Deeply aware of the Father’s providential presence in his life, Edmund Rice was moved by the Holy Spirit to open his whole heart to Christ present and appealing to him in the poor.
He was given the grace to respond by identifying through Christ with the poor in order to evoke in them a deep awareness of God’s loving presence.
His example attracted others to share his Gospel insight and response in an apostolic religious community which mainly through Christian education would raise the poor to an awareness of their dignity as children of God.

International Spirituality Conference, August 1982.