OFFICIAL NAME
Movimento dei Piccoli Fratelli di Maria
ALSO KNOWN AS
Little Brethren of Mary
ESTABLISHED
1971
HISTORY
The Little Brethren of Mary are a movement of the lay faithful, men and women who strive to live according to the Gospel and to follow the path of Our Lady as they work in the missionary activity of the Church as Christian leaven in the world. The idea of founding the Movement emerged in the climate of renewal in the Church after the Second Vatican Council, in the years 1967-68. The spirituality of Charles de Foucauld and René Voillaume gave greater impetus and a more concrete perspective to the Movement. After careful reflection and dialogue with the superiors of his institute, Fr Antonio Piacentini of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus started the Movement at Todos Santos, B.C.S., Mexico, on 2 July 1971, after first conducting a course of “Days of Light”. Monsignor Adolfo Suárez, President of the Episcopal Commission for the Lay Apostolate in Mexico, gave his approval in 1983. On 2 July 1991, the Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed recognition of the Little Brethren of Mary Movement as an international association of the faithful.
IDENTITY
The aim of the Little Brethren of Mary Movement is to help its members to transform their lives. They do so by listening, loving and living out the Gospel and by making it known, loved and practised. They form Christian life groups.
The members seek to follow five ideals. They read the Gospel every day, meditate on it and savour it because blessed are those who listen to the Word of God and practise it. They also strive to follow Christ as the only Lord and to imitate Christ as their only role-model so that his life may continue in them. They embrace the poverty of Christ in order to be filled with God and they challenge the consumerist spirit of the world. They have the practice of deep prolonged prayer with the Gospel in their hands as they follow Jesus’ invitation to pray always and untiringly. They carry out apostolate in their families and elsewhere with their testimony of life, and they spread the Gospel by forming groups that help people to live in a new way.
ORGANISATION
The Movement is composed of men and women, married or single, who possess the human maturity necessary to comprehend the values of the Gospel and apply them throughout their lives, according to the ideal of the Movement. Some of the single people decide to follow Christ for their whole lives and they set up houses of common life with three to six people of the same sex. Each community is headed by an Elder Brother/Sister. In each country and continent there is a Brother or Sister in charge. The Movement Elder Brother or Sister is responsible for the whole association, and organises activities at a general level in coordination with the continental Elder Brothers/Sisters.
All the members of the Little Brethren of Mary live from their work. Life in common in the houses is carried out according to the directives contained in the Method of Life. The movement also has guidelines for the exercise of responsibility and apostolic activities.
WORKS
The members are committed to the apostolate and they participate in the mission of the Church according to the spirit of Charles de Foucauld who wrote: "To save humankind... in supplication, in self-immolation; by dying to myself, sanctifying myself”. The specific form of apostolate is the proclamation of the Gospel through the formation of groups of Christian life, centred on the Gospel and fortified by the bonds of the group. Members strive to spread the Gospel in their own milieu and among people in other places. Their specific method is to address the individual person rather than the masses, and to use simple means.
PUBLICATION
Carta, bimonthly for the Little Brethren of Mary.
HEADQUARTERS
Little Brethren of Mary
Aguinaldo Highway, Purok 3 Biga 1
4118 Silang, Cavite
Philippines
Mobile: +63 9197 742 833
E-mail: phmasialbm@gmail.com, movi.america@gmail.com
