Way of Life
Community of Love Crucified
The vocation of the Love Crucified Community is to live passionately His love revealed at the Cross. There we receive the gift of His thirst, His gaze, His tears, His radical love which holds nothing back. Now He calls us to respond.
The Lord has given our Community this standard:
“ Suffer all with Me, no longer two but ONE, in my sacrifice of love"
As brothers and sisters we enter into a covenant with Christ and with each other to live fully this love in the heart of the Church, according to our spirituality (The Simple Path to Union with God) and mission.
At first, commitments may seem to be a burden, but the Lord promised: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." -Matthew 11:30. "Sanctity does not consist first of all in doing extraordinary things, but in letting God act" -Pope Francis. God's grace makes this way of life liberating and joyful through love. It disposes us to receive a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our way of life embraces the following commitments:
1. Lives centered on the Eucharist
2. Marian Consecration
3. Docility to the Holy Spirit
4. Live The Simple Path to Union with God: Our Spiritual Formation Book
5. Victims of Love + Offering life for others; for priest
6. 5 Stones: Humility, Purity, Simplicity, Trust, Courage
7. Repentance and Conversion
8. Community Life
9. Obedience to Mother Church
10. Fidelity to our state in life
I propose to do ever what is most perfect. I propose to seek in all things Jesus and His Cross, in conformity with His holy will. I propose in my actions to pursue the interests of Christ and not my own. ...I will never be disquieted should circumstances prevent me from observing my 'Rule of life.' I will go on tranquilly. I will be flexible in the face of difficulties, humbly... then onward, ever onward! -Extract from her "Rule of life", Ven. Concepción Cabrera de Armida, Aug 21, 1894
1. Lives Centered on the Eucharist
The Eucharist is Christ, our life, the source and summit of all we are and do.
We seek to participate in Holy Mass daily, if possible.
At Holy Mass we unite with Jesus as His victim souls in His sacrifice of love to the Father. We go to die to self and receive new life in Him. We become living hosts. We offer ourselves with Jesus to the Father after the consecration of the Precious Blood with this prayer.
We commit to a minimum of once a week of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament to listen, adore, praise, intercede, give thanks, and accompany and CONSOLE Jesus and Mary in their suffering for souls.
For their work, prayers and apostolic endeavours, their ordinary married and family life, their daily labour, their mental and physical relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life if patiently borne-all of these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Pt 2:5). During the celebration of the Eucharist these sacrifices are most lovingly offered to the Father along with the Lord’s body. Thus as worshipers whose every deed is holy, the lay faithful consecrate the world itself to God. John Paul II
See teaching Fr Jordi Rivero>>
2. Marian Consecration
To come to the most perfect intimate union of love with Christ—victim united to Victim— we need to consecrate ourselves to Mary, Mother and Bride, with the understanding and abandonment that she will bring us to the foot of the Cross. We commit to be forever "Totus Tuus" (All yours).
See “Importance of Consecration” letter from Lourdes Pinto to community>>
33 Days to Morning Glory -Preparation to Marian Consecration. by Fr Michael E. Gaitley, MIC; Marian Press.
Renew our consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Daily Recitation of the Rosary
3. Docility to the Holy Spirit
We live in the Spirit attentive to God and submitting to Him everything we do. We ask of Him in every situation, “Lord what do you want of me?” We trust in the Holy Spirit and invoke Him constantly.
See “Importance of Consecration” letter from Lourdes Pinto to community>>
“Yet there is no greater freedom than that of allowing oneself to be guided by the Holy Spirit, renouncing the attempt to plan and control everything to the last detail, and instead, letting him enlighten, guide and direct us, leading us wherever he wills.” Pope Francis p. 13
We welcome the Holy Spirit as our teacher and guide through living the Simple Path. It is He who leads us through the passage -- from the feet of Jesus crucified to receive the gift of self-knowledge, into the Sacred Heart of Jesus and brings us into the unity of the Most Holy Trinity.
“God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). Nevertheless, it is not enough to know the Spirit; we must welcome Him as the guide of our souls, as the “Teacher of the interior life” who introduces us to the Mystery of the Trinity, because He alone can open us up to faith and allow us to live it each day to the full.” Pope Benedict XVI, XXXIII World Youth Day, 2008
4. Live The Simple Path to Union with God: Our Spiritual Formation Book
Each Mother of the Cross (MOC) and Missionary of the Cross (MC) must be willing to allow The PATH to lead them through the painful purification and healing of their hearts into the depth of self- knowledge. Each person must persevere to:
Follow Christ daily to the Cross,
To die to self—to what we have become that we are not,
To make ourselves vulnerable and stripped of our masks and false identity
And suffer ALL with Christ, in order to be transformed into Love.
5. Victims of Love
Our life is an offering of love. Our crosses, including the injustices we suffer, as well as the daily duties, are powerful when done with great love and united with Christ. God waits for the FIAT that signals our total surrender. We don’t just offer something; we offer ourselves without reserve, our entire being, our will, our heart, our body and soul, one with Him. This is to be with Christ victims of love.
It is a victim soul's 'yes' that 'stirs into flame' the power of the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit can lead a docile and willing soul to die with Me. It is this voluntary death that brings the soul to new life…I continue to thirst for love, but it is only the love of My victim souls that satisfies My thirst… Therefore, bring Me many victim souls. 2/1/11 Simple Path #124 p.331
See “Victim of Love” by Fr Jordi Rivero>>
6. 5 Stones: Humility, Purity, Simplicity, Trust and Courage
The MOC and MC must be committed to growing in these five virtues as we persevere in living the Simple Path and taking to heart the teachings of this community.
Virtues Needed as Warriors of Love
My little one, the time draws near. You hold the sword of the Spirit in the mission given to you. My family of LC are My warriors of love that will defeat the dragon in the decisive battle that draws near. Be ready to approach this evil in the same way that David approached Goliath. You will conquer the dragon in your littleness and purity because it is.
God who is with you. You must not fear and believe with the innocence and zeal of David… You each must also approach the battle with five stones.
1. First, the stone of humility, possessing the perfect knowledge of your nothingness and of My power and majesty.
2. Second, the stone of purity, purity of mind, heart, intention, word, desire…
3. Third, simplicity, detached from all, most especially from your ego.
4. Fourth, trust perfectly abandoned to My will.
5. Fifth, courage, courage rooted in love of Me to be perfectly obedient to My commands.
These stones are your weapons for battle, for the dragon will not be defeated according to the standards of the world but in the Light of Love… 1/18/12 Simple Path #148 p. 436
7. Repentance and Conversion
As Love Crucified, we are committed to go daily to the Cross to kiss the feet of Jesus crucified and beg the Spirit for the gift of self-knowledge, so that we can come in truth to know our sins, wounds and disordered tendencies. It is then, through this self-awareness, that we receive the gift of repentance.
Repentance is the gift of God that serves to pry open the hardened human heart so that My seeds of conversion can grow. Repentance is the Sword of the Spirit that opens the darkness within the human heart to be filled with God’s Light of truth, and the truth sets you free.
To live in repentance is to live clothed in the knowledge of who you are, which is misery, and the knowledge of who I Am, which is Love and Mercy.
To live in repentance is to live in the freedom of living in the embrace of Abba, Our Father.
Tell My souls to seek true repentance at the foot of My Cross and the power of My Love Crucified will set them free to live in My peace and the joy of My promise. 2/18/18
The soul that lives wrapped in the gift of knowledge grows in true humility and is then able to advance in My path on the wings of the Holy Spirit… It is here, at My feet, that you must persevere… 12/12/11 Simple Path #10 p.40. see full message >>
Confession: We are encouraged to go regularly to confession. There is no better way to make progress on our spiritual journey than by returning in humble repentance and love to God’s infinite mercy.
A Call for Priests to Live as Christ, Priest and Victim
The Lord desires to raise up an army of holy “priest-victims”; martyrs of love who are willing to be transformed as ONE with Christ Crucified. It is they who will stand strong during the times of darkness as the “apostles of light” protecting and defending the Bride of Christ, the Church.
The Lord speaks of His desire for priests to the Love Crucified Community:
My daughter….My covenant with each of them calls them to love as I have loved; to love with My Heart. My love is sacrificial, My love is gentle and patient but above all my love is crucified. I came upon the earth desiring only the cross; My sons must have the same love of the cross I had. It is only though crucified love that their lives will bear abundant fruit; It is only through their crucified love that they will be transformed by the fire of the Holy Spirit into Me. It is only through crucified love My priests will become the fortified wall of bronze protecting My Church from the principalities of death. This is what you must tell My priests. If they do not listen to My Words they will perish during the time of great darkness.
—3/30/10 See full message🔗
I am raising up My army of holy priests, My Green Berets: Men of fortitude, men of courage, holy men, men willing to lay down their lives for their God. It is these holy priests that will be My apostles of Light during the time of great darkness that is approaching. The time is at the horizon.
—3/11/10 See full message🔗
The Church has a clear vision for a transformed priesthood. This vision of priestly victimhood is witnessed by the life of saintly priests like St. John Vianney, Padre Pio, and St. Maximilian Kolbe. They were not just good men who served God and offered sacrifice, but men transformed into alter-Christus, forged to be priest-victims of love by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary and in the power of the Cross. Men consecrated to Mary and the Eucharist.
In order to fully realize his priestly vocation of being priest and victim, he must uncover his identity as victim. The crisis in the priesthood is reflected in the absence of this identity. Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen in his book, The Priest Is Not His Own, stresses the crucial need for priests to embrace their victimhood:
"We who have received the Sacrament of Orders call ourselves “priests”. The author does not recall any priest ever having said, “I was ordained a ‘victim’”, nor did he ever say, “I am studying to be a victim.” That seemed almost alien to being a priest. The seminary always told us to be “good” priests; never were we told to be willing victims. And yet was not Christ, the Priest, a Victim? Did He not come to die?
Pagan priests, Old Testament priests, medicine men, all offered a sacrifice apart from themselves. But not Our Lord. He was Sacerdos-Victima. This being so, just as we miss much in the life of Christ by not showing that the shadow of the Cross cast itself even over the crib and the carpenter shop as well as over His public life, so we have a mutilated concept of our priesthood if we envisage it apart from making ourselves victims in the prolongation of His Incarnation.”
Urgent Messages to Priests
Blessed Conchita received messages from the Lord concerning the priesthood from September 1927 to January 1931. The Lord stressed the urgency for priestly sanctification. He reveals His total love as an unconditional offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit through a full immolation of Himself. He explains to Conchita the importance of His priests living as victims as ONE with Him, The Victim, as the means of their transformation into Love.
The priestly souls indispensably have to be victims; they have to become a gift, offering themselves pure to My Father, in union with Me and giving themselves up for souls, as I did. —The Priesthood of Christ and the Ministerial Priesthood in the Experience and Message of Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, Juan Esquerda Bifet, 11.
Jesus reveals to Conchita His Sacred Heart and how His Heart loves. He desires for every priest to be one heart with His, loving as He loves, in total immolation:
Love which does not crucify is not love… How did I love? It was with a universal love of charity, as the Word knows how to love: all charity, with a love of sacrifice, immolating Myself, forgiving, forgetting and attaining graces for them with My sorrow; with a most pure divine intention; with a sublime goal of charity for souls and for Divinity, of giving Him glory. My expiatory love is incomprehensible to all human intelligence. (Ibid. 11)
The spiritual and apostolic value of priestly life depends on his willingness to be crucified with Christ. In a message to a Mother of the Cross of the Love Crucified Community, Christ emphasizes the importance of all priests being a witness to the Gospel message of the Cross:
I am the High Priest. I am the perfect unblemished holy sacrifice of the Father for the redemption of mankind. The priests that came after Me were born of My Pierced Heart; were born of My crucified love. As a woman labors to give life, My priests were conceived in My crucified Heart and were brought to life through the passage in My side created by the spear. Therefore, every priest is called to be ONE with the Word of the Cross. Of themselves they can do nothing and are nothing, but united as ONE to Love crucified they are the power of God. The mission I desire is to bring all My priests to union with Love Crucified. It is here that lies the power of God I want them to possess…. 9/21/10
When priests fail to embrace their victimhood by not becoming ONE with Christ Crucified, they fail to be transformed by the Holy Spirit and live a disordered priesthood with serious consequences for themselves and their flock.
Tell My sons that they have gone astray from the path I set before them. They have gone astray from the narrow path that leads to life. Their hearts have grown cold and hardened because they seek their fulfillment in themselves. It is only through a life of penance and mortification that the flesh can be purified. Tell them, My daughter, to gaze at My love crucified and to allow My Mother to bring them to the foot of the Cross with those that love Me (I felt St. John and Mary Magdalene). 5/24/10
Without this transformation into alter Christus their vocation runs the risk of bringing scandal and turmoil to the Church and world. These priestly scandals pierce violently the Heart of God as Jesus laments to Conchita:
And the sins of scandal of my priests, what immensity they encompass! What glory they remove from me and how deep an extent they pierce My Heart! The radius those sins of scandal of my priests encompasses is incalculable for man; and only in eternity in the vision of that great light will they come to see the almost infinite evil that they produce with those innumerable sins. And I say innumerable because a sin of priestly scandal is multiplied and extends to generations.... [These hidden sins] attack the faith, blind hope and kill charity. —To My Priests, Concepción Cabrera De Armida 20.
Encouragement To Live This Call
In the following letter a priest encourages his spiritual son/priest to live his vocation as a victim with Christ. His council reflects the anointing of God’s wisdom for all priests:
My Dear Spiritual Son Priest ,
You have made it to the 10th Station of your Priesthood, stripped of a lot of this world with more to shed in the future.
The Universal Church and the Priesthood of Christ into which you were ordained ten years ago today has also been stripped of its holiness, dignity and even Episcopal unity by the exposure of its sinfulness.
The Temple is being cleansed, shaken and persecuted. Eventually all that will be left is the Bruised Face of the Suffering Servant, and the more you resemble Him in this way, the closer your Heavenly Mother will enfold you in her arms.
Resolve to increase your time before the Blessed Sacrament to console Him and to become a Living Host in the eyes of His People.
Many of His People and Ministers are still clinging to tradition, customs, incense, Latin liturgy, even the Communion altar rail, like passengers clinging to the rail of the Titanic thinking that this will give them safety and comfort. But only till we let go of everything and become ONE with the VICTIM will we truly be His Body, the Church, not in the nostalgia of the past, but in the reality of the POWER OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED IN THE PRESENT.
You are very learned, my spiritual son, in Theology, Cannon Law, even languages and carry within you a hidden false pride in all of this, hidden from yourself, but not from me who loves you as Paul loved Timothy. But someday in the future you will see more clearly that the PRIESTHOOD you received 10 years ago today is not in the grandeur of your status, wisdom or earthly knowledge, but solely in the SACRIFICE OF THE LAMB OF GOD.
And someday when you allow yourself to be stripped of everything—health, prestige, reputation, knowledge, connections, earthly wisdom and pastoral power you will achieve the joy and fullness of the Priesthood you celebrate today. This is my Prayer, Prophecy and Gift to you today.
It was a privilege and an honor to support you financially, and be in those moments your earthly father, not only for who you are today, but for who I trust you will become in time.
With heartfelt love and gratitude on this milestone of your 10th Ordination Anniversary,
