During the ceremony, you will be given time to share a short statement of intent (typically 1-3 sentences). This statement is your opportunity to personalize what making this commitment as a Lay Marianist means to you. While significant because it indicates your intentionality for the year to come, this is not a binding vow or other unyielding promise. The commitment is to living in alliance with Mary, supported by our Marianist spirituality and community — and this may require adaptation and change along the way. Finally, it may be difficult to summarize the entirety of the meaning of this commitment in a short statement. This is natural. Focus on what is most meaningful to you at this time, and know that everything else will come along with you as well.
Use the space below, or another journal or writing space you prefer, to begin drafting your Statement of Intent that will accompany your commitment as a Lay Marianist.
Community: In one sentence, write what your expectation is for Marianist community in the next year. Your expected relationship to a community might be to continue with an existing MLC that you belong to, to help form an MLC (either with a group that you have in mind, or to start identifying and organizing a new group), or to find and join an MLC (perhaps with the help of your sponsor, MLC-NA, or other members of the Marianist Family).
Mission: Briefly describe how you would like to animate inclusive, life-giving community in the church and world around you in the next year.
Spirituality: Following in the footsteps of Mary, our Marianist spirituality is a means of increasing the quality of our relationship to God by giving attention to our interior life as well as through our intentional presence to Christ in and through others. Briefly describe how you would like to be intentional about your ongoing spiritual journey over the course of the next year.
Using your thoughts from above, draft a 1-3 sentence Statement of Intent that expresses what your commitment to the Marianist charism will mean to you. The ideas you wrote above are good inspirations for this statement, and you may choose to use some or all of them — or you may wish to draft new language. You do not need to follow a specific template, but if it is helpful, you may wish to start by completing the sentence: "As a Lay Marianist, I commit myself over the next year to…"
After sharing your Statement of Intent at the commitment ceremony, everyone will have the opportunity to make their commitment together. Your community may be using its own text, or may be using the following. Check with the person or team planning your ceremony for more information.
O loving God, we thank You for having called us to be members of the Marianist Lay Communities and for inviting us to be consecrated to You, through Mary, and in her spirit of faith and love.
We praise You, for You have always loved us, calling us through Baptism, strengthening us with Your own Holy Spirit, and calling us to a deeper faith-filled life through this commitment.
Your Spirit molds us into the likeness of Jesus, Your Son. May we learn each day to listen more closely and to follow the inspiration of Your Spirit.
Mary, we seek to imitate your faith. With a mother's love you guide us in our growth in the likeness of Jesus. Help us to live as you taught your Son to live; teach us to love all people as Jesus does.
At this moment, we offer ourselves to you that we may become more like Jesus and be present in this world with the same disposition that He had. As you cooperate with God's plan to bring Christ to the world, we desire to cooperate in your mission of bringing Jesus to everyone and bringing everyone to Jesus.
We make this commitment to God through you and in your honor, Mary.
May the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit
Be glorified in all places through the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
Amen.
