Aims of AMSA
To associate like-minded schools so that they may more effectively promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ through school education and in the Marist way.
AMSA seeks to be one contemporary realisation of the aspirations of the first Marists who pledged themselves to form a Marist society at the shrine of Notre Dame de Fouviere, France, on 23 July 1816.
An Explanation of the Icon
Mary, Mother of the Church
An icon created for the Association of Marist Schools of Australia July 2001.
Reflections from the artist, Michael Galovic :
Although the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2, 1-13) say that the descent of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by a sound and by general perturbation, the icon shows us the reverse - an harmonious order and strict composition. In contrast to the Ascension, where the apostles are gesticulating, here their postures express an hieratic calm, their movements are full of solemnity. They are seated; and some turn a little towards one another, as though talking.
The inner meaning of this icon with Mary, Mother of God also depicted at times in Pentecostal icons replacing Christ, is that Pentecost is the baptism of the Church by fire. As a contrast to the confusion of tongues in Babylon, this is now the harmonious union on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit. These tongues can be depicted as sharp, pointed towards the apostles or bent, and are always of blue-green colour as is the tradition in iconography whenever depicting the divine realm at the top of the icon.
The two tall buildings on either side are of contemporary colours of red and blue-green nature, alluding to the duality of Christ.
Mother of God enthroned is now occupying the place of head of the Church, that is Christ. The colour of her undergarment is green for her human nature before she became Mother of God which is symbolised with her cloak of dark cherry colour, monastically simple and adorned only with gold ornaments and tassels and the three stars standing for her virginity before, during and after the conception and birth of Christ.
The red drape or veil is a veil of mysteries, symbolising the divine presence or a barrier between this world and the heavenly. The inner unity expressed by subordinating the apostles to a single form and a common rhythm in no way stamps them with uniformity. No movement in one figure is repeated in another.
This absence of uniformity corresponds also to the inner meaning of the event. The Holy Spirit appears in the shape of separate tongues, owing to the diversity of gifts.
At the bottom of the composition we have a symbolical figure of a King, personifying the people or peoples, he is Cosmos. An explanation of this figure can be found in the collections of the XVIIth century - Why at the descent of the Holy Spirit is there shown a man sitting in a dark place, bowed down with years, dressed in a red garment with a royal crown on his head, and in his hands a white cloth containing twelve written scrolls? The man sits in a dark place, since the whole world had formerly been without faith; he is bowed down with years, for he was made old by the sin of Adam; his red garment signifies the devil's blood sacrifices; the royal crown signifies sin which ruled the world; the white cloth in his hands with the twelve scrolls represents the twelve apostles, who brought light to the world with their teaching.
This particular icon is my own version of the type, done in the manner or under the influence of the Russian tradition, especially the school of Novgorod, XIVth or XVth century, known for its use of vibrant, bold colours, viridian greens and bold reds.
There is a specialness about this icon in that it depicts Mary present at Pentecost, as such a depiction is not often the case in icons of this event. The uniqueness though of this work is seen in the four portraits that frame the central image.
Mary was with the apostles, the nascent Church who waited expectantly for the coming of the spirit, and in 1816 the first Marists dedicated themselves to her in reshaping the Church of ravaged France. The corners of this icon bear the images of the three Marist founders - Jeanne-Marie Chavoin (Marist Sisters), Marcellin Champagnat (Marist Brothers), Jean-Claude Colin (Marist Fathers) with Francoise Perroton, the first among the pioneers of the Marist Missionary Sisters.
Just as Mary guided and nurtured the Church in its earliest days, and then again the birth of the Marist project in rural France, she is present now at the inauguration of AMSA - a new millennium expression of the Church.