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.
Communion and Community
Fr. Jordi Rivero
A Longing of the Heart
The deepest longing of our hearts is for communion: to be known, understood and loved and to know, understand and love others. We long communion because God, who IS communion of persons, created us in His image, to be one with Him and with our brothers and sisters.
Christ the Beloved
Our primary desire is for communion with someone who can fulfill our deepest longing; someone who, knowing our brokenness and ugliness, still loves us and treasures us; a person with whom we can be who we are and who helps us to heal and to develop to our full potential; a person who can quench our thirst for love, truth and understanding. This person is Christ. Any other relationship, if not rooted in Christ, will prove to be insufficient. Our wounds and sinfulness, as well as those of others, blocks communion from going deep. Our soul longs for the perfect love that is God.
Let Go of Our Control
Having heard that Christ loves us is not enough. We need to respond and enter the experience. It is true that He loves us even before we respond, but unless we do, He cannot take possession of our lives. Then communion with Him is impossible. A man cannot marry a woman, no matter how much he loves her, unless she responds. Jesus the Groom is waiting and thirsting for our love.
We could think that responding to the perfect Lover is easy. We may even think that we are responding when we are only giving him a token. The problem is that we are afraid of surrendering our control even to Him. We are afraid of a lover so radical that He dies on the Cross. We fear that He may take us there. Like Peter, we believe we love Him with all our hearts but, when we are tested, we distance ourselves from Him.
Christ is Head and Body
Communion with Christ cannot exist without communion with His Body. "If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20). When Christ is our life we see Him in each person and in the community. It is in only in communion with others that we can go deep and discover the truth about ourselves, be forgiven and healed.
Family and Church
The first community where God places us is our family. St. John Paul II called it the "domestic church". It is primarily in our family that we are known, understood and loved, thus finding communion and developing into mature persons. However we also need a bigger spiritual family to grow to fullness in Christ. That community is the Church, the Body of Christ, the source of life for all families. Without the Church the family is impoverished and succumbs to the world.
Covenant Communities
Covenant Communities are part of the "ecclesial movements" of the Catholic Church which, according to Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), have a history dating back to the IV Century. The movements seek to live "an integral form of Christianity, a Church that is obedient to the Gospel and that lives by it" -Cardinal Ratzinger, Ratz, EMTR
What is the difference between covenant community and a group that gathers to pray or to do ministry? Members of these communities not only do something together, they enter a covenant, that is, they commit themselves to God and to each other to walk with Christ as a family, according to the charism of the community.
In community we find communion by opening our hearts to each other to know and be known, to understand and be understood, to love and be loved. This means that we pass from theory to practice and that we can persevere together through trials, joys and sufferings.
The Lord gives each community its a particular spirituality and mission within the Church. For example, the spirituality of the Love Crucified Community is a path to union with Jesus Crucified, to become victims with the Victim and to be the bride united to the Bridegroom in His Passion.
Why do we need movements and communities if we already have the Church and parishes? Cardinal Ratzinger writes:
The movement to follow Christ in an uncompromising fashion cannot be totally merged with the local Church. ...The monastic community that Basil founded is likened by Gribomont to a kind of leaven: a “small group for the vitalization of the whole”; he does not hesitate to call Basil “the founding father not only of the teaching and hospital orders, but also of the new communities without vows”. Ratz.
There is the enduring basic structure of the Church’s life, which is expressed in the continuity of her institutional structure throughout history. And there are the ever new irruptions of the Holy Spirit, which continually revitalize and renew that structure. Ratz, EMTR>>>
The Franciscan awakening in the thirteenth century probably provides the clearest instance of what a movement is: movements generally derive their origin from a charismatic leader and take shape in concrete communities, inspired by the life of their founder; they attempt to live the Gospel anew, in its totality, and recognize the Church without hesitation as the ground of their life without which they could not exist. Ratz.
Pope Benedict XVI told members of the ecclesial movements and new communities:
Down the ages Christianity has been communicated and disseminated thanks to the newness of life of persons and communities capable of bearing an incisive witness of love, unity and joy. This force itself has set a vast number of people in "motion", from generation to generation. ...Today, the Ecclesial Movements and New Communities are a luminous sign of the beauty of Christ and of the Church, his Bride. You belong to the living structure of the Church. Ratz, EM.
Cardinal Ratzinger saw the movements as a work of the Spirit that needs to be received with gratitude and discernment:
The apostolic movements appear in ever new forms in history—necessarily so, because they are the Holy Spirit’s answer to the ever changing situations in which the Church lives. And just as vocations to the priesthood cannot be artificially produced, cannot be established by administrative diktat, still less can movements be established and systematically promoted by ecclesiastical authority. They need to be given as a gift, and they are given as a gift. We must only be attentive to them. Using the gift of discernment, we must only learn to accept what is good in them, and discard what is bad. ...the Church has always succeeded in finding room for all the great new awakenings of the spirit that emerge in her midst. Nor can we overlook the succession of movements that failed or that led to painful schisms. Ratz, EMTR
According to St. John Paul II, "‘Ecclesial movements’ ...represent a true gift of God both for new evangelization and for missionary activity”. (Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, no. 72).
The Personal Dimension
The light and the love that we recieve from our brothers and sisters that are rooted in the faith and committed to tell us the truth about ourselves, enables us to make our own decisions,
Becoming a community, and the building up of the community, does not exclude the personal dimension, indeed it demands it. Only when the person is struck and penetrated by Christ to the depths of his or her being, can others too be touched in their innermost being; only then can there be reconciliation in the Holy Spirit; only then can true community grow. -Cardinal Ratzinger
Overcoming Difficulties
We want communion with Jesus but we are afraid of community, yet one cannot be without the other. Community is the body where communion can be realized. But we have all been hurt in relationships and we are afraid that we may be hurt again. We see community as a risk that may end up proving that the love we long for is not really possible. When community relationships make us suffer, as they inevitably will, we are tempted to run away from it. Them we try to justify ourselves by saying that community is not necessary.
Communities need to foster a strong Catholic identity and be attentive to what the Spirit is doing in Church. Members of covenant communities, like all Catholics, belong to parishes and serve in ministries as their vocation permits.
Likewise communities need to be at the service of families so that they have the support of a body that is living deeply the life of Christ. Family life and events take precedence over those of the community.
Jesus is calling us to follow Him to the Cross. He teaches us that love means to be willing to suffer for others. Yes, community is difficult and yes, we can be hurt, but it is also in community, often through suffering, that we find healing and hope. If we allow fear to keep us away from community, we fall for the lie that tells us that we can have communion without real community. The meaning of community is then diluted to the point that any grouping of persons is called "community."
As the tide of secularism and outright hate for Christ increases, it should become more evident that we need Christian communities where the Lord gathers His faithful remnant, to form and protect us and to make us His witnesses. Pope Francis wrote:
If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. -Evangelii Gaudium, n. 49