Maria Montessori Collective Religious Life Project

We think we know everything about Maria Montessori. And yet, one essential dimension has been largely ignored, even hidden from her biographies, even though it is probably one of the foundations of her pedagogy: her faith.

In France, everyone is unaware that Maria and the young women around her formed a religious congregation, attended mass daily and dedicated themselves to Christ.
The core of this book offers a translation of their rule of life archived among the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary (FMM) in Rome. This text presents the concrete and spiritual organization of their small family.

It is preceded by a contextualization allowing us to imagine what could have led Maria to this choice of life, and followed by a conclusion attempting to make some hypotheses on the reasons for the non-deployment of this community. These two chapters are written by Claire de Gérard.

The authors:

- Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was an Italian doctor who, based on the observation of the natural development of the child, developed an innovative educational method that is now widespread throughout the world.

- Claire de Gérard discovered Montessori pedagogy eighteen years ago, continues to train continuously, and applies it daily (homeschooling, workshops, atrium, initiation). Passionate about Maria's life, she is particularly interested in the spiritual dimension of this approach.

Excerpts:

“Charity is our law, the cement of our union and the leaven of our growth.”

"...if I were to become materially blind to all objects and were given to see only the Eucharist exposed on the altar, I would say that I have lynx eyes and that nothing is missing from my gaze."

“Obey with faith and joy: perhaps what God commands us is not this determined action, but the faith and joy with which we carry it out.”