Marcellin Champagnat first started an order named Brothers of Mary due to his devotion towards Mary that eventually changed to Marist Brothers due to the order being approved by the Church. Marist brothers was founded on the 2^nd of January 1817 in Lyons, France. Marcellin devoted his life to his order who all had the goal of educating young people. Eventually, the religious order came to Australia after Champagnats death.

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

This piece can be found in Luke 15:1-7. It is a story of a shepherd who has 100 sheep but one goes missing. The shepherd believes that instead of abandoning the missing sheep he should let the rest of the flock be left to graze as he finds the missing sheep. Once he found the sheep he takes her back and celebrated her return with everyone. This parable tells us that God will always look after his children and do whatever it takes to make sure they are all safe. It also tells us that we should celebrate sinners who ask for repentance over other people who have always been good. 

This parable relates to Champagnat because he always looks after all of his children just like the shepherd with his sheep.  Champagnat always taught and nurtured all of his students to make sure each of them was feeling loved and a sense of belonging. He always made sure to look after all of his students even if it meant that he had to go out of his way. He loved all of his students equally and would do anything to ensure that they were safe. 

This parable shows that back in the time of the parable, God was highly regarded by other. This shows that religions other that Christianity existed due to the different social groups stated to be listening at the start of the parable. It also shows that there were many cultural differences and different groups from then to now. 

This story is a parable that Jesus tells a group of culturally diverse people about a shepherd and a missing sheep. The characters of the parable were the shepherd symbolizing God and the sheep symbolizing everyone else. The shepherd has 99 other sheep but is persistent and devoted to find the missing sheep. He believes that saving and celebrating one sheep from getting lost in the world because of bad doings is more important than celebrating 99 good sheep. 

Nowadays, I think the story still has the same meaning as before. It tells us that God is always there for us and will never abandon us. Someone who could be considered as the shepherd would be Father Mario. He brings St Anthony’s, Padua and Mount Alvernia together through the Franciscans on the Hill. A target audience for this parable would be children when they are learning about God and religion. This is because I think it is important that they know that God is always there for them.

Hail Mary, full of grace.
 Our Lord is with thee.
 Blessed art thou among women,
 and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
 Jesus.
 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
 pray for us sinners,
 now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Another prayer that was significant to Champagnat was The Our Father. This is because Champagnat thought that everyone was his brother and that God was apart of his family.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 
Amen.

This was written to inform everyone of why Champagnat felt deeply about treating his students fairly. It was written for people nowadays to inform them of the hardships Champagnat faced and resolved. The impact of the writing is significant as Champagnat is addressing mistreatment of students and no one was helping them.

 

“To raise children properly, we must love them and love them equally. I cannot see a child without wanting to tell him how much God loves him. Let there be among you just one heart and one mind. Let it always be said of the Little Brothers of Mary as it was of the early Christians: See how they love one another!”
-Champagnat

This was written by Champagnat and was to inform people of how he believed children should be raised. It was written for people of his time an dour time as all of the information is relevant to both. The impact of this writing at the time was more significant then nowadays as back then it held more meaning and was about the order that he had started.

1.Religious rights must be well respected and authority is to prevent any injury from punishment. Protection is also granted to everyone in the possession of his own. 

2.  When the government is looking after society, it is crucial that the poor and badly off receive extra protection and consideration due to their lack of resources

3.  The poor have no resources of their own to fall back on and depend on, and must chiefly depend on the state. Where-as the wealthy class have many ways of shielding themselves, henceforth don’t need the help from the state. 

4. Government should specially protect and care for wage earners as they are needy

The churches response to the issue of the poor being treated unfairly and getting unfair wages in similar to Champagnats response. His response was to create a low price school so even the poor could afford it.

 

Champagnat acted prophetically when he spoke out against injustices. He spoke out on 3 occasions about the injustices of the lack of knowing Church and twice about teachers mistreating their students. As a priest, Champagnat was called to the bedside of a sick boy who had no knowledge of God or Faith. From then on Champagnat always ensured he told every child how much God loves then and taught them the faith. The one instance influenced the life of Champagnat and everyone he reached around him. The school instances were centred around the mistreatment of students in front of the class and convinced Champagnat to treat everyone as a brother. Champagnat had to accept that some people don’t know about God but he always made sure to try and influence them into Christianity.

 

Champagnat acted Kingly in using his influence to promote the Kingdom of God and to love one another. One of Champagnats’ mottos was “We must have brothers!”. He believed that everyone should love each other as a brother and treat them as if you were related. He used his influence as a teacher to teach those about the Church and about Jesus’ influence. He taught his students to love one another, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and to follow Gods command.