INTRODUCTION^*

The XIXth General Chapter of the Marist Brothers of the Schools, which was held from 8th September to the 23rd October 1993 in the General House in Rome, bringing together 126 Capitulants, chose to work under four major themes:

* Our mission,

* Marist apostolic spirituality,

* Solidarity,

* Formation.

The Chapter, after having, thanks to the creation of a special commission, revised its own rules of procedure, organised its work

—       by creating a study commission for each of the four major themes while a fifth commission was placed in charge of the preparation of norms and orientations for the animation and the government of the Institute;

—       by deciding to address to all the Brothers of the Institute a single Message, inspired by the work of the study commissions;

—       by inviting each of the study commissions to produce a document of orientation to facilitate, later on, the deepening of the meaning of the Message and its practical application.

The Chapter was, in addition, marked by a dialogue with some lay people involved in implementing Marist spirituality and invited for that reason to spend a few days with the Capitulants.

The different texts mentioned above, which were adopted by the Chapter Assembly, are presented and reproduced in the following pages, with the exception of the work of the commission on formation: the definitive text of the "Formation Guide", which is published separately - the original text being in French.

Four working languages, French, Spanish, English and Portuguese , were used, so that the languages of the original texts are respectively: French for the Message of the Chapter, the Statutes, the recommendations and orientations relating to animation and government and to solidarity; Spanish for the documents on our Mission, on Marist apostolic spirituality and on formation; English for the rules of procedure of the Chapter.