes the candidate's vocational commitment within the Marianist Lay Communities. In other words, within the MLC-NA, individuals are recognized as Lay Marianists through the sponsor's act of affirmation.
In order for the sponsor to be able to fulfill this role, it is necessary that the sponsor accompany their candidate through their discernment and formation journey enough to be able to affirm the authenticity of discernment and formation. The exact nature of this accompaniment will be different in each instance, due to the personal nature of both the individual's vocational journey and the relationship between sponsor and candidate.
The role of the Lay Marianist sponsor is to affirm their candidate's vocational commitment and welcome them into the Marianist Lay Communities. The sponsor plays one important role within a team of people who support each candidate on their journey.
The journey to becoming a Lay Marianist is more organic and fluid than any diagram can fully capture. The journey is different for each person, and is not always a linear process from A to Z. Lines are sometimes blurry, and people and events might play multiple roles. However, while acknowledging this complex reality, it is possible to distinguish between four parts of the journey:
Experiencing the Charism: The Marianist charism is a gift and mode of service to the church and world. It can be described, but most importantly, it must be experienced in order to be known. A crucial aspect of this experience is meeting and getting to know individual Marianists.
Discernment: Before making a commitment to the charism — and even before entering into formation — it is important that a person has discerned God's call to this particular vocation. Discerning God's call is an intensely personal journey, but it is not a journey of the individual alone. Rather, authentic discernment is a mutually engaging process that involves both the individual in discernment as well as some Marianists and other people in close relationship to that individual who will accompany them through this important step in the process. During this process, the individual should be able to discern a relationship to each essential aspect of the Marianist charism: our mission, spirituality, relationship to Mary, and inclusivity and community life.
Formation: Formation in the Marianist tradition is the process of drawing ever closer to God in and through our alliance with Mary. In itself, the term "formation" is a broad and general term that occurs in many different contexts and is a lifelong journey. In this particular context, we are referring to the formation that is particular to individuals who will be committing themselves as a Lay Marianist for the first time. While this formation shares many elements in common with the formation of other branches, ministries, and educational organizations, it is also distinct to the lay branch and vocation in many ways.
Commitment: After discerning a call to become a Lay Marianist and completing formation within the context of the association of MLCs, individuals complete their journey by making a vocational commitment as a Lay Marianist. Typically, the first commitment made by an individual will be a temporary commitment, and they will have the option to make a definitive commitment after three years.
The primary role of the sponsor in the vocational journey is to affirm the individual candidate as they make their first vocational commitment as a Lay Marianist. Although the sponsor's primary obligations are to support the last stage of the vocational journey — that is, the commitment stage — it is necessary for the relationship between the sponsor and the Lay Marianist candidate to begin earlier. Typically, though not always, sponsors have an existing relationship with their candidate prior to being asked to serve in the sponsor role. This is due to the personal and communal nature of the Marianist Family.
Regardless of whether this prior relationship exists, the ideal time for a Lay Marianist candidate to choose their sponsor is before the beginning of their formation program. This allows for the sponsor to help accompany their candidate through the formation process. Moreover, choosing a sponsor prior to the start of formation allows the sponsor enough time with their candidate to be able to affirm that they have completed formation to a substantive enough degree to live the Marianist charism authentically, and that their intention to make a Lay Marianist commitment is being made in good faith.
Sponsors are not alone in supporting their candidate on the journey to becoming a Lay Marianist. The following are some additional people who will assist as well.
Organic support: Ideally, each person will be naturally and organically supported by a whole host of people. This may include family and friends, other members of the Marianist Family, their MLC (if they already have one), and so forth. Even though MLC-NA relies on specific people such as sponsors, formation moderators, and accompaniment guides to ensure that everything that needs to happen gets taken care of, the people who naturally support candidates in their journey are invaluable to the process.
Accompaniment Guides: Accompaniment guides are Marianists who are trained by MLC-NA to help support a person's journey through the stages of experiencing and discerning the charism. More specifically, accompaniment guides meet with people to help them learn more about the Marianist Family, get introduced to new people and communities, get engaged with various events and ministries, and so forth. As a sponsor, you may also help facilitate some of these connections when they occur naturally. But unlike the accompaniment guide, you don't need any training or to check off any set of items on a list. You simply listen and discuss things with your candidate in whatever way you discern is most supportive to them.
One of the jobs of an accompaniment guide is to make sure that people they accompany have chosen a sponsor. This usually occurs as the individual is getting ready for formation. If someone reached out to introduce you to your candidate or ask for your support as a sponsor, it is likely that they were acting in this capacity. Although the best person to go to for additional information about your candidate is usually the candidate themselves, you are free to reach out to their accompaniment guide if you have questions or need some additional support that they can provide.
Once an individual has entered into a formation process and selected a sponsor, the need for an accompaniment guide usually starts to fade. There may be some lingering questions or items that the accompaniment guide will need to reach out to your candidate to work through, but in most situations, this relationship will start to formally wrap up around the time you enter into your sponsorship relationship with your candidate.
Formation moderator: Formation moderators are the people who are specifically tasked with leading the formation process. They are either trained or approved by MLC-NA, and they are responsible for offering all the necessary content for your candidate to cultivate the knowledge and skills they will need. Sometimes candidates will have additional questions about content from their formation program, or they will want to know your perspective. Because of this, many formation moderators will make an effort to keep you updated on the topics they are covering and perhaps provide you with questions or ideas to talk about with your candidate. If this happens, know that it is intended as a resource for you. However, you should rely on your own personal knowledge of your candidate and the style of your relationship with them to determine the best way to support them in their journey.
A vocational commitment to the Marianist charism within the Marianist Lay Communities is an intentional and public continuation of one's baptismal call in and through joining in alliance with Mary. Lay Marianist commitments are initially made on a temporary (typically annual) basis, with an option to make a definitive commitment after three years.
As a sponsor, your role is to discern whether your candidate's intention to become a Lay Marianist is well-formed and made in good faith. This is an important responsibility because, in fulfilling this role, the sponsor is officially representing the Marianist Lay Communities as an association of the faithful. Here, the Marianist Lay Communities are practicing the principle of subsidiarity by placing the responsibility of recognizing Lay Marianist commitments on individual sponsors rather than deferring to the national or international leadership.
What does it mean for a candidate to be well-formed and make their commitment in good faith? Let's treat each of these conditions individually.
First, an individual is well-formed in the Marianist charism if they have the foundational knowledge, relationships, and virtues for taking up the Marianist mission, growing closer to God through a relationship with Mary that is informed by the Marianist spiritual tradition, and participating in the life of a Marianist Lay Community. Sponsors are not required to provide all of this formation. This is the job of a formation moderator.
In practice, this usually means having a few conversations with your candidate to see how their formation is going and seeing what questions they have. Most of the time, these conversations are relatively straightforward and a good opportunity for the candidate to hear a new perspective and help digest what they have learned in the formation program. These situations lead to a well-formed individual. Remember that although initial formation is important, formation remains an ongoing and lifelong process — so you don't need to verify that they know each and every aspect of the Marianist tradition all the way through. Rather, you simply need to make sure that they do not have any major issue with the Marianist charism or have missed a foundational topic in such a way that will hinder their future life as a Lay Marianist.
Making sure that your candidate does not have any major issue with or confusion about the Marianist charism typically means having a conversation with them about our mission, spirituality, and community life. The candidate will usually be able to identify any substantial objections or confusions once you make space for the conversation. For example, you are not checking to see if they can name each virtue in the System of Virtues, give a complete history of Marianist origins, etc. But formation is probably not going well if they say they really just don't understand how Marianists think it is okay to have a relationship with Mary or have a hard time imagining how they could possibly participate in a small faith community.
Likewise, it is usually straightforward to tell if your candidate has missed any major aspect of formation. The most common reason for this to happen is because a significant family, professional, or health crisis inhibited their participation in their formation program. In these cases, they may be catching up on their own or taking an alternative path.
The formation moderator should have also noticed if one of these issues has come up. But it is often the case that the sponsor has a better handle on these situations because of their personal relationship with the candidate. Sometimes candidates will confide certain doubts, questions, or concerns they have with their sponsor that they are hesitant to raise with their formation moderator or in a group context. And when health or other crises arise, it may be difficult for the formation moderator to know what's really going on. In both cases, sponsors play an invaluable role in discovering that additional support is needed as well as getting that additional help.
If an issue comes up, after attending to any immediate concerns of their candidate, the sponsor should discuss the issue with the formation moderator. Together, they can work out a plan to see if supplemental formation might be able to address their issue or gap in formation. This creative problem solving, some humility, and an honest discussion with the candidate frequently resolves the issue. But if difficulties persist, the sponsor and/or formation moderator should reach out to MLC-NA staff to help advise next steps.
Especially in these instances where an alternative plan becomes necessary for some reason, the responsibility of ensuring that the candidate has received all of the formation they need falls to the sponsor. The formation moderator, MLC-NA staff, and the candidate themselves will likely provide most of the ideas for what that path forward might look like. These may be great ideas. But at the end of the day, were they actually implemented? Did the formation moderator's vision actually work for this specific candidate? Was the candidate able to pick back up and attain the knowledge and relationships they need? Questions like these are the domain of the sponsor, who is tasked with paying close attention, listening actively, and helping out in a positive and life-giving spirit.
Lay Marianist candidates are asked to approach their vocational commitment in good faith. As with the condition of having been well-formed, there is no precise definition or test for authenticity. However, the incredibly rare circumstance that someone has gone this far in bad faith should be fairly obvious to the attentive sponsor. People not acting in good faith would be individuals who might be becoming a Lay Marianist only because they think it will help with career advancement, or because they are trying to collect as many memberships to Catholic associations as possible, or some other goal that is unrelated to the Marianist charism itself.
It is highly unlikely that an individual has made it far enough into their vocational journey to have a Lay Marianist sponsor and not be acting in good faith. However, in the rare event that this happens, the sponsor should reach out to MLC-NA staff or leadership to bring this to their attention and get support on next steps.
Most relationships between a Lay Marianist candidate and their sponsor are joyous and affirming. Even if questions or life's various challenges arise, the simple fact that a sponsor stays attentive and true to their candidate throughout these difficulties can often be a primary witness of the Marianist charism and our spirit of inclusive hospitality. The hope is that, as a sponsor, you will continue to grow through a positive and mutually affirming relationship with your candidate.
This experience culminates in a commitment ceremony where the candidate gets to make their first vocational commitment as a Lay Marianist. Commitment ceremonies usually take place within the context of a particular MLC, through a final meeting of their formation cohort, or in a larger Marianist Family gathering.
As a sponsor, you will have an important role in this commitment ceremony. Each commitment ceremony is a little different, so be sure to connect with the person leading the ceremony beforehand if they have not contacted you first. The usual format for the ceremony is to have a moment for each candidate to state their intentions in becoming a Lay Marianist. Then their sponsor gets to affirm the candidate individually and recognize their intention. In some ceremonies, the sponsor will be able to make some additional remarks in affirmation of their candidate. The candidate(s) will then continue to make their commitment through an act of consecration.
