All called to be leaders

163. We are all called on to exercise professional and pastoral leadership in our role as educators. We participate in programs of in-service to improve our personal competence in these domains, to seek together the most appropriate methods and strategies for educating contemporary youth, and to deepen our understanding of the specific character of Marist Catholic education and spirituality.

164. In a special way, our school administrators are challenged to be people of vision: to articulate and live by our core Marist values and lead others in living by them. More than anyone else, they are the Champagnat figures for the school community, leading with confidence and optimism, and modelling Marist apostolic spirituality.

165. We play an active role in the life of organisations of Catholic education within our country. We share our experience of education and evangelisation, and we learn from the experience of others. Together, we assist Church authorities to keep in touch with the reality of our ministry. Through such groups, as well, we seek to contribute to educational policy-making and practice at the local and national level.

166. In all the daily grind and busyness of contemporary school life, we remain people of hope, encouragers of the young. To all of us, ourselves as well as our students, we hold out the invitation of faith, of becoming "a new creation", people of imagination, commitment, and love. ³¹