Constitutions, 7
Rome, Italy, November 1, 2017.
Solemnity of All Saints
Dear Fathers, Brothers, Seminarians, and Novices,
Pope John XXII, in a very renowned phrase, affirmed “Give me a religious who has been faithful to the rule for his whole life and I will canonize him without any further examination.” This sentence, both brief and eloquent, has echoed in the souls of countless religious who were sanctified by the faithful practice of the constitutive principles of their Institutes. Simply because the patrimony of any institute (which clearly includes all that pertaining to proper law) of a religious congregation approved by the Church becomes the principle instrument in the sanctification of the religious member, pointing out to him at each moment the will of God.
All of the religious whom we now venerate as Saints had one “to follow Christ and conform [them]selves to him.” This too, is our ideal…we too declare that “We want to imitate Jesus Christ as perfectly as possible” “reproducing Him, becoming similar to Him, configuring ourselves to Him,” dedicating ourselves “totally to God as our supreme Love, so that, dedicated by a new and special title to his glory, for the edification of the Church and for the salvation of the world, we may achieve the perfection of charity.” For this is what holiness consists in.
We—our Constitutions and our proper law—also say that we don’t just want to do this in any old way but rather following “the objective elements which express the identity and configuration of consecrated life of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, according to our proper character and our spiritual patrimony.” For, we have become religious of the Institute of the Incarnate Word precisely for this reason: “to imitate the Incarnate Word, chaste, poor, obedient, and son of Mary,” “in accordance with the evangelical way traced in the Constitutions of the Institute of the Incarnate Word,” which the Church has found to be a valid and apt way to attain the perfection of charity.
This means—to say it loud and clear—that for each of us, the faithful fulfillment of the rules of the Institute—which are as “a map for the whole journey of discipleship in accordance with a specific charism confirmed by the Church”—is the normal and necessary way of achieving sanctity. As a matter of fact, our Directory of Consecrated Life explicitly declares this through saying that the “religious has a supreme rule of life which is that of ‘following Christ,’ not as something separate or parallel to proper law, but rather intimately united to it, such as takes place in reality, which is the same as saying ‘such as is set forth in the Gospel and declared by the Constitutions of one’s own Institute.’ [For] religious life and the proper way of living it within the Institute where one enters are necessarily united.” Further on the Directory says: “They (the Constitutions) are the ‘model’ upon which the religious should conform their life.”
We also confessed the same thing, as we proclaimed during our profession of religious vows: “I make a vow to live chaste…poor…and obedient, even until death on the cross, to follow more intimately the Incarnate Word in His chastity, poverty, and obedience, in accordance with the evangelical way traced in the Constitutions.” The day of our religious profession which we freely, publicly, and solemnly embark on the thrilling adventure of transfiguring our lives to that of Christ, according to the way traced in our Constitutions.
Therefore, although it is not a requirement that one be a saint to enter religious life, it is required that one “seriously aspire to be such, with a will entirely disposed to achieve holiness,” for this is what the perfection of the religious consists in: striving with all his forces to the perfection of charity, loving God with all one’s heart, all one’s soul, all one’s mind, and all one’s strength, and loving our neighbor for love of God. That is why, from the novitiate we are taught that “one cannot be a novice if he does not manifest an ardent desire for sanctify or perfection.” For, aspiring towards possessing perfect charity and working towards achieving it is, in one way of putting it, “our professional duty as religious,” the main duty of our state as religious.
In this sense, and with great emphasis, our proper law exhorts us to “firmly resolve to reach sanctity.” And quoting Saint Teresa we are asked to have “‘a great and very resolute determination to persevere until reaching the end, come what may, happen what may, whatever work is involved, whatever criticism arises, whether they [we] arrive or whether they die on the road, or even if they do not have courage for the trials along the way, or if the whole world collapses….’ What matters is to take a step, one more step. It is the same step that always begins again.” For, of the religious who does nothing in concrete to achieve holiness it is said that he “does not actually belong to our spiritual family, though he may be with us in body.” And with words which, far from discouraging us, but rather urges us to increase our fervor, we read: “A religious who is not entirely decided to reach perfection and who does not make concrete efforts to achieve it, is a frustrated religious; his life has lost all taste and enthusiasm; and to him we can rightly apply the words of Our Lord: You are the salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything…
It is within this context that I would like, in this Circular Letter, to ‘define’ in some way, according to our proper las, the DNA, so to say, or the intimate ‘fibers,’ the essential characteristics, which a religious of the Incarnate Word should have, whatever the circumstances of his life may be, whatever age he may have, or how many years he has of religious life, whether he be contemplative or a missionary in a far off land. For, we will become holy religious insofar as and inasmuch as we incarnate that which our proper law traces out as our ideal.
I trust that though Mary Most Holy, perfect model of the Consecrated Life, these lines might be useful for us as a form of personal examination, and at the same time, serve as a motivation to reach the ideal of holiness which is laid out for us in our Constitutions, and taken on as our own plan of sanctification the day of our solemn religious profession.
1. “We want to be another Incarnation of the Word”
Saint Peter Julian Emad said to his religious: “All men are obliged to know and practice the Gospel; but for you, it is sufficient to know and practice your rule, which is your gospel.” Analogously, we may also apply these words to our Constitutions and Directories, because the spirit of the Institute is the spirit of the Gospel: “We do not want our Religious Family to be guided by any spirit other than the Holy Spirit.” The Constitutions of our dear Institute, and therefore, the “way of life which this sets forth has been declared in conformity with the Gospel and suitable to achieve the proper end,” when they were approved over 13 years ago by the competent Church authority.
For this reason, Saint Peter Julian also exhorted his religious to “know the rule, and to understand the rule, because the rule is an educator, a teacher who wants to form us to give us to Jesus Christ.” The same holds true for us, for our Constitutions and our very proper law fix us in the Incarnate Word, found us in Him, and separate us from anything that is not in conformity with Him and his spirit.
For this reason, an ever deeper, conscious, and prayerful reading of our proper law—as is recommended by the Church and esteemed by the saints—helps us to interiorize the criteria and the gospel values which are presented to us therein. And this, to such a point as to instill within our souls such a spiritual energy which even leads us to desire martyrdom, if it be necessary to reach our ideal. Because “it is worth it to live fully one’s own consecration, while it becomes, day after day, a total gift of self, expression of a greater love, which likens us to Christ.”
Regarding our becoming like Christ, the proper law lays out, with splendid skill and in magnificent terms which enflame the soul’s fervor, the ideal of holiness that we should all be striving towards and which is nothing other than the imitation of the Incarnate Word himself. And so, being imbued with the spirit which marks our Constitutions only increases, within our hearts, the efficacious desire to want to arrive at “being ‘another Christ,’” like “another Incarnation of the Word.” This ideal compels one to toil after “passing through this world in imitation of the Incarnate God” and leads to make the effort to “live in fullness the radicality of the self-emptying of Christ and of his condition of a slave” which then becomes “a living memory of the way that Jesus, the Word made flesh” so as to be, in all things, and for all people, “like another humanity of Christ.”
We follow in the footsteps of the Incarnate Word—of the Infinite God who, without ceasing to be God took on the form of a slave—and whose Heart, because of the hypostatic union, contains an inexhaustible treasure of virtues. Such a following demands of us the practice of a wide spectrum of virtues which permit us to imitate him, “above all in the aspects of his self-denial and of his transfiguration.” Therefore, it should be a distinctive sign of a religious of the Incarnate Word that he stand out in “the virtues of self-denial: humility, poverty, suffering, obedience, self-surrender, mercy and charity to all men;” “more succinctly…to take up our cross” with courage.
Likewise, our state as religious of the Incarnate Word requires of us the practice of “the transcendent virtues: faith, hope, and charity” from which springs forth the spirit of unceasing prayer and the enkindling of the desire to pass through the active and passive purifications of the senses and of the spirit with the end of growing in these virtues and being united definitively to our ideal.
We have been called to make these virtues shine forth in our community life, in our missions, in our liturgical life, and so on, in every aspect of our religious life. Whether we live in a house of formation, in a monastery, in a mercy home, in a parish, or in a distant mission, and whatever task it may be that God has us involved in, or if it be the case that we are laid out on our sickbed. “We must give special witness to the Incarnate Word, particularly in the aspect of his radical self-denial which is informed by humility, in selfless service, and in a unique way in merciful love.”
2. The center of our life should be Jesus Christ
Applying the words of Blessed Paolo Manna to our case, we can also say that “our Constitutions follow and guide the missionary, besides in the work of his own sanctification, also in the practice of his zeal and apostolic ministry.”
Therefore, with transparent clarity and maternal pedagogy, our Constitutions give the details of what I mentioned earlier: that which should be the ‘most intimate fibers,’ the DNA, the central nucleus or the ‘model’ after which a religious of the Incarnate Word should configure his life after that of Christ. And so as to better penetrate into this reality which is so important for all of us, there is a text which, according to me, masterfully sums it up. I am referring to number 231 of our Constitutions, which I quote in its entirety below (it is worth reading and meditating over):
“We aspire to form priests for the Catholic Church according to the Heart of Christ, priests who nourish their spirit with the Word of God, serve their neighbor in solidarity with all in need, promote the laity, and have a great capability for dialogue without suffering any identity crisis. Our priests must desire ongoing formation, abandon themselves to Providence, and love the Catholic liturgy. These individuals are tireless preachers, ‘rich in spirit,’ ‘with tongue, lips, and wisdom, which the enemies of truth cannot resist,’ who are exceptionally fruitful in their apostolic and vocational efforts; they have missionary and ecumenical impetus, are open to any particle of truth wherever it is found, have preferential love for the poor without exclusivity and without exclusions. They must live in transparent and contagious joy, in unperturbed peace even amid the most arduous battles; they live in absolute and unrestricted ecclesiastical communion as relentless evangelists and catechists and as lovers of the cross. In short, we seek to form priests who are men with common sense, with that Christian common sense, which is none other than a familiarity with the Word made flesh.”
This means that, of each one of us—religious of the Incarnate Word—it should be able to be said that he is a religious who:
–is formed for the Catholic Church: because the Institute who which he belongs was born within the Catholic Church and is of the Catholic Church and for the Catholic Church. As such, a religious of the Incarnate Word “recognizes the primary and supreme authority of the Supreme Pontiff, and professes not only obedience to him, but also fidelity, filial submission, adherence, and disposition for the service of the universal Church.” He bows at the feet of the Church and does not want anyone else to surpass him “in obsequiousness, and love of the Holy Father and the Bishops, to whom the Holy Spirit has given the governance of the Church of God.”
–is a priest [or religious] after the Heart of Christ: who wants to be set apart by his incessant contemplation of this rich wellspring which will be his badge of honor. He is a man who “should be able to relate to others not with arrogance or dispute, but rather with sincerity of words and heart, with prudence and discretion, with generosity and willingness to serve, with the ability to make a personal offering and to promote loyal and brotherly relationships with everyone, with a willingness to understand, forgive, and console.” Concretely, he should demonstrate that he has God in his heart.
–nourishes his spirit with the Word of God: and therefore, loves and values “the wealth of the heavenly treasure of the Word of God,” to the point of longing that Sacred Scripture “be the ‘soul of our soul,’ of our spirituality, theology, preaching, catechesis and pastoral work.” He is a religious who dedicates himself to faithful meditation on the Word of God, by which we know the divine mysteries and make its values our own. Because, it is by being in contact with the Written Word of the Word that one is able to “grasp the ‘style’ of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And, in imitation of the Incarnate Word, he dedicates his life to the preaching of the Word of God “in all its forms.”
–serves his neighbor: because for this reason he professed as a religious of the Incarnate Word: “to carry out, with greater perfection, the service of God and man.” From this, he considers “all man, the whole man, and all men” as the object of his love and service. This service is carried out by “living a laborious life,” disinterested, always humble, but with “generosity for sacrifice, and great spirit of initiative,” always present and completely available to all. Because he is convinced that service towards his neighbor “takes on the value of serving God” if an authentic theological charity animates it. And with this “spirit of exceptional service he exercises his authority,” if he is placed to govern over his brothers. Moreover, conscious that the “mission that Christ the Redeemer entrusted to the Church is still far from completion, he dedicates himself with all his strength to its service, that is, to evangelization, for he sees in this task a service which can be given to all men.”
–in solidarity with all in need: he is a religious who exercises an “active involvement in the promotion of solidarity and charity” in various ways with those who are in need of his help. All of which he carries out without “putting limits” for he is not afraid that by giving, he will be lacking in anything. He never forgets that “works of mercy, above all with the disabled” are one of the non-negotiable elements of the charism of the Institute and the concrete opportunity to evangelize with one’s witness of life.
–promotes the laity: because he understands that “inculturation should imply the entire people of God, not only some experts” and recognizing “the specific contribution of the laity in evangelization of culture” he associates the greatest possible amount of them to his mission, that while seeking their own sanctification, they collaborate in the cause of spreading the faith and of sanctifying the entire world. For this reason, he strives to form the laity so that they might “direct temporal matters according to the plan of God”. He also promotes and encourages the laity in apostolic works. He is a religious who vividly desires “a world where religious and laity united fight so that truth and virtue reign.”
– has a great capability for dialogue without suffering any identity crisis: that means, he is a religious “who is able to know the depths of the human heart, to perceive difficulties and problems, to make meetings and dialogue easy, to create trust and cooperation, to express serene and objective judgments” He is a religious who is firm in his Christian identity while, wise in knowing the need for the “diffusion and the announcement of the deposit of the faith are necessary, according to the command of Christ” he is interiorly driven by charity to exercise the mode of dialogue to look for the sheep, without forcing anyone. Rather, the religious of the Incarnate Word who carries forth this dialogue is “clear, affable – not arrogant, with harsh words or offensive bitterness -, its authority is intrinsic for the fact that it affirms the truth, shares with others the gifts of charity, is itself an example of virtue. Hence dialogue promotes intimacy and friendship on both sides.” Finally, he is a religious who, through the “prudence of a teacher adapts himself and the manner of his presentation to the susceptibilities and the degree of intelligence of his listeners.”
–desires ongoing formation: because he is a religious who “is not content with a merely superficial knowledge of philosophy and theology that is incapable of understanding the modern exercise of atheism in all its depth, and is thus incapable of providing a remedy for it.”; rather he considers it fundamental, and “an intrinsic demand of his religious consecration.” And so, knowing “how to adapt to circumstances of duties and obligations” given him, he dedicates time to personal study because he recognizes that acting in any other way would be a serious injustice to the souls entrusted to him and he would remain far from ‘sinking his teeth into reality.’
–abandons himself to providence: not just in any old way, but with “unlimited trust,” finding in it “a particular way of glorifying God” because he considers it an integral part of the vow of poverty which one day he professed within this his beloved Institute–even when our apostolates should at times develop through costly means or in the first world–and he knows that, living in this way, he lives this trust to the fullness. Therefore, he knows how to “be magnanimous and magnificent in taking on apostolic works, according to the will of God, without being held back by the difficulties and the expenses that should be made in the various apostolic commitments, trusting in those things in Divine Providence. For, he understands that trusting in Divine Providence “is in no way opposed to, but rather includes, the prudent administration of goods; providing for the daily needs, helping the poor, not making superfluous expenses, while still making those which are necessary, concerned with the care and growth of the necessary material goods.” He is a religious who does not give in to the temptation to possess material securities, nor does he blame Divine Providence for the lack of means, which out of laziness, one has not obtained, nor is he wasteful with the means that Divine Providence has put within his reach. On the contrary! He knows that he is dependent upon God and in all things, and for all things he makes recourse to his endless benevolence, which he also pleases, with a joyful heart, in inviting others to trust as well. He is a religious who “sees everything – absolutely everything – in light of the loving designs of God’s Providence” because he “believes 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 that He wants to bring us to.” And this providential vision of life always accompanies him, for he loves God and he knows that “it is impossible for anything in the world not to coincide with, or contribute to, his own good.” In fact, this providential vision of our existence has been pointed out as one of the non-negotiable elements which comes from our charism.
–loves the Catholic liturgy: because he knows “not only the cultural, but the educational importance that the Sacred Liturgy should have.” That is why he makes the efforts to “be distinguished by the worthy celebration of the Holy Mass and in the reverent manner of celebrating it.” And so, it can be said that his liturgical celebrations are “models ‘for the rites, for the spiritual and pastoral tones, for the fidelity regarding the prescriptions and the texts of the liturgical books, as well as the norms established by the Holy See and of the Episcopal Conferences.’” Because, ultimately, they are liturgies which are “vivid and lived” for they nourish the sense of that which is sacred and they are imbued with a spirit of reverence and glorification of God.
–is a tireless preacher: with a holy “impatience to preach the Word in all its forms.” Therefore, he is a religious who, following the Gospel mandate to Go forth and teach all nations to the whole world, he marches onwards “with the fervor and enthusiasm of the saints, even in moments of difficulty and persecution,” to preach the Gospel, “even at the cost of sacrifices and renunciations.” He is an untiring religious, ready to give the first steps for Christ, and who does not settle, nor is he held back by the fear of limits, whether real or fictitious, which intend to weaken his priestly activity, but rather he moves with “docility and readiness in the execution of the Holy Spirit’s requests”, and with that same fidelity to the Holy Spirit he finds the overcoming of all difficulties which he could possibly find in his mission. He does not conform himself to just having the doors to his parish open, but he himself goes out to exhort souls to come in, and with countless initiatives he keeps his parish ever alive assures that Jesus is always accompanied. For this reason, he is a religious who is not “afraid of sacrifice or of the total gif of self, nor does he seek to get back what he has given seeking compensations or settling down making a ‘nest’ in things that are not God.” “He has the disposition to desire to give himself to others and to desire to persevere in such disposition” “even before the decline in his own strength and his own ascendency.”
–is rich in spirit: which means, he has a serious spiritual life, which is not sensible. A spiritual life which is principally nourished “in his daily participation in Holy Mass and his contact with the Incarnate Word present in the Blessed Sacrament”and “revealed in the Scriptures which he reads assiduously.” He is a religious who understands that the Sacrament of Reconciliation has a most important value for his spiritual life and for this reason, he has “devotion for frequent confession.” And conscious of the fact that he is a missionary religious whose principal apostolic work is giving “special witness to the Incarnate Word,” he embraces with a notable zeal the practice of the virtues which are apparently opposed to one another: “for example, justice vs. love, firmness vs. sweetness, fortitude vs. meekness, holy anger vs. patience, purity vs. great affection, magnanimity vs. humility, prudence vs. courage, joy vs. penance, etc.” And so, he is a religious who, from his abundance of good spirit, over abounds in his witness of life and in his preaching and teachings, taking from the store of the goodness of his heart.
-with tongue, lips, and wisdom, which the enemies of truth cannot resist: A religious who loves truth and loyalty Who, out of his great “trust in the power of the truth accepts the double mission of seeking the ‘certainty of truth’-given only by a sound philosophy founded in the objective reality of things- and of denouncing errors with promptness. For this reason, “he does not sell out the truth or disguise it with the desire of pleasing men, of causing astonishment, nor out of originality or a desire to show off. He never renounces the truth. He does not overshadow revealed truth out of laziness for seeking it out, out of comfort, out of fear. He never ceases to study it. He serves it generously, while not seeking to make it serve him.” He recognizes that he is not the owner nor the judge of truth, but only a custodian, its heir, and its servant. And so, he is a tireless preacher of the truth.
–who is exceptionally fruitful in his apostolic and vocational efforts: because he knows how to deny himself and to die to himself and to all that is not God. All his apostolic fruitfulness is founded on a rich interior life and an intimate union with God. He is a religious who feels as a personal calling that integral element of our spirituality, that by which we are commanded “to know how to call, teach, direct, accompany and select vocations.” He does not conform himself with making a generic call to the priesthood or to religious life, but rather, in imitation of the Incarnate Word, he calls explicitly and personally. And this exhortation, he knows how to accompany with a “faithful and joyful witness of his own life as a consecrated person, carrying out with generosity, discernment, and seriousness his own apostolates, and working in fraternal communion.” He is for souls a true spiritual father.
–has missionary and ecumenical impetus, and is open to any particle of truth wherever it is found: He is a religious who knows he is called to “accomplish great works, extraordinary undertakings;” who has taken seriously the demands of the Gospel: Go, sell what you possess…and he asks God each day for “the spiritual fervor, the joy of evangelizing, even when he has to sow among tears.” He is a religious whose life radiates the fervor of one who has received, above all in himself, the joy of Christ, and accepts consecrating his life to the work of proclaiming the kingdom of God and of spreading the Church throughout the world. With this same spirit he “prays and works for reconciliation and for ecclesiastic unity according to the mind and heart of our Savior Jesus Christ” and is disposed to “gladly and reverently lay bare the seeds of the Word which lie hidden among the national and religious traditions of the different peoples so as to transform them with the divine force of the Gospel.” He understands that his field of action has neither limits nor horizons, but is the entire wide world, because Jesus said: Go into all the world… His missionary vision is universal, and so he knows how to transcend the horizons of his classroom, his cell, his parish. In one word: he has apostolic creativity.
–has preferential love for the poor without exclusivity and without exclusions: for in them he sees Christ himself. He does not get caught up “in false reductionist dialectics where one discriminates against others (i.e. the rich, the intellectuals, the foreigners or strangers, etc.), where one worries exclusively about a certain people or place” Rather, like Christ who came to this world for ‘us men’, and therefore, ‘for all man, the whole man, and all men’—without discriminations—he loves in deeds and in truth the concrete man who is in need—of material or spiritual goods—without ever using him as demagogic propaganda. He does this all with a charity which springs forth from prayer, from contemplation of the mystery of divine mercy, and his fidelity to God. He is a religious who knows that “in order to evangelize the culture, charity is essential” and that “it’s not enough to give to the poor, but we have to give of ourselves.”
–Lives in transparent and contagious joy: a joy which “is spiritual and supernatural, and arises from meditating on the mystery of the Incarnate Word.” That is why he rejoices always and in all things, in virtues, and in sufferings. He knows how to be joyful in community: in the practice of fraternal charity, because living in community, even in the midst of the difficulties of the human and spiritual journey and of the daily sorrows, already forms part of the Kingdom. He is a religious who makes the efforts to cultivate joy in the religious community because he knows that it represents “a great attraction towards religious life, a source of new vocations and a support for perseverance.” Far from him the “spirit of antagonism”—which at times is so common among some—which creates division. Far from him the destructive critical spirit—without desire for progressing in truth and in charity—and which sows so much heaviness and darkness, as those who pronounce their criticisms with bitterness, often finishing with offences, in actions and in judgements which are harmful of people or of groups “lacking the second note of charity, which is kindness.”
–lives in unperturbed peace even amid the most arduous battles: interior peace which is fruit of the Holy Spirit and effect of charity which reigns in his soul because he has eliminated the battle within himself that sometimes arises because of the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. This peace lives on amid the greatest contradictions, tribulations, and tragedies, because he has set his love and his trust in Christ, who is our peace.
–they live in absolute and unrestricted ecclesiastical communion: because he knows that he is a member of the Mystical Body of the Incarnate Word, which is the Church “as the universal Sacrament of salvation” and he does not want to know anything apart from her. Therefore, he is a religious who fervently promotes “the unity that does not block diversity, as well as… a diversity that does not block unity, but enriches it.” It is his firm intent to live in harmony with the members of the Church and he is disposed “to cast aside everything that impedes or distorts this unanimity of agreement” Far from him that “behaving as if one is all on his own, as a self-sufficient ‘nomad,’” or acting out of “submissiveness and servility” as is the case with those who “sacrifice truth and one’s own conscience by seeking a false peace, or by not admonishing a friend, or by avoiding some problem or, on occasion, by taking advantage of a situation by silence or applause.”
–is a relentless evangelist and catechist: which fruit is the authentic gift of oneself. His program of life is: I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent. He does not settle down in the comfort that he might achieve after a few years in one mission, he does not hold back efforts for evangelization. He wants to always be available. He does not renounce a priori any of the forms of proclaiming the Word, but rather, with great creativity and inventions he knows how to adapt himself to reach all souls. He is a religious who is not afraid of untold pastoral methods, as long as they are according to God. He consecrates himself with enthusiasm not only to teach catechism; but to also serve all through all the means that his counsel and prudence inspire him, with the only pretention of spending and being spent to gain souls for God. He is a man who lives the folly of the cross, which consists in living in the greatest and in that which is always above.
– is a lover of the cross: because he knows that “there is no school greater than the Cross, in which Jesus Christ teaches His disciples how they should be.” The Cross is his way of life, the message that he preaches, the source of his joy, and the bond that unites him with Christ. That is why he repeats: “Never the Cross without Jesus, nor Jesus without the Cross.” And each day in a loving colloquy with the Mother of God at the foot of the Cross, he asks that she obtain for him the grace of divine wisdom to accept and to carry with love and joy his Cross.
–is a man with common sense: It is interesting that this is the last characteristic which is mentioned. We could say, that this refers to a religious who has captured the “style” of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is nothing other than possessing in himself the attitudes that Christ has as the Son next to the Father. From his contact with the Incarnate Word, he has learned the true value of things. From there, his particular sensitivity to take on his mission, to identify the particular needs of it and the grace to know how to find efficient solutions, carrying the light of the Gospel to all man, the whole man, and all men. Because that is his specific end as a religious of the Incarnate Word.
* * * *
Dear all: only insofar as we conform our lives to the ideal, in accordance with the charism of our Institute, inspired by God and drawn out in the Constitutions and Directories and which shine forth in our sound traditions, will we reach the holiness to which the Incarnate Word has called us.
Therefore, “he cannot truly be a religious who does not accept, who unjustly criticizes, or who simply wants to live alongside the charism given by the Holy Spirit to the Founder. A true religious, on the other hand, must love and conserve strict fidelity to his Institute, which has brought him forth into religious life, and this, to such a point that, if it be necessary, he would give his very life.” This has been and is the thought of all the saints whose feast we celebrate today.
How valid and how opportune is the advice of Don Orione to his religious, which our Directory of Consecrated Life takes as its own: “We will become saints as much and in which way the Lord wants for us: that is, tenderly loving our Congregation and observing its Constitutions.”
However, to put into practice all that has been mentioned so far, we need the grace of God, which is granted to us through Mary Most Holy, whom God has “the sole custodian of his treasures and the sole dispenser of his graces. She can now ennoble, exalt and enrich all she chooses. She can lead them along the narrow path to heaven and guide them through the narrow gate to life. She can give a royal throne, sceptre and crown to whom she wishes.” The formation and the education of the great saints are reserved to her, for only this singular and wondrous virgin can produce in union with the Holy Spirit singular and wondrous things.
May we learn, with hearts clinging to Mary Most Holy, Queen of All Saints, to conform our lives entirely to that of her Son, the Incarnate Word, through the faithful fulfillment of our religious vows. “Mary is the proximate end, our mysterious intermediary, and the easiest way of reaching Christ,” let us advance joyfully and decidedly onwards.
Happy Feast Day of All Saints to all of you!
In Christ, the Incarnate Word and his Most Holy Mother,
Fr. Gustavo Nieto, IVE
General Superior
