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From a Full Heart
Thoughts from Father Chaminade

Compiled by
Francis J. Greiner, SM

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks
(Matthew 12:34)

THE GRAIL PRESS
St. Meinrad, Indiana

Imprimi Potest:
Very Rev. Peter A. Resch, SM, STD

Nihil obstat:
Rev. John Dockter, SM
Censor liborum

Nihil obstat:
Very Rev. Fintan G. Walker, PhD
Censor liborum

Imprimatur:
Paul C. Schulte, DD
Archbishop of Indianapolis

Feast of the Mother of Sorrows
September 15, 1949

Copyright 1949 by
Francis Greiner, SM

 Printed by the Abbey Press, St. Meinrad, Indiana, U.S.A.

This work is a revised version of From a Full Heart
Published by the North American Center for Marianist Studies
in CD format, 2004

Dedicatedto
“The August Virgin Mary”
The Mother,
The Queen,
and
The Patroness
of
The Society of Mary
in
The Centennial Year
of
The Spiritual Sons of Father Chaminade
in
America

J.M.J.
PREFACE

            Though his voice has long been silent, Father William Joseph Chaminade. (1761-1850), the saintly Founder of the Society of Mary (Marianists) and the Daughters of Mary Immaculate, continues to speak eloquently and forcibly to his disciples through the telling words that he pronounced or wrote during his long life of eighty-nine years. His golden words have been collected and preserved by his disciples and form no insignificant part of the precious heirloom transmitted to them.

            Like most religious founders, Father Chaminade “was not of an age but for all time.” His words and his directions have an utter timelessness. Now as then—when his thoughts were first crystallized in words—Father Chaminade sometimes soothes and enlightens; at other times, he admonishes and corrects; and again, he encourages and inspires.

            The present booklet contains selected thoughts from the voluminous letters, notes, conferences, and publications of Father Chaminade, which have been assigned to each day of the year. The words of Father Chaminade—when read and mulled over—will help to perpetuate a basic spirit of faith; a deep trust in God’s fatherly Providence; an unflinching loyalty to Christ, our Head, Master, and Model; a manly love and devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God and Mother of all men; and a thoroughly Christian appreciation of all our fellow-men.

            Grateful acknowledgement is expressed to all those who, by assistance and encouragement, have helped in the preparation of this publication. Particularly singled out are the Brothers of Maryhurst Novitiate or at Marynook who during the past ten years expended some time in the furtherance of this project.

F. J. G.

Foreword

            Born in Perigueux, in the Southwest of France on April 8, 1761, William Joseph Chaminade was the last of a family of thirteen children, four of whom were destined to enter the priesthood and the religious life. After his classical studies in the College of Mussidan he took theology at the University of Bordeaux. In 1782 he spent a few months in Paris in preparation for holy orders under the direction of the priests of St. Sulpice. There he was initiated into the spirituality of Father Olier who conceives the interior life as a life of union with Our Lord, the divine Mediator, to be attained through devotion to Mary, Mother of God and Our Mother. It is from the works of the founder of the Society of St. Sulpice that he drew his rules for the direction of souls.

            At the outbreak of the French Revolution Father Chaminade was a member of the faculty of the College of Mussidan. He retained his functions till 1791, when his refusal to take the oath of the schismatic Constitution of the Clergy led to the secularization of that school. When the persecution became violent, he took refuge in Bordeaux and, during the years of the Terror, he was the guide, comforter, and co-laborer of the loyal priests who continued, at the peril of their lives, to minister to the faithful. An interlude of peace after the fall of Robespierre in 1794 gave him the opportunity to reconcile to the Church many of the priests who had taken the schismatical oath. In the years 1795-97, in cooperation with a valiant Christian woman, Marie-Thérèse de Lamourous, and two others who were all dedicated to devotion to the Sacred Heart, he helped lay the foundation of three religious institutes of women. A renewal of the persecution in 1797 drove him into exile, and it was at the foot of the statue of Our Lady of the Pillar, in Saragossa where he had taken up his residence, that he received his vocation  “It is She,” he writes, “who has conceived this foundation, who has prepared its elements, and who continues to watch over and direct its work.”

            Father Chaminade began his work immediately after his return to Bordeaux in 1800, with the establishment of a Sodality, with a branch for men and another for women. He chose the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin to dedicate to the cult of the Immaculate Conception the first twelve members of the Men’s Sodality who pledged themselves “to honor Mary and to make Her honored as the Mother of youth.” These members were taken from all classes of society and banded into a militia which was to be used as an instrument of religious and social reconstruction. Later on priests were affiliated into the men’s branch of the Sodality.

            It is from this Sodality that grew the two religious Institutes which proclaim Father Chaminade as their Founder: the Daughters of Mary Immaculate who devote themselves to the teaching of Catholic doctrine and practice by means of sodalities, classes of instruction, and retreats, and the Society of Mary in which priests and brothers are associated in the same apostolate of Christian education and its complementary works. The main object of the two Institutes is to “multiply Christians.”  Among their early achievements were trade schools and the first public normal school in France after the Revolution. Both Societies have prospered and spread their activities all through the Catholic world. It is just a century since the Society of Mary arrived in the United States.

            Father Chaminade died on January 22, 1850. His main legacy to his followers is substantially a total consecration of self to the Blessed Virgin by the religious profession, enriched by the special perpetual vow of irrevocably belonging to her. Basing his teaching upon the essential duty of imitating the divine Model, and upon the fact that all members of Christ’s Mystical Body “make with him but one Son of Mary,” he urged his disciples to reproduce Christ’s filial piety towards his Mother in all its aspects but especially by an active participation in her apostolate.

Jules A. Baisnée, SS

Catholic University of America

Washington, DC