The Lestonnac Groups are Christian groups built on voluntary participation, in the out-of-school environment; they are offered in the Company of Mary schools, from the ages of 9 or 10 up to High School.  Intending, through the Educational Project and the Company of Mary’s spirituality, to help children, adolescents and young people to find the meaning of their lives in Jesus and in the Gospels’ values, offering them alternatives that contribute to the growth of their faith, their choice of life and their involvement in the ecclesial community and to participate in society. The group is the main pedagogical means of learning to live together, to relate, to work as a team, to be forward thinking and engage with others in common service in society and in the Church, always accompanied by leaders who ensure, through their testimony and their know-how, that this is possible.

The educational option of the Lestonnac Groups focuses on:

• THE PERSON: Centre of all the educational action, contributing to the development of all capabilities through an integral and inclusive education.
• THE GROUP: An education that is carried out with others from a joint and complementary experience, enhancing participation, dialogue, acceptance, teamwork, cooperation and co-responsibility.
• THE ACCOMPANIMENT of the person in their personal growth, in the openness to the transcendence and subsequent journey of faith, from the respect of personal freedom.
• FREE TIME: An education that goes beyond the classroom and academia, looking for other educational spaces and times that promote an integral education.
• SOLIDARITY, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND DEVELOPMENT: that leads the participants to be involved in building a more just and better world for everyone and to take care of the planet.

Our expectation is that the Lestonnac Groups are not the end of a period of growth, but the basis for further commitments for young people both socially and within the Company of Mary and the Church, giving different volunteering options for the growth of faith.