Non-Negotiables Elements
WHAT ARE THE NON-NEGOTIABLES?
In saying non-negotiables, we understand their essential belonging to our charism, to our spirituality, and to our reason for being. So much is this the case that to do without them would mean to renounce the mission that has been entrusted to us, deforming our identity and, very possibly, subjecting ourselves to the spirit of the world[1] and betraying thus the precious friendship to which Christ has called us.
On the other hand, if such elements are developed in the right measure, we will continue to be a source of great supernatural fruitfulness for our Religious Family insofar as we will be offering commitment, strength, and an incalculable efficacy to our mission in the Church.
The first of them is a “marked Eucharistic devotion.”[2] The Eucharist, in which Christ is really present and sacramentally present, should always be the center of our spiritual and apostolic life. Each of us should be an adorer of Christ in the Eucharist and a promoter of Eucharistic adoration and of the Holy Mass. Our work, in fact, should be directed to attracting souls to Him.
Another characteristic element is the fact that ours is a “serious spirituality (‘not sentimental’), as is seen, for example, in the fact that we practice the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.”[3] The Church strongly recommends the practice of these exercises to all Christians with the end of ordering one’s life according to God. Also, this serious spirituality is manifested in the fact that we form ourselves according to the doctrine of the great masters of the spiritual life, such as Saint John of the Cross and others, and not according to empty spiritualities that are attractive because they are in vogue.
The third non-negotiable element united to our charism is to have a “providential vision of life.”[4] This means nothing other than that which Saint Paul says, that everything works for the good of those who love God.[5] It is to know how to say, like Saint Peter Julian Eymard (and to be convinced), “God loves me and predisposes all my steps according to his goodness … whether it be joy or sorrow, consolation or desolation, the good success or the failure of an endeavor, health or sickness. And seeing as it is Divine Providence that steers my little boat, my duty is to conform myself to the Divine Pilot, who will lead me safely to the port of the heavenly homeland.”[6]
The two following elements make reference to the formation that we desire for the members of our Religious Family and that should distinguish us from others: the first of them is “docility to the Church’s living Magisterium”[7] of all times.
The other element is the central importance given in our formation to Saint Thomas Aquinas and, in this regard, to the best Thomists, such as Fr. Cornelio Fabro: “The good of the person consists in being in the truth and in carrying out the truth.”[8] We desire to stay away from superficiality, vain curiosity, encyclopedism, the vain erudition that seeks extension and not depth. We want to be men and women who know how to be on top of what is going on, who know how to judge the temporal reality according to the supernatural truth. It is easy to let oneself be carried away by the current, but only those who are well grounded in the truth and in sound doctrine can resist the current.
Regarding apostolate, the badges that should shine on the souls and on the works of our members are varied. One of them is that which we call “biting reality”: This is nothing other than approaching reality with a supernatural vision, in order to transform it according to the spirit of the Incarnate Word and according to the Incarnation. We seek to approach evangelization without diluting faith into the rational, without converting the sacred into the profane, without falling into unsubstantial spiritualities. What we pursue is that the Gospel may inform the cultures of men.[9] For this, “a renewal of life under the influence of grace”[10] is imperative. Not as others do who embrace the current culture and renounce the task of impregnating it with the Gospel.[11]
Another element of pastoral work is “apostolic and missionary creativity.”[12] Apostolic zeal is born from love… It is impossible to love God without feeling the fire of the apostolate burn within oneself. A love for God that remains indifferent to apostolic concerns is completely false and illusory. Charity is creative, is diffusive of itself, does not waste any opportunity or conserve efforts for doing good. Because of this, we desire to be intensely and creatively wrapped up in the missionary adventure.
Another element that characterizes us the “the choice of outposts in the mission.”[13] This is because the imitation of the Incarnate Word “urges us to work in the most difficult places—those where no one else wants to go.”[14]
We seek to be generous religious who bend down to show the true compassion of Christ toward the brother who suffers in the body and in the soul. Because of this, “the works of mercy, above all with the disabled,”[15] are another of the non-negotiable elements of our Religious Family.
There is another element, which, in a certain way, is present in all that we have said above, that is, the spirit of joy, which should reign in us: the joy that has characterized our way of living from the beginnings.
Finally, we are Marian. “Devotion to the Virgin is something proper to the charism, not only because of the fourth vow, but also because of the Virgin’s presence in all our activities, from the consecration that we renew in each Mass to the ending of all our feasts with a song to the Virgin.”[16] It is not possible to be of the Incarnate Word and not love Mary.
[1] Cf. 1 Cor 2:12.
[2] “Notes from the V General Chapter,” 14.
[3] Ibid., 5.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Rom 8:28.
[6] Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Opere Complete, IV Serie, Esercizi Spirituali davanti a Gesù Sacramentato, giorno quarto; our translation.
[7] “Notes from the V General Chapter,” 4.
[8] Saint John Paul II, “Address to participants of the International Congress on Moral Theology,” 1 (4/10/1986): Insegnamenti IX, 1 (1987), 970; our translation.
[9] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 29.
[10] Directory of Consecrated Life, 340.
[11] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 29.
[12] “Notes from the V General Chapter,” 5.
[13] Ibid., 4.
[14] Directory of Spirituality, 86.
[15] “Notes from the V General Chapter,” 4.
[16] Ibid., 5.