The Association Family of Jesus and Mary

The Association Family of Jesus and Mary (AFJM) is an Association of committed laity, bound to the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary.

The members desire to live the values of the Gospel according to the Charism and the spirituality of Saint Claudine Thévenet.

The Association offers the members a way of life that will permit them to know Jesus Christ better and to work to transmit the knowledge of God and his merciful goodness.

The members participate in the mission of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, fruit of the ardent desire of their Foundress to make known and loved Jesus and Mary, of her concern for the education of children and young people, of her love for the poor and her fidelity to the Church.

The Association also offers its members a place of fraternity and mutual help. The members of the AFJM feel that they are leaven that discreetly makes love grow in the environment where they find themselves, the salt that gives flavor, joy, sense to life to those with whom they live, the light that is placed on the lamp-stand and manifests the goodness of God all around. (Cf. Mt 13,33; 5, 13-14).

If you are interested in participating we invite you to contact the Religious oF Laity in charge of the AFJM in each Province.

ADDRESS OF THE POPE JOHN PAUL II TO THE ASSOCIATION FAMILY OF JESUS AND MARY

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The step of faith you have taken expresses well the objective of your spiritual family, which is “to know Jesus Christ better and to work in the Church to make God and his merciful kindness known”. Indeed, during this year when we are celebrating the 2,000th anniversary of the Saviour’s birth, the whole Church is invited to lift her gaze in a new way to the Lord Jesus, who reveals to humanity the face of God the Father, “merciful and compassionate” and who, by sending the Holy Spirit, makes known the mystery of love which is the Trinity.

I therefore warmly encourage you generously to renew the gift of yourselves to Christ, accepting his gift of himself to you and remaining in close union with him. In your life as disciples of Christ, as well as in your apostolic commitments, keep a vivid ecclesial awareness alive within you. Religious of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary and your associated lay members, through fruitful collaboration in the service of the Church’s mission of salvation, be ever more effective signs of the presence of Christ the Saviour among his human brothers and sisters, especially the littlest! May no one feel excluded from the love which the Father offers to all his children!

Following St Claudine Thévenet, be to everyone, especially to young people and children, fervent witnesses of forgiveness and mercy, looking at them in a way that enables you to discover in each one a promise, an expectation, an epiphany of the divine presence. Like your foundress and inspirer, draw your missionary energy from the source of the Heart of Christ and the Heart of his Mother, so that “love will be, as it were, the apple of your eye” (Saint Claudine Thévenet).

SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Friday 15th September 2000, Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City