Our Badge of Honor: to Belong to the Church
Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 227
In one of its first paragraphs, our Constitutions declare that “We want to always be rooted in Jesus Christ, […], for no one can lay any other foundation[1] than Christ, the Rock[2]. We want to love and serve Jesus Christ – His Body and His Spirit – and to help others love and serve Him. We want to love and serve the physical Body of Christ, the Eucharist, as well as His Mystical Body, the Church. His Church consists of us – who must become “other Christs” through the holiness of our lives – and of all men in whom we see Christ himself, especially the poor, the sinners, and enemies. We want to be “like another humanity of Christ.”[3] We want to be chalices full of Christ, chalices that allow the superabundance of His grace to overflow upon others. We want to show by our lives that Christ is alive, and that His Spirit is the soul of the Church, because anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him[4].”[5] This series of desires manifests what is the foundation of our Religious Family of the Incarnate Word.
In full agreement and continuity with what was said above, the Directory of Spirituality affirms without hesitation that “We do not want to know anything apart from her,”[6] that is, nothing apart from the Church, since “the same Christ is embodied in his Body, the Church.”[7] And we fervently desire that “Belonging to Her – by faith and baptism – be our seal of honor.”[8]
In this month of May in which the liturgy providentially proposes for us to celebrate Cristo de la Quebrada, a day of great significance for us since it is the day of our foundational grace, and a few weeks later the Solemnity of Pentecost, it seems that it could be of great spiritual benefit for all of the members of the Institute to return to contemplating the Mystical Life of the Incarnate Word, that is, “the wonder of the Church, Christ’s Body, nurtured by God’s Word, One, Holy, Catholic (missionary and ecumenical) and Apostolic, enriched and founded on the ‘three white things.’”[9] The Church that, moreover, is the one who “by its authority, accepts and approves”[10] the charism of an Institute precisely for “the building up of the Body of Christ.”[11]
It is our desire that the reading of these considerations contributes to deepen and increase our faith in the Mystical Life of the Incarnate Word, as we asked in the novena in preparation for the Annunciation of the Lord; and that at the same time it may serve to develop more and more the beautiful texts of our proper law in regards to this topic.
1. Christ, Head of the Church
Already in the first few lines of our Constitutions, we fundamentally confess “Christ [who] ‘subsists in the Catholic Church which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.’”[12] Similarly, “We profess the pre-eminence of Christ, even as a man, over all creation. He has primacy over the souls and bodies of the members of His Mystical Body, and also over all men through all ages. He is the Head of everyone – even of those not predestined to eternal life in heaven with Him, who will only stop being potential members of the Body of Christ when they leave this world.”[13]
Straight away the Directory of Spirituality continues, saying: “We profess that Christ is Head of the Church[14] and of all men,[15] and that He has triple primacy over them: a primacy of order, of perfection and of power. He has primacy of order because due to His closeness with God, His grace is the highest and the first – though not chronologically speaking. All who receive grace receive it in reference to His: For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren[16]. He has primacy of perfection because He possesses the fullness of grace: We have beheld his glory… full of grace and truth[17]. He has primacy of power because He has all the power to communicate grace and glory to all the members of His Body: And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace[18].”[19] According to this last type of primacy, we could say that Christ also has primacy of interior inspiration. It is a physical, intimate, vital, mystical influence, comparable analogically to the affect of the vine on its branches.
From this, it follows that “unquestionably, the whole of Christ’s Humanity, His Body and Soul, has an influence on the body and soul of all men and women in the world of all times. Everyone, because they actually (in act) or possibly (in potency) belong to the Mystical Body, even those who are not baptized, and the pagans and sinners… everyone! receive the influence of Christ by means of actual graces. Neither the devil nor the antichrist is head, properly speaking, of those who are evil since they can in no way exercise an interior influence. They exercise only an exterior influence: by means of temptations, bad examples, attacks, suggestions, or possessions. In as much as man freely wants to separate himself from God through sin, he submits himself to the power of the devil. And only in the improper sense can we call the devil head of the wicked.”[20]
And by this triple primacy of the Incarnate Word as Head of the Church that is His Body, “the Church founded on the rock will not be able to be destroyed.”[21] His Mystical Body will suffer injuries; there will be ‘scandals’ in the same way that He was the stumbling block. Because if the human nature of Christ suffered rejection and ‘apparent defeat’ why pretend that his Mystical Body will be exempt from these things? Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote in one of his books: “If he permitted thirst, pain, and a death sentence to affect His Physical Body, why should He not permit mystical and moral weaknesses such as loss of faith, sin, scandals, heresies, schisms, and sacrileges to affect His Mystical Body? When these things do happen, it does not prove that the Mystical Body the Church is not Divine in its inmost nature, any more than the Crucifixion of Our Lord proved that he is not Divine.”[22] “The Holy Spirit’s presence in the Church enables her, despite being marked by the sin of her members, to be preserved from defect.”[23]
Saint John Paul II explains that the words of Our Lord: On this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it,[24] “testify to Jesus’ will to build his Church, with an essential reference to the specific mission and power that He, in his time, would confer upon Simon.” […] “The word rock – the Pope continues – expresses a permanent and subsistent being; consequently, it applies more to the person [of Peter] than to one of his acts, which are necessarily transitory. The duration of the Church is linked to the rock. The relation between Peter and the Church in itself repeats the bond between the Church and Christ. Jesus is actually saying My Church. This means that the Church will always be the Church of Christ, the Church that belongs to Christ. It does not become Peter’s Church, but rather, as Christ’s Church, it is built on Peter, who is Cephas in name and in virtue of Christ.”[25]
Facing the vacillations of times and circumstances, we must always have present that “our Lord is the Founder, the Head, the Support and the Savior of this Mystical Body.”[26] We must know how to give glory to God by limitless trust in his Providence, which disposes all for the good of those who love God,[27] and believe with unyielding steadfastness that even the most adverse events, those most opposed to our natural view, are arranged by God for our own good, even though we don’t understand His designs, and we ignore the end to which he wants to bring us.[28]
Our proper law dedicates numerous pages to develop the inscrutable theological subject of the Mystical Life of the Incarnate Word, since from it surge essential principles of our spirituality. It is not our intention now to relate everything that our proper law says– although we do actively recommend reading it[29] – but rather to point out some elements rooted in faith in the mystery of the Mystical Life of Christ that are related to our consecrated life and particular mission. Since it is the Holy Spirit who poured out a singular grace on our Founder then it is through him that our Religious Family may contribute to the edification of the Church, according to its particular way of living out religious life and the apostolate.[30]
2. Badge of Honor
All of the members of the Church must know very clearly that “The Word assumed a human nature to accomplish the design of salvation. He now chooses other human natures in order to extend that design through time, so that salvation may reach all men of all times. The Church is Jesus Christ continued, diffused and communicated. The Church is the extension of the redemptive Incarnation, by means of the three-fold function: prophetic, priestly and royal.”[31] Together with this, it is paramount to remember that to belong to the Church, not only by baptism but also by faith, must be our seal or badge of honor. That is, we must distinguish ourselves by our love for and filial obedience to our Holy Mother Church.
It could not be otherwise, since faith in the Church goes indefectibly united with faith in the mystery of the Incarnate Word. “Since the Church cannot be separated from Christ, nor Christ from the Church.”[32]
We know well that the Holy Spirit was sent to the Church after Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension into heaven,[33] precisely on the day of Pentecost. “Therefore, the Holy Spirit is a gift given by God to the Church: You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit[34]. The Holy Spirit is a gift that vivifies the Church […] The Holy Spirit vivifies the Church so much so that it is correctly called the ‘Soul of the Church.’”[35] The Holy Spirit thus plays a fundamental, essential, constitutive role in the Church. He is the source of the unity of the Church and the source of holiness. He is the first installment of eternal life: the promised holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance.[36] He is the one who helps us, since the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.[37] He is the one who enriches the Church with the diversity of his gifts: one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.[38] Notice that “the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church not as a guest who still remains an outsider, but as the soul that transforms the community into God’s holy temple[39] and makes it more and more like himself through his specific gift, which is love[40].”[41]
For this reason, our proper law paternally exhorts us to “always ask the Lord to grant us His Holy Spirit, and docility to Him, so that we may belong to Christ more and more, and therefore to His mystical Body, since anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him[42].”[43]
“This hierarchical and mystical reality – visible and spiritual, terrestrial and celestial, canonical and charismatic, human and divine – resembles ‘the mystery of the Incarnate Word’[44] by way of a deep analogy since ‘the same Christ is embodied in his Body, the Church.’[45] Therefore, we who are proud to call ourselves religious of the Incarnate Word would gravely betray our charism if we did not work to have an authentic ecclesial spirituality that incorporates us fully into the Church of the Incarnate Word.”[46]
Thus, not only do we confess our faith in the Church as a manifestation of the Mystical Life of the Incarnate Word in time, but we also seek to distinguish ourselves by belonging to the Church our whole lives.
We need look no farther than our very consecration, which is not understood except in the Church, and because of this “we want to live in a state that ‘constitutes a closer imitation and an abiding re-enactment in the Church of the way of life embraced by God’s Son when he came into the world…’.”[47] And so, “driven by love […]” we want to “live more and more for Christ and for His body which is the Church.”[48]
Its vital relation with the Church is precisely what orients our Institute’s existence and action, as our proper law expresses well throughout the length and breadth of all of its documents. Here, we only want to make note of a few elements to demonstrate:
- We are convinced that “Only with absolute fidelity to the Holy Spirit can we skillfully use the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God[49]. Our feeble breath is only fertile and irresistible when it communes with the Wind of Pentecost.”[50] And because of this, we cannot conceive of reading Sacred Scripture except “in the church,” [51] for which the strictest fidelity to the Supreme Magisterium of the Church of all times, the proximate norm of faith, is absolutely necessary.[52] In effect, for us, the Word of God must be “deepened in the Church,”[53] with the same Spirit in which it was written,[54] and only by being understood in this way, the Word of God becomes the strength of our Institute.[55] It is because of this that the formation that we impart to those in formation “‘is based and built above all on the study of sacred doctrine and theology’[56] that comes from faith and tries to lead us to faith, as the Magisterium of the Church and Catholic theologians have always taught.”[57] Moreover, “the teachings of the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), the Apostolic Exhortations Evangelii Nuntiandi and Catechesi Tradendae, Saint John Paul II’s speech to UNESCO and others on the same subject, the Puebla Document, the Encyclical Letter Slavorum Apostoli, the Encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, n. 55, c, and any forthcoming directives, orientations and teachings of the Magisterium of the Church that may be issued regarding the specific purpose of our small Religious Family”[58] constitute our working rule in order to make a real contribution to the mission that has been entrusted to us. Because of this, we not only say, but also take care and concern to be “docile to the Church’s great discipline, which is expressed in the Code of Canon Law and in all ecclesiastical rules and laws, and to be docile to the particular discipline of our Institute.”[59]
- In turn, our Constitutions indicate that “We do not want our Religious Family to be guided by any spirit other than the Holy Spirit. If our Religious Family is led by another spirit at any time or in any place, we beg our Lord to eliminate it from the face of the Church.”[60]
All of the members of our Institute – whether they be brothers, seminarians, priests, monks, or novices – form the same unique Congregation in the Church, regardless of where they are from or where they mission, their years in religious life, academic degrees they may or may not have, the duties they carry out, etc. We all have the same rule, the same charism, the same spiritual patrimony, and the same mission, that is, “to work in supreme docility to the Holy Spirit and according to the example of the Virgin Mary, so that Jesus Christ will be the Lord of all that is truly human, even in the most difficult situations and under the most adverse conditions.”[61] For this reason, we must be united in our vocation by an intense fraternal love now and always.
The Holy Spirit, the “Soul of the Church,” is the spirit of charity, and our proper law offers countless provisions so that we may live according to this spirit, as an integral and essential part of our fidelity to the charism and to our very vocation received within the Church. For example, it indicates, and we would like to emphasize, that we must, “make use of any and all means so that ‘nobody may be disturbed or grieved in the house of God.’[62] We must live fraternal charity: that is, outdo one another in showing honor[63]; bear their weaknesses, both physical and spiritual, with unlimited patience; be eager to obey one another; seek not one’s own good as much as one’s neighbor’s; practice true fraternal love; live always in the fear and love of God. ‘Love your Abbot (superior) with true and humble charity; do not let anything come before Christ who will take all of us together to Eternal life.’[64]”[65]
Without charity towards one’s brothers, whether they be equals, subjects or superiors, the confession of faith in the Mystical Life of the Incarnate Word which is prolonged in every soul in the state of grace, is worthless. Even if someone like this has read all the documents of the Magisterium, even if he spends years as a missionary in distant countries or sacrifices himself in the silence of the cloister, even if he claims to be a most obedient son of the Church, even if he claims to be very faithful to the charism of the Institute and outwardly appears to follow all its rules… for he who says that he loves God and yet does not love his brothers, is a liar.[66] Moreover, a person like this “does not actually belong to our spiritual family, though he may be with us in body,”[67] since he betrays or gravely departs from the spirit of our Religious Family, which is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Charity.
- The members of the Institute, as faithful sons of the Church, are “essentially missionary.”[68] Thus, we are dedicated by vocation to the spreading of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is the one who guides our discernment of reality to interpret the signs of the times and know how to respond with the impetus of the saints[69] to the missionary needs of the Church today.
Moreover, “we will carry out all of our missionary enterprises in communion with the Church, conscious of the fact that it falls to the Missionary Dicastery to direct and coordinate the work of the Evangelization of peoples in the whole world and missionary cooperation.”[70]
In light of this, our major seminaries prepare future priests through the Church and for the Church[71]. The pastoral formation of the candidates must be directed to comprehend and to live out the ecclesiastical dimension,[72] inviting them to open their minds and their hearts and avail of all the opportunities that are offered to them to announce the Gospel.[73] In addition, through this formation we endeavor to help all our candidates be disposed to be sent to preach the Gospel in any part of the world[74] and to “take interest ‘not only in a particular Church… but also in the Universal Church.’”[75] Since we are “convinced that the missionary dimension of ecclesial life is not something that depends simply on personal generosity, but rather belongs to the very nature of the Church[76] and the ministerial priesthood,”[77] it is of great importance that our seminaries be full “of such a catholic spirit that they are accustomed to go beyond the limits of their own diocese or nation or rite and aid the needs of the whole Church, prepared to preach the Gospel in all places.”[78]
Proof of this is that our missionaries are dedicating all their efforts to serve the great work of the inauguration and extension of the Kingdom of Christ in the world, and that we are found in 44 countries, carrying out a great variety of apostolic works. Furthermore, since the matter of vocations “affects the whole Church in her fundamental mark of apostolicity,”[79] “the love of God, of the Church, and of souls impels us to work for vocations.”[80] We can give thanks to God today that in the course of our short history as a missionary and religious Institute, God has blessed us with numerous vocations native to our places of mission, and even from countries where the Institute is not yet present. In fact, the many members of our Institute still in formation come from 45 different countries. As well said by Saint John Paul II: “An abundance of vocations and an effective formation of seminarians are two tests of the Church’s vitality.”[81] Deo gratias!
- The Mystical Life of the Incarnate Word is found to be enriched and sustained in the three white things[82]: the Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Pope. “The Church is the Body of Christ. This means that in the Eucharist, in which the Lord gives His Body and transforms us into one Body,[83] the Church permanently expresses herself in her most essential form.”[84] In this sense, our proper law indicates that “The unity and indivisibility of the Eucharistic Body of the Lord implies the unity and indivisibility of the mystical Body of the Lord. Each Eucharist makes us surrender to the Lord, and integrates us into His one and undivided Body”[85]
Consequently, through the spirit of faith that animates us and has been transmitted to us, we have for our motto: “with Peter and under Peter.”[86] This is because “the unity of the Eucharist and the unity of the Episcopacy […] are not independent roots of the Church’s unity, since the Eucharist and the Episcopacy are essentially linked realities, in virtue of the institution of Christ Himself[87]”[88].
This being the case, we will always find the deepest foundation of our unity as a Religious Family in the Eucharist.[89] The Eucharist is one of our great loves; it is the principal love, the most important thing that we have to do each day.[90] Proof of this is the great importance and great care that we place on the celebration of the Holy Mass in our religious and missionary communities, since wherever we go, the Sunday Eucharist is especially central.[91] From this emanates our pastoral care for sanctification as the source and means to establish a truly Christian culture.
- “Since the universal Church is ‘the universal Sacrament of salvation,” [92] she is open – not closed – to missionary and ecumenical dynamics; she has been sent to announce and to testify, to enact and to extend the mystery of the communion that is constitutive of her; to gather all and everything in Christ.[93] As an image of the Church, our small Religious Family must never be closed off, but rather must be open like the arms of Christ on the Cross that were ‘dislocated’ for love’s sake.”[94] Consequently, all of the members of the Institute make the ecumenical cause of the Church their own, for we are determined “to work with all our strength to build our life in union with the legitimate Shepherds, most especially in cordial fidelity with the Bishop of Rome, bearing witness to the one Church:
– so that all Christians may arrive at perfect unity, to fulfill the promise and prophecy of the Lord: So there shall be one flock, one shepherd (Jn 10:16); and that His prayer would bear fruit: that they may all be one (Jn 17:21). This is the ecumenical work.
– so that all men may confess the adorable Name of the Lord Jesus, fulfilling His commandment: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation (Mk 16:15). This is the missionary work. We must remember that ‘it is above all in truth that unity is built: the communion of minds is easily transformed into the union of hearts…’[95]”[96]
It is our mission then, to remain “open to any particle of truth wherever it is found”[97] discovering the ‘seeds of the Word,’ with joy and respect, in order to seek to awaken men to a more vehement desire for the truth and charity.[98]
Mindful that there are innumerable men and women who have still not heard the Name of Jesus and to whom have not yet been offered the immense gift of salvation, each day we must employ ourselves in the explicit proclamation of Jesus as Lord, without which a true evangelization cannot exist. At the same time, inculturation and interreligious dialogue will play an important role in the various places where our missionaries, in full communion with the Church of Christ, bear the truth of the Redemption that God accomplished in Jesus. We might add here that a serious and open dialogue with cultures and religions should not be considered as opposed to the mission ad gentes, but rather “part of the evangelizing mission of the Church.”[99] This supposes, on the part of our missionaries, a serious personal preparation, mature discernment, fidelity to the indispensable criteria of doctrinal orthodoxy, moral integrity and ecclesial communion.[100] “Never forget that dialogue can deepen and purify the Catholic faith, but it cannot change it,”[101] given that “the unity that ecumenism seeks cannot dispense with truth, since it is unity in the truth itself.”[102]
- Our Constitutions affirm that the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church “consists of us – who must become ‘other Christs’ through the holiness of our lives.”[103] As such, it is natural that our proper law exhorts us to form ourselves in virtue in accord with “the doctrine of the great teachers of spiritual life, […] and according to the examples of all the saints of all times that the Church proposes as models of virtue for us to imitate. In this way, following the Holy Father in belief and following the saints in practice, we will never err, since, just as the Holy Father cannot err in his teachings about faith and morals, nor did the saints err in their practice of the virtues.”[104] Even more, the Blessed Virgin, the most eminent member of the Mystical Body of Christ, is another of our great loves because of her “because of her union with Christ and with the Church. Since She gave birth to the Head, She gave birth to us members as well. She was given to us as Mother.”[105] Thus, “We cannot therefore speak of the Church unless Mary, the Mother of the Lord, is present there […] The Marian dimension is as essential to the one Church of Christ as are the Eucharistic and Petrine dimensions.”[106] In effect, Mary is our model of ecclesiastical communion and the image and beginning of the Church,[107] and we firmly believe that just as she was in the midst of the Apostles, so she is among us and the Church in every age.[108]
Additionally, in our task of announcing the Gospel, it has been instilled in us even from the beginnings of the Institute to do so always “with the fervor and enthusiasm of the saints, even in moments of difficulty and persecution in a de-Christianized and atheistic world.”[109] Because “the saints are the most eloquent signs of the vitality of the Church; they have always transformed the world. They have been the true reformers of the world and of the Church. They are the best members of the Mystical Body of Christ. They are the greatest and most complete fruits of the Incarnation and Redemption. The saints have been the illustrious witnesses and protectors of the Church’s divine Tradition, that is, they recall and transmit with their lives the very breath of the Church. They have known how to overcome every obstacle that opposes Evangelization, and thus they are models to follow, and we must have recourse to them in the work of Evangelization.”[110]
- “Our third great love must always be the white figure of the Pope. ‘Wherever Peter is, the Church is there’.”[111] Thus we understand that “the idea of a Body of Churches demands the existence of a Head of these Churches, [namely] the Church of Rome.”[112] So it is that wherever we the members of the Institute find ourselves, we must make an effort to give “ witness to a strong and authentic communionin filial relationship to the Pope, in total adherence to the belief that he is the perpetual and visible center of unity of the universal Church, and with the local Bishop, ‘the visible principle and foundation of unity’ in the particular Church, and in ‘mutual esteem for all forms of the Church’s apostolate’.”[113] Consequently, “We make the teaching of Saint Ignatius of Loyola our own: ‘If we wish to proceed securely in all things, we must hold fast to the following principle: What seems to me white, I will believe black if the hierarchical Church so defines.’[114]”[115] Because “to be in everything with the Pope means to be in everything with God; to love Jesus Christ and to love the Pope is the same love,”[116] since “…to love the Pope, to love the Church, is to love Jesus Christ.”[117]
Persuaded that “the Pope should be loved in the cross; and whoever does not love him in the cross, does not seriously love him,”[118] our proper law makes the expression of Saint Luigi Orione its own, when he says we “must deny ourselves at the feet of the Church and our superiors, and obey for love of Christ and be considered as a scouring pad … so that no one might surpass us in faithful obedience, obsequiousness, and love of the Holy Father and the Bishops, to whom the Holy Spirit has given the governance of the Church of God.”[119]
3. To Enrich His One Church
From Pentecost until our times, the Holy Spirit has been pouring out his gifts in a great multiplicity of forms to enrich his One Church by them, so that, in her varied beauty, she unfolds the inscrutable riches of Christ[120] in history. In every case, this always involves a divine gift that is fundamentally unique, even among the multiplicity and variety of spiritual gifts, or charisms, given to persons and to communities.[121]
Among the immensity of gifts with which God is pleased to embellish His Church, we find the charisms granted to men and women destined to found ecclesial works and especially religious institutes. These receive their character from the charism of their founders, live and act under their influence, and in the measure of their fidelity, receive new graces, as Saint John Paull II explained.[122] In fact, the Second Vatican Council observed that “the Church gladly welcomed and approved by her authority”[123] religious families, since it is above all Her responsibility not to quench the Spirit, but to test everything and retain what is good.[124] It is for this reason that “the distinctive character of various religious institutes is preserved and fostered by the Church.”[125]
It follows from this that “a true religious faithfully guards and shows a great love not only for the gift of religious life, but also for his own institute, which in a particular way includes ‘the mind and designs of the founders’[126] and the Constitutions,”[127] since in the end, this means being faithful to the gift of God and to his Church, which has brought about our Religious Family for a specific ecclesiastical service: the evangelization of the culture.
Because the Church canonically erected our Institute and approved its Constitutions on May 8, 2004, there is a particular reciprocal bond between them, since our Institute began to form a part of the spiritual and apostolic patrimony of the Church from that moment on.[128]
For this reason, near the celebration of the day of our foundational grace, and within the ecclesiastical context in which we have been dealing, it seems convenient to us to cite again that paternal warning that the Spiritual Father of our Institute gave us, saying: “Today, there is sometimes a prejudice that we should despise the differences that make up and distinguish religious institutes from each other. [On the contrary,] Each institution must be solicitous in maintaining its own physiognomy, the special character of its specific reason for being, which has held an attraction and has aroused vocations, has particular characteristics, and which has given a notable public witness. It is naïve and presumptuous to believe that, in the end, each institution must be identical to the others, practicing a generic love of God and neighbor. Those who think in this way would be neglecting an essential aspect of the mystical Body: the heterogeneity of its constitution, the pluralism of models in which the vitality of the Spirit that animates it is manifested, the transcendent human and divine perfection of Christ, its Head, which can only be imitated by the innumerable resources of the soul animated by grace.”[129]
Conscious of the great importance of our specific vocation, both for our Religious Family and for the Church, may we know, deepen, live convincingly and transmit the proper spirituality of our Institute to the whole Church.
*****
As we mentioned in the beginning of this letter, this month of May is sown with very significant dates for our Institute: May 3rd, the day of our foundational grace; May 8th, the Solemnity of our Lady of Luján, Queen of our Institute; and May 23rd, the Solemnity of Pentecost, the day on which the Church was born. All of these feasts invite us to pause for a moment and celebrate the gift that the Holy Spirit has granted to our Institute in relation to the growing needs of the Church and the world. May we know how to recognize in the magnificent charism and spiritual patrimony of our Institute one of the clearest signs of divine generosity, which has inspired and continues to inspire the generosity of so many souls. We must truly rejoice in this fact because it indicates that among men the sense of service to the Kingdom of God and to the development of the Church is widening and deepening.
Our confidence is in the one who has called us, the Incarnate Word Himself, Head of the Church. He has entrusted to us the marvelous gift of this special vocation on behalf of the whole Church, so that we may go and bear fruit, and that our fruit may remain.[130] We trust in God, in Him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever! Amen.[131]
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, whom we will celebrate with great solemnity this coming May 8th, always bless and protect the life our Institute. Through her intercession, may the Lord grant us his Holy Spirit and docility to Him, in such a way that we belong to Christ more and more,[132] and therefore to his Mystical Body, that we may “always sing the mercies of God.”[133]
[1] 1 Cor 3:11.
[2] Cf. 1 Cor 10:4.
[3] Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, Elevation, 34.
[4] Rom 8:9.
[5] Constitutions, 7.
[6] Directory of Spirituality, 244.
[7] Directory of Spirituality, 244. Cf. Saint John Paul ii, Discourse during the Prayer Meeting in Toronto, September 15, 1984; OR (9/30/1984) [Spanish Edition].
[8] Directory of Spirituality, 227.
[9] Constitutions, 44.
[10] Directory of Consecrated Life, bottom of page 416; op. cit. Essential Elements of the Religious Life, 11.
[11] Directory of Consecrated Life, 318; op. cit. Lumen Gentium, 45.
[12] Constitutions, 1. Cf. Lumen Gentium, 8.
[13] Directory of Spirituality, 4. Cf. Saint Agustin, De Trinitate, VI, 10; PL 34, 148; cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., III, 59, 1 ad 2.
[14] Cf. Eph 1:22.
[15] Cf. 1 Tim 4:10, 1 Jn 2:2.
[16] Rom 8:29.
[17] Jn 1:14.
[18] Jn 1:16.
[19] Directory of Spirituality, 5.
[20] Fr. C. Buela, IVE. El Arte del Padre, part II, chap. 1; cf. S. Th., III, q. 8, a. 7.
[21] Saint John Paul II, General Audience, 25 November 1992.
[22] Fulton Sheen, The Rock Plunged into Eternity, chap 5.
[23] Saint John Paul II, General Audience, 8 July 1998.
[24] Mt 16:18.
[25] Saint John Paul II, General Audience, 25 November 1992.
[26] Pius XII, Encyclical Mystici Corporis, 11.
[27] Rom 8:28.
[28] Directory of Spirituality, 67.
[29] Directory of Spirituality, 226-312.
[30] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 319.
[31] Directory of Spirituality, 227.
[32] Saint John Paul II, Letter to the participants in the fifteenth general assembly of religious in Brazil, 11 July 1989. (Italian Edition)
[33] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 234.
[34] Acts 2:38.
[35] Ibidem.
[36] Eph 1:13-14.
[37] Rom 8:26.
[38] 1 Cor 12:11
[39] 1 Cor 3:17; cf. 6:19; Eph 2:21.
[40] Cf. Rom 5:5; Gal 5:22.
[41] Saint John Paul II, General Audience, 8 July 1998.
[42] Rm 8:9.
[43] Directory of Spirituality, 235.
[44] Lumen Gentium, 8.
[45] Saint John Paul II, Discourse during the Prayer Meeting in Toronto, September 15, 1984; OR (9/30/1984) [Spanish Edition].
[46] Directory of Spirituality, 244.
[47] Constitutions, 2; op. cit. Lumen Gentium, 44.
[48] Perfectae Caritatis, 1; qtd. in Directory of Consecrated Life, 23.
[49] Eph 6:17.
[50] Constitutions, 18.
[51] Saint John Paul II, Address to the Council of “Equipes Notre- Dame”, (September 17, 1979); OR (9/30/1979) [Spanish Edition].
[52] Directory of Spirituality, 222.
[53] Saint John Paul II, Address to the Bishops of Mali, March 26, 1988; OR (4/24/1988) [Spanish Edition]; cf. Saint John Paul II, Discourse to the International Council of the Bishop of Our Lady, September 19, 1979; passim; OR (9/30/1979) [Spanish Edition].
[54] Dei Verbum, 11.
[55] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 238.
[56] Pastores Dabo Vobis, 53.
[57] Constitutions, 223.
[58] Constitutions, 27.
[59] Constitutions, 217.
[60] Constitutions, 17.
[61] Constitutions, 30.
[62] Saint Benedict, Holy Rule, 31.
[63] Rom 12:10.
[64] Saint Benedict, Holy Rule, 72, 1-12.
[65] Constitutions, 95.
[66] Cf. 1 Jn 4:20, qtd. in Directory of Works of Mercy, 15b.
[67] Directory of Spirituality, 42.
[68] Cf. Constitutions, 31.
[69] Directory of Spirituality, 216.
[70] Directorio de Misiones Ad Gentes, 159.
[71] Directory of Major Seminaries, 427.
[72] Ibidem.
[73] Directory of Major Seminaries, 428.
[74] Cf. Constitutions, 183.
[75] Directory of Major Seminaries, 429.
[76] Cf. Ad Gentes, 2
[77] Directory of Major Seminaries, 430.
[78] Ibidem.
[79] Saint John Paul ii, Regina Coeli Message, April 23, 1989; OR (4/23/1989) [Spanish Edition]; qtd. in Directory of Spirituality, 288.
[80] Directory of Vocations, 1.
[81] Saint John Paul ii, Homily during the Mass celebrated at the Major Regional Seminary in Seoul, May 3, 1984; OR (5/13/1984) [Spanish Edition]; qtd. in Directory of Spirituality, 291
[82] Cf. Constitutions, 44.
[83] Cf. Lumen Gentium, 3; 11.
[84] Directory of Spirituality, 295.
[85] Directory of Spirituality, 298.
[86] Constitutions, 211; cf. Ad Gentes, 38.
[87] Cf. Lumen Gentium, 26.
[88] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 299.
[89] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 300.
[90] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 202.
[91] Cf. Directory of Evangelization of the Culture, 244.
[92] Lumen Gentium, 48.
[93] Cf. Mt 28:19-20; Jn 17:21-23; Eph 1:10; Lumen Gentium, 9, 13, 17; Ad Gentes, 1.
[94] Directory of Spirituality, 263.
[95] Saint John Paul II, Meeting with Clergy and Religious in Fatima, May 13, 1982; OR (5/23/1982) [Spanish Edition].
[96] Directory of Spirituality, 59.
[97] Constitutions, 231.
[98] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 264.
[99] Directory of Mission Ad Gentes, 101
[100] Cf. Saint John Paul II, To the Chapter of the Divine Word Society, 30 June 2000.
[101] Directory of Ecumenism, 118.
[102] Directory of Ecumenism, 108.
[103] Constitutions, 7.
[104] Constitutions, 212-213.
[105] Directory of Spirituality, 303.
[106] Directory of Spirituality, 306.
[107] Directory of Spirituality, 304.
[108] Directory of Spirituality, 305.
[109] Directory of Mission Ad Gentes, 143.
[110] Ibidem.
[111] Directory of Spirituality, 309.
[112] Directory of Spirituality, 310.
[113] Christifedeles Laici, 30. Cf. Directory of Third Order, 70.
[114] Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 365.
[115] Directory of Spirituality, 312.
[116] Saint Luigi Orione, Letters, I, 99; qtd. in OR (24/07/1992), 1; qtd. in Directory of Spirituality, 312.
[117] Saint Luigi Orione, “Letter from July 1, 1936”, in Letters, 133.
[118] Saint Luigi Orione, Letters, I, 99; qtd. in OR (24/07/1992), 1; op. cit. Directory of Spirituality, 312.
[119] Saint Luigi Orione, Letter of the Epiphany of 1935; qtd. in Constitutions, 76.
[120] Eph 3:8.
[121] Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 103, a. 2.
[122] Cf. Saint John Paul II, Catechesis on the Consecrated Life, September 28, 1994.
[123] Perfectae Caritatis, 1.
[124] Cf. 1 Titus 5:19,21; 5:12. Cf. Lumen Gentium, 12.
[125] Potissimum Institutioni, 16 ; qtd. in Directory of Consecrated Life, 316.
[126] Code of Canon Law, can. 578.
[127] Directory of Consecrated Life, 317.
[128] Cf. Elio Gambari, Vita Religiosa secondo il Concilio e il nuovo Diritto Canonico, Rome 1985, 50; qtd. in Directory of Consecrated Life, 323.
[129] Message to Superiors General of women religious (May 14, 1987); op. cit. Perfectae Caritatis, 2b. [Translated from Italian]
[130] Cf. Jn 15:16.
[131] Eph 3:20-21.
[132] Directory of Spirituality, 235.
[133] Constitutions, 39.
