By Mirna Zamora, R.A.
For Marie Eugénie of Jesus, educating was never simply about transmitting knowledge. Nor did it consist in preparing successful people according to the world's criteria. Educating was something far greater and deeper: to take part in God's work, to collaborate with Him so that each person might discover who they are, recognise their dignity and find the meaning of their existence. That is why her vision remains surprisingly relevant.
We live in a time full of opportunities, but also of great challenges for education. Our children and young people have access to an immense amount of information, yet they often struggle to find meaning in it; they are permanently connected, yet they frequently experience loneliness; they master new technologies with admirable speed, yet they need spaces to listen to their hearts, to build deep convictions and to discover what gives direction to their lives.
In the midst of this reality, Marie Eugénie's insight resonates with particular force. She understood that education should not be limited to forming brilliant minds, but people capable of looking at the world with the eyes of faith and of committing themselves to its transformation. Her desire was that education should help every human being to live with integrity, inner freedom and openness to the Kingdom of God.
Her great dream was to form "daughters of God." This expression, far from being a pious or romantic notion, contains a true educational revolution. It means helping each person to discover that they are loved by God, that they possess an infinite dignity and that they are called to be protagonists in the building of a more just, more human and more fraternal world. Understood in this way, education does not seek only to develop intellectual abilities, but to form hearts capable of loving, serving and transforming reality.
To educate, then, is to awaken a vocation: it is not only about preparing for a profession, but about preparing for a mission. A mission that begins in everyday life: in the family, at work, in friendships, in the way we relate to the most vulnerable, to creation and to society. Marie Eugénie was convinced that education should form people capable of bringing the spirit of Christ wherever they lived and acted, becoming a presence of hope and reconciliation in the midst of the world.
This is why she insisted on a dynamic faith, a faith that enlightens judgement, orients the affections and gives coherence to life. She did not want believers who separated faith from reality, but men and women capable of understanding their time, loving it deeply and transforming it from the Gospel. She herself affirmed that her gaze was fixed on Jesus Christ and the extension of his Kingdom, convinced that education was one of the privileged paths for collaborating in that work.
The Assumption's educational tradition has kept this conviction alive: to educate is to take part in building the Kingdom and to accompany people so that they may discover God's presence in their own history. Education thus becomes an act of hope and a concrete way of committing oneself to justice, fraternity and the common good.
It is significant that the reflections of Pope Leo XIV during the Jubilee of the World of Education seem to be in dialogue with this very insight. The Pope has pointed to four fundamental pillars for Christian education —interiority, unity, love and joy— and has recalled that true learning is born of personal encounter, that educating is much more than transmitting content, and that teaching can only flourish where there is an authentically human relationship between educator and student.
These words take on special relevance at a time when artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming the way we learn, communicate and access knowledge. Pope Leo XIV recognises the value of these tools and the possibilities they offer for human development, but he also warns of the risk of an increasingly cold, standardised and impersonal education. Artificial intelligence can offer information, but it cannot replace the encouraging gaze of a teacher, the listening of one who accompanies an inner search, the patience of one who helps another rise after a failure, or the shared joy that is born of a true educational community.
It is precisely here that we find one of Marie Eugénie's greatest contributions to our time. She understood that educating is a profoundly human and profoundly evangelical task. She knew that no methodology, however innovative, can replace the formation of the heart. Before teaching, we must encounter one another; before transmitting knowledge, we must awaken the desire for truth; before preparing for success, we must help people discover a reason to live and to serve.
In our classrooms and communities, this demands much more than effective teaching methods. It demands educators who themselves live a continuous process of personal transformation, for no one can awaken in others what they do not cultivate in themselves. To educate is, first of all, to let oneself be educated by God each day; it is to learn to look at every child and every young person with hope, recognising in them a promise of God for humanity.
It also means rebuilding the bonds between school, family and society, for no institution can educate alone. The educational mission requires a true community that accompanies, listens to and supports the new generations; where authentic relationships exist, young people find roots to grow and wings to dream.
In a society marked by haste, competition and individualism, to keep affirming that every human being is a son and daughter of God and is called to transform the world through love remains a profoundly countercultural proposal. And, precisely for that reason, it remains revolutionary. Education inspired by the Gospel continues to invite us to believe that fraternity is possible and that history can be transformed by people who live from truth, justice and mercy.
The Assumption's educational mission continues to invite us to believe that another world is possible: a more human, more fraternal and more evangelical world. A world that begins to be built, silently, every time an educator opens spaces for interiority, strengthens bonds, teaches with love and passes on hope.
For to educate is not only to teach. To educate is to collaborate humbly in God's creative work and to help his Kingdom continue to grow in people's hearts and in history.
Bibliographical references
Claire Madeleine, R.A. (1971). Mother Marie Eugénie's thought on our educational mission. Religious of the Assumption.
International Assumption Education Congress. (2018). Transformative education in the Assumption. Framework document of the International Education Congress of the Religious of the Assumption.
Leo XIV. (2025). Magnifica Humanitas: on human dignity, education and the challenges of artificial intelligence in the contemporary world. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Leo XIV. (31 October 2025). Address to the participants in the Jubilee of the World of Education. Vatican Media.
Marie Eugénie of Jesus. (19 July 1842). Letter to Fr Emmanuel d'Alzon. In Claire Madeleine, R.A., Mother Marie Eugénie's thought on our educational mission (1971). Religious of the Assumption.