Rome, Italy, April 1, 2018

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord

“Live as if we were resurrected”

Directory of Spirituality, 39

Dear Fathers, Brothers, Seminarians, and Novices, 

A very happy Easter Sunday of the Resurrection to all of you!

May God grant that the ineffable joy and the brightness of the Risen Christ fill our souls and make all of us heralds of the paschal peace wherever we may be.  For, this is why the Lord has chosen us: to be signs of his Resurrection. And so, today, as our Constitutions teach us, we should know “how to celebrate,” with immense joy, and carefully dedicating ourselves to the missions.

Having already been consecrated to God by Baptism, through which we have died so as to share in the fruits of the resurrection, with our religious consecration that life in Christ–which supposes identifying of self with his death and resurrection–is transformed into a particular program of life for us. “It becomes a rule and a charism, witness and apostolate.  It is the proclamation of Christ not only in words, but also through the choice of life, which reaches to the deepest implications of the Gospel: go, sell what you have and give to the poor…then come, follow me: in poverty, in obedience, and in chastity.”

Saint John Paul II wrote: “Upon the sacramental basis of Baptism in which it is rooted, religious profession is a new ‘burial in the death of Christ’: new, because it is made with awareness and by choice; new, because of love and vocation; new, by reason of unceasing ‘conversion.’ This ‘burial in death’ causes the person ‘buried together with Christ’ to ‘walk like Christ in newness of life.’” 

In this way, through the profession of religious vows, our consecration implies being especially rooted in Christ, so as to build in Him all our life and works, with the unique end of seeking to “more closely imitate and perpetually represent in the Church the way of life that the Son of God made His own when he became flesh,” so that we ourselves might come to be as “another Incarnation of the Word.”

For this reason, the profession of the evangelical counsels, which has a singular efficacy in likening us to Christ, should continue to be “transformed in a part of his humanity, in which the entire mystery is renewed.” So, the three evangelical counsels come to be the structure of our complete and joyful gift of self to the service of God living “in accord with the specific identity” of our Religious Family, as we have already mentioned on other occasions. 

Keeping in mind, then, that we are a few days away from the liturgical celebration of “the sacrosanct mystery of the Incarnation which is ‘the first and fundamental mystery of Jesus Christ,’” [and considering that some of our members, in various parts of the world, are to make their profession of vows] I thought it worthwhile to dedicate this Circular Letter to deepen our understanding of the significance of our religious profession which, with holy pride, we one day pronounced, and which we fervently renew on the 25^th of each month. 

It is my intention that these lines may help us to be ever more enflamed in the total fulfillment of that which we once professed, being witnesses day in and day out of the Kingdom of God, living as if we were resurrected, seeking only what is above, not of what is on earth. Because, that is what we are called to as religious of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, that is, so that our consecrated life might be “the prolongation in history of a special presence of the Risen Lord.”

1. Religious Profession according to our proper law

Saint Peter Julian Eymard defined religious profession as “a divine contract between the religious and God,” through which one gives of himself entirely, without conditions, to God, and with Saint Thomas of Aquinas he says: “What I ask of you, my Lord and my God, is you alone and nothing else.” “It is the consecration of victims,” the saint said, “because through the profession of vows, the religious becomes the Lord’s victim and holocaust.” “Profession of vows is the commitment of going to the extreme length of the immolation of love.”

The Code of Canon Law establishes that: “By religious profession, members assume the observance of the three evangelical counsels by public vow, are consecrated to God through the ministry of the Church, and are incorporated into the institute with the rights and duties defined by law.”

And, since it could not be any other way, our Constitutions, following the wise teachings of the saints of all times and the Magisterium of the Church, and furthermore in full accordance with that which is established by canon law, see in the profession of the religious vows the following: 

a) The means by which the religious is freed from “the obstacles that may separate us from the fervor of charity and the perfection of divine worship, and consecrating us more intimately to the service of God;” recognizing in profession the “special and fruitful deepening of the consecration received in Baptism.” This includes the twofold resolution to “radically die to sin and vice” to “derive more abundant fruit from the baptismal grace” and to live “a new life ‘for God in Christ Jesus’ lived in all its radicality.” 

b) A resemblance of “martyrdom, since the religious possesses the same will as a martyr. Both accept their death to this world in order to unite themselves totally to Christ and partake of His kingdom.” And so, one day “not with a childish soul, but with a robust will” and “ready for martyrdom – the full and total rejection of the evil world– for fidelity to God,” we made our profession of vows, desiring with it to “put in practice the most sure and efficacious means to possess perfect charity.” Such is nothing other than “imitating Christ in his self-emptying in his Incarnation and his death on the cross,” for He himself told us one day: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

c) “A true holocaust of oneself, since in light of the vows, the religious offers himself and his possessions wholly and without reserve to God. Through the vow of chastity, he offers the good of his body. Through the vow of poverty, he offers the good of external things. Through the vow of obedience, he offers the good of his soul.” “In such a way that the religious is left with absolutely nothing… [considering that] immolation implies the total destruction of the victim in honor of God.” Although we speak of “destruction, we should more properly speak of a positive transformation for the attainment of perfect charity, which leads one to possess God fully and intimately” and to fulfill the commitment of “imitating Jesus Christ as perfectly as possible.”

d) “A true consecration through which the religious becomes something sacred, destined for divine worship; the religious becomes the property of God.” In fact, the Church refers to us “above all, as persons who are ‘consecrated’: consecrated to God in Jesus Christ.” This consecration clothes one with a character that is totalizing, exclusive, and most intimate to God,  with the desire of expressing with the complete gift of the religious to God, a gift which is “life-long.” A consecration which, in our case, asks of us a “total surrender to Mary so as to better serve Jesus Christ.”

2. Our formula of consecration

The document “Essential Elements in the Church’s Teaching on Religious Life,”  which is so often cited in our proper law, establishes that “religious profession is made according to the formula of vows approved […] for each institute. The formula is common because all members undertake the same obligations and, when fully incorporated, have the same rights and duties.”

Our Constitutions in numbers 254-257 contain, respectively, the formula of profession for temporal and perpetual vows which we use in our Institute and according to which we have had the grace of consecrating ourselves to God with the supreme resolution to “imitate the Incarnate Word, chaste, poor, obedient, and son of Mary.”

That is, so to say, the presentation card of a religious of the Incarnate Word. Each word contained therein, is nothing less than the fervent desire, I would say, of a deliberated and ardent intention to configure ourselves with Christ “in conformity with our own charism.” It is the vehement desire to belong entirely and forever “without diminution or retraction, without reserve or condition, without subterfuge or delay, without retreating or even slowness.” It is the expression of the uncontainable joy of recognizing that we spend our lives given over to “the edification of the Church and the salvation of the whole world” and all “for his glory.”

And so, the formula contains the serious responsibilities and obligations which we commit ourselves to and according to which we must remain firm as if seeing the one who is invisible. In such a way that each line of our formula of profession should be the pulse of our heartbeat, the north in our missionary pilgrimage, the stronghold of our fidelity and sign of sure hope and consolation.  For, in it are summed up our vocation and the duty of our lifetime. And the same can be said, analogously, of the formula which we use on the 25^th of each month to renew our consecration through our vows. 

And although it is most unfortunate reality that some of our members have seemingly turned back from their word given to God—at times excusing themselves with erroneous and fictitious motives which led them astray from such a noble ideal until they finally left—this fact should never discourage us.  It is a reality which has been and is a part of the history of the foundations of religious congregations within the Church and we are no exception. In any case, as was seen in the study that was done leading up to the VII General Chapter (in 2016) and has been indicated in the introductory letter of the last Official Bulletin, by the pure grace of God we have a high rate of perseverance and we belong to a Religious Family which is growing and expanding. 

For all these reasons, and although succinctly, I would like, in a few lines, to illustrate and demonstrate according to our proper law, the profound implications to which we are called as professed religious of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, according to the beautiful expressions of our formula of profession. Many of the things contained there, and which we have solemnly professed the day of our vows, are taken literally from the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, from Saint John Paul II (March 25, 1996). 

• “For love:” Take note how love is the first and last reason for our consecration for it is fundamentally an act of love towards God.  This is very simple and yet, at the same time, very profound. In fact, the religious vocation is defined in our proper law as “a choice for love…for giving oneself entirely to whom much is due.” It is such that, it is for love of God that we are reunited in communities so as to be “a living sign of the primacy of the love of God, which works wonders, and of the love for God and for one’s brothers, as Jesus lived and manifested.” It is for love, that “removes us from selfishness” by which all our members should collaborate with complete enthusiasm in the missionary task, carrying out the total gift of themselves to God for love of so many men and women of our times who do not know Christ. It is “for love [that] we offer ourselves and all our goods to Mary and to Jesus Christ through her.”

• “of the Father, first source and supreme end of consecrated life; of Christ, who calls us to His intimacy;

of the Holy Spirit, who disposes our soul to receive His inspirations.” This is what we said, and it was to the very Trinity that we said it.  There are no words, possibly in our entire lives, which have more seriousness and importance than those which we pronounce the day of our profession. It is the very Trinity to whom we correspond because it is God himself who has called us. “God calls who he wants, by his free initiative of love”—and who can doubt it—each one of our vocations has been the fruit of “divine action.” Furthermore, “it is an initiative coming wholly from the Father, who asks those whom he has chosen to respond with complete and exclusive devotion…to respond by unconditionally dedicating his or her life to God, consecrating to him all things present and future, and placing them in his hands…complete…being comparable to a genuine holocaust.” Hence, in the monthly formula for the renewal of vows we beautifully say that we have been called to be “the unconditionals of God,” placing an emphasis on the totality, the full reach and perpetuity of love which we profess.  That is why Saint John Paul II explained: “The religious vows have as their end the carrying out of the vertex of love: a complete love, dedicated to Christ under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and offered to the Father through Christ.  This is the basis of the value of the oblation and consecration of religious profession, which in the eastern and western Christian tradition is considered as a baptismus flaminis.”  Many times, the weakening in religious profession has its foundation in this reason: in our desire to place conditions on God, thinking that it will turn out for our personal benefit. “Seeking oneself” is never a good business in the spiritual life. 

• “I, N., freely, make an oblation of my entire being to God:” Conscious of our yearning to identify ourselves with Christ we freely make an offering which, “after the pattern of Christ’s self-giving to His Church…like His, is total and irreversible.” Thus, we wish “by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels, to follow Christ more freely and to imitate Him more faithfully.” Therefore our proper law explicitly points out that “from the very fact that the end of consecrated life consists in conformity with our Lord Jesus and with his total oblation, formation should be primarily oriented towards this aspect.” It does well to emphasize the word freely, because it implies that this act of ours was carried out my means of the exercise of that of greatest dignity of our person, namely, our will.  Our profession was a deliberated act, a fully human act, a conscious and supremely free act, and as such, of great value and merit before God. This past February 1^st, in an interview which I was granted at the seat of the CIVCSVA, Mons. José Rodríguez Carballo, Secretary of the Dicastery, told me “we are free to profess our vows, but once professed, we are not free to break them” especially when one tries to do so, there are often excuses based on reasons of convenience.  In this respect, it is good to note again, for it is a palpable phenomenon, that in our Institute “the majority of the cases of abandoning [one’s vocation] take place in those countries where the attractiveness of the world has a greater seduction.”

• “To deepen, each time with a love more sincere and intense, the gift of the evangelical counsels in a Trinitarian dimension:” With this expression, we begin to publicly manifest and specify our intentions for professing vows.  These are the ideals which, with the passing of time, we should maintain renewed and unshaking. For, our consecration wants nothing other than to be “a manifestation of dedication to God with an undivided heart, a reflection of the infinite love which links the three Divine Persons in the mysterious depths of the life of the Trinity, the love to which the Incarnate Word bears witness even to the point of giving his life, the love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which evokes a response of total love for God and the brethren.” It is for this reason that each one of us, through the daily efforts in the faithful practice of the evangelical counsels, should transmit the “trinitarian imprint” until achieving “a transfigured existence.” From this, our Institute derives its “deep and firmly-rooted devotion to the Most Holy Trinity, the active principle of the Incarnation.”

• “To be a concrete imprint that the Trinity leaves on history so that in this way, all mankind will discover an attraction and longing for the divine beauty:” For, our consecration “is an image of the Trinity: ‘proclaiming what the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, brings about by his love, his goodness and his beauty…The first duty of the consecrated life is to make visible the marvels wrought by God in the frail humanity of those who are called.’” This helps us to understand that the best way to be that concrete imprint that the Trinity leaves on history is through our witness of life. In fact, that is the “‘first and irreplaceable form of mission,’such that the charity of Christ shines among the faithful.” As a consequence, and “in keeping with the Christian tradition which teaches that a vocation never has as its sole end one’s own sanctification—because Christ has united in a most intimate way charity and sanctity—for, we who strive towards our personal sanctity always should always do it within the perspective of a commitment of service to the life and holiness of the Church.” Therefore, we should commit ourselves to “carry out a cultural pastoral activity with boldness, intelligence, and discernment,” for which “we will spare no efforts nor means.” Our proper law clearly tells us: “Working for the Kingdom means recognizing and favoring the divine dynamism, which is present and which transforms all of human history.  Building up the Kingdom means working for freedom from evil in all its diverse forms.”

• “So that my life may be a living memory of the way that Jesus, the Word made flesh, lived and behaved before the Father and before mankind:” which implies full adherence, without reluctances to the marked “‘style’ of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This, and none other, is our reason for being religious of the Incarnate Word, that is: “to imitate Jesus Christ as perfectly as possible…reproducing Him, becoming similar to Him, configuring ourselves to Him, and knowing that we reflect the same image of the only Son of God. We want to imitate Him until we can truly say to others, Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ; and, It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Therefore, our proper law, emphatically and repeatedly tells us that “this Christicentric imprint should be branded in us and in our apostolate of evangelizing culture…this reality of being other Christs is central in our spirituality.” 

• “Therefore, I pledge all my strength so as not to be elusive to the missionary adventure, to inculturate the Gospel in the diversity of all cultures:” Notice with what vehemence we have committed ourselves “to great works, extraordinary undertakings.” This demands that we be “men of action, with broad vision and with decisive and generous hearts, who because of our soul’s nobility, we smile with joy” at knowing it is Jesus himself who sends us “to all nations to continue His own redeeming mission.” In this point, it seems important to me that we not miss the fact that we have pledged all our strength.  Something which implies “the total commitment to the service of Evangelization; it means a gift of self which embraces our entire person, and our entire live, demanding of each one of us a donation without limits of efforts or time.” “Hence, we must put forth all our efforts with a vision of a generous evangelization of culture, or more precisely, of cultures.” And we should do this, not in “a decorative way, as if a superficial varnish, but in a vital way, with depth, [evangelizing] even to the very roots of man’s cultures.” Therefore, not being elusive to the missionary adventure goes beyond accepting a mission assignment, it implies, rather, moving “driven by ‘zeal for souls,’” it demands of us to have “the impetus of the saints and martyrs who gave everything for God,” it’s about a bold and patient effort to know how to approach the diverse cultures with the attitude of Jesus who emptied himself taking the form of a slave. Lastly, it also implies a “spirit of initiative in beginning, as well as that of constancy in carrying through what he has begun; persevering in difficulties, patient and strong of heart in bearing with solitude, fatigue, and fruitless labor.” And this, in such a way that our very lives be full of apostolic spirit. Those who are disorderedly attached to one place, one apostolate, or one assignment defraud these words of our formula of profession, as do those who have lost the availability to go to any place at any time as the superiors see fit to assign them. 

• “To extend the Incarnation of the Word ‘to all men, in the whole man, and in all of the manifestations of man,’ assuming all that is authentically human” Because, this is our specific end and in this way do we say that we want to prolong the Word in all things “in families, education, the mass media, the scholarly, and in all other legitimate manifestations of human life,” through the oral and written word, and by this means work so that “that the whole of human culture be steeped in the Gospel.” We, who “want to tend toward the sanctification and salvation of men,” should be “in the world and, in Christ, assume all that is human, since ‘what is not assumed is not redeemed,’ but rather ‘becomes a new idol replete with all the old malicious cunning.’ We must not take on ‘matter’ that is not worthy to be assumed, such as sin, error, lies, evil,” but only assume those things which have dignity or are necessary. “Jesus Christ came into the world ‘for us men.’ Therefore, ‘all man, the whole man and all men,’ and in a preferential way – yet without discrimination – the ones who are more in need must be the object of our love and service. […] We must concretely love the man who is materially or spiritually needy, and never use him as demagogic propaganda. We follow the One who inspired Saint John to say: God is love.”  

• “In order to be like another humanity of Christ:” “so that the Father may only see ‘his beloved

Son’ in us.” Who can point out an ideal which is more sublime, more stirring, or more enveloping ideal than that of “imitating more closely and representing perennially within the Church ‘the form of life which Christ proposed to His disciples and, which He, as the Son of God, accepted in entering this world to do the will of the Father?’” His earthly life is the “example of a priestly surrender to the Father which we must imitate,” his virtues should be replicated in our lives: “humility, poverty, suffering, obedience, self-surrender, mercy and charity to all men.” He is the “Way we must follow,” and we should take to his interests, fighting to attain them, we must go into the world in order to convert it, enter cultures to heal them and to elevate them with the strength of the Gospel. For this reason, our proper law points out splendidly how it is “absolutely essential to be united with His Person, have His Spirit, assimilate His doctrine, frequent His sacraments, imitate His example, profoundly love His Mother, and be in perfect communion with the Church hierarchy.”

• “To carry out, with greater perfection, the service of God and man:” This is the reason we “take three vows.” In order that by “dedicating ourselves totally to God as our supreme Love, for the edification of the Church and for the salvation of the world, we may achieve the perfection of charity.” Because we know well that “perfection does not essentially consist in poverty, nor in the other vows of chastity and obedience, but rather in the following of Christ in perfect charity.  For which Saint Peter said to our Lord: We have left everything and followed you.” This is the “greatest demand of our vocation, to reflect the Incarnation of the Word, in whom human perfection and divine perfection shine, in intimate union but without blending together.” That is why even our human formation is directed at achieving “human perfection which shines forth in the Incarnate Son of God and which is reflected with particular liveliness in his attitude toward others.” This implies tending “unceasingly toward a greater perfection” ordering our lives according to the Gospel and the proper law of the Institute.

• “Therefore, in the presence of God our Lord, and all His saints, before N., Provincial Superior of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and in the presence of all the members of the Institute and of the Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matará:” Let us always remember that we have given our word to God our Lord and in the presence of all his saints, which means that what happens the day of our profession is at the same time reproduced in heaven.  The words which follow manifest not only the juridical bond between one of us and the Institute, but also the intimate spiritual ties which unites us to the service of the Church. For this reason, St. John Bosco affirmed that the “vows  therefore may be called so many spiritual cords by  which we consecrate ourselves to God, and place our will, our  goods, and our spiritual and moral faculties in the power of the superior, so that we may all form but one heart and one soul, in  order to promote, according to our constitutions, the greater glory of God: precisely as the Church invites us [to do].”

• “I make a vow to forever live [or for the corresponding number of years]:” That is, “the vows establish a powerful bond between Christ and the consecrated soul. It is a perpetual donation… [in fact] the vow expresses and contains that irreversible character of a perpetual bond.” Hence, St. Peter Julian Eymard, in all his ingenuity and with all his strength, said to some religious on their Spiritual Exercises before their profession: “For how long a time do you sign this contract? The Rule prudently requires an engagement of some years, one or three. Are you going to say to yourselves: ‘Well, I give myself for that long, and in a year I shall see whether I can persevere?’ Well, that beats everything! No, the heart makes perpetual vows. If you do not want to belong entirely to God, you are not worthy to belong to Him for one year. Go no further, do not go on, do not make trial of the good God! If you doubt Him, His help. His grace. His love, you are doing Him an injury. What constitutes the greatness and the nobility of love, is the surrender of one’s liberty, present and future, the binding of one’s self forever, admitting not even the possibility of a rupture.”

• “Chaste, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, poor, manifesting that God is the only true wealth of mankind, and obedient, even until death on the cross, to follow more intimately the Incarnate Word in His chastity, poverty, and obedience:” “It signifies a total self-giving, in a type of immolation, to achieve the total transformation into Christ.” Therefore, “by the vow of chastity… we want to offer God a holocaust of our body and our natural affections,” and even “everything that is not God Himself.” Likewise, with the vow of poverty we freely embrace the “voluntary surrender of material riches and the external goods of this world with the aim to seek only God,” because we want “to follow the naked Christ being ourselves naked.” This “vow implies a preferential choice of an exclusive love for God,” allowing us to tend, entirely free and will all our strength to Him alone. Finally, with the vow of obedience—which is the most essential to religious life—we give to God “our will and with it all the goods of our soul.” In this point, and with the intention of “making and entire and perfect oblation of ourselves” our proper law exhorts us to offer our intelligence as well, “not only willing, but also thinking the same as the superior, submitting his own judgment to that of the superior, so far as a devout will can bend the understanding.” It is worth noting that “by virtue of this vow we are obliged to observe all those things which the rule prescribes as precepts and all those matter which the superior chooses to prescribe according to the rule.” Hence, “the will of God is expressed…specifically for religious, through their own constitutions” and through the superiors, “who act on behalf of God.” For this reason, “the superiors, when exercising their authority, should do it in accordance ‘with the proper and universal law’.”

• “In accordance with the evangelical way traced in the Constitutions.” Our proper law explicitly says that: “Religious life is a following of Christ in order to reach the perfection of charity. But, it can only come about within the within one’s proper Institute: ‘The ongoing configuration to Christ comes about according to the charism and provisions of the institute to which the religious belongs. Each has its own spirit, character, purpose, and tradition, and it is in accordance with these that the religious grow in their union with Christ.’” Likewise, our Constitutions, prescribe that: “All members of the Institute must observe the evangelical counsels with the greatest possible perfection. They must also surrender to Jesus through Mary, and ‘direct their lives according to the Institute’s own law and so strive for the perfection of their state.’”

• “To fulfill this more perfectly, I consecrate myself to Mary in filial slavery of love:” “By this slavery of love, we offer Christ through Mary not only our bodies, souls, and goods, but also our good works (past, present and future), together with their satisfactory and meritorious value. Thus, she may dispose of everything according to the will of her Son and for His greater glory. We are certain that we must go to the Incarnate Word through Mary, His Mother, and that she will form ‘great saints.’” “‘Marianizing’ life is the fruit and natural consequence of the consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

• “I request Our Lady, the Twelve Apostles, and all the other patron saints to intercede for me, and I also ask for the prayers of my brothers in the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the sisters of the Institute of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará. May the love and grace of the Most Holy Trinity help me to be faithful to the work that He has begun.” Here, we ask for the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin, because her help is indispensable for us and for which reason our Constitutions conclude by saying: “May the Blessed Virgin Mary help us all to reach the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.” In the lines that follow, we also manifest the great devotion to the saints which has been handed onto us—for they are the best members of the mystical Body of Christ, the best and most complete fruit of the Incarnation and the Redemption, and they are the ones who transform the world with their example and with the power of their intercession. Finally, our formula of profession highlights the indissoluble union we have as a Religious Family with the Institute Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, whom we should assist with “ ‘special care[…]so that they might be formed in the spirit of our family.”

* * * * * *

In conclusion, dear brothers: the following of Christ, as has been made quite clear, brings together with it this resounding idea: to sacrifice oneself and the even more pressing demand, which is that of remaining faithful: to the Incarnate Word and to the discipline of the Institute. 

May we always keep in mind the magnificent teaching of Blessed Paolo Manna: “the greatest holiness was made through the smallest faithfulness; but in order to be faithful, always faithful, one must necessarily make himself familiar with mortification, because if Christ is generous, he is also demanding.  There are some who think that, having gone to the missions is a big enough sacrifice, and this alone is sufficient. This is a fatal error which has led to the failure of many vocations. The cross is to be carried each day, for the Lord said take up your cross daily.”

We know well that following the Incarnate Word means a complete renouncement to unite ourselves to Him and to accompany him on the paths of his mission.  But it is also certain—and how many times has God in his mercy let us experience it so as to nourish our hope—that following him also brings with it a treasure in heaven, that is, an abundance of spiritual goods. He even promised us eternal life in the future, and a hundredfold in this life. This hundredfold refers to a superior quality of life, a happiness which is incomparably greater.  Experience has shown each one of us that consecrated life, according to the designs of Christ, is a profoundly happy life.  A happiness which is measured in relation to our fidelity to the designs of Jesus, even when, that hundredfold does not take away the need to associate ourselves with the cross.

Let us always remember that only in the measure that our love gleams for our oblation and our spirit of sacrifice, will we truly be able to prolong the presence, the words, the sacrifice, and the salvific action of Christ, victor over sin and death, and so give to other the credible witness of the glorious destiny of our existence. 

On this day of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord, and a few days away from celebrating the august mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, let us pray for one another, through the intercession of our Most Holy Mother, the Faithful Virgin, that we may always remain faithful to our consecration, that we not refuse any sacrifice so that we might reproduce within ourselves the way of life of her Son and that we may be magnanimous and humble constructors of the Kingdom of Christ, as She was. 

Again: Very Happy Easter!

In the Incarnate Word, a big hug for all of you,

Fr. Gustavo Nieto, IVE

General Superior