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.

The Good Shepherd, the Sheep and Community
Fr. Jordi Rivero, based on the Gospel of John.
We rejoice that Jesus is our Shepherd, but we often overlook that He shepherds a flock, not isolated sheep. If a sheep strays from the flock, the Shepherd goes after her to bring her back (Cf. John 10:11-18).
It is in His flock, the Church, that the Lord gives us new life in baptism, feeds us with His Body in the Eucharist and forgives our sins in confession. But It is not enough to receive the sacraments and “go to Church”. Church is not a gas station where we get our supply of graces for a private journey with God. Faith cannot be just a matter between Jesus and me. We need community to be committed to love and serve one another as brothers and sisters.
The Lord prayed in the Last Supper that we "become perfectly one" so that we be witnesses of His own unity with the Father:
That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me (John 17:21-24).
Think of the unity of Jesus and the Father. He tells the Apostles: "If you know me, then you will also know my Father" (John 14:7). When spouses have lived together in for years in a relationship of profound love they can also say, "If you know me, then you know my spouse". Through their love they have come to know what the other is thinking without using words and they are attentive to please the other. They are as if two bodies with one soul. In community we grow into a similar union by the grace of God. St. Gregory Nazianzen writes about his friendship with St. Basil: "We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit.... you must believe that in our case each of us was in the other and with the other." St John Chrysostom wrote:
You are my fellow citizens, my fathers, my brothers, my sons, my limbs, my body. You are my light, sweeter to me than the visible light. For what can the rays of the sun bestow on me that is comparable to your love? The sun's light is useful in my earthly life, but your love is fashioning a crown for me in the life to come.
As Jesus was about to give His life for us, He prayed that we be one with Him! He repeats three times: "That they may be one". Jesus shepherds us so that we become one with Him and lay down our lives for others. He is revealing a love that, as in the above examples, is only known by the work of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul tells us that the Spirit reveals "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived" (1 Corinthians 2:9). But we must believe it is true and move towards it. That is the vocation to community.
For modern Christians, the way early Christians were committed to each other in community, seems inconceivable. We are tempted to think that the Holy Spirit would not do the same with us. The result is that, typically, our experience of fellowship at Church is superficial. We have friends in Church; we may try to be polite on the way in and out of worship; we may even participate in a church group or ministry, but do we really believe that Jesus is calling us to a depth of community where we lay down our lives for each other?
In the Acts of the Apostles the believers were “of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32). Their bonds of union and support were both spiritual and material. Community was their way of life. It is in community that we learn to listen to the voice of the Shepherd and to distinguish it from the voices of the world; it is community that He often speaks through others what we do not like to hear. All parents know that it is in caring for others that we are challenged to grow in virtue way beyond what we though we could. We need to listen to what He says to the community if we are to understand the context of what He tells us personally. It is in community that the Shepherd teaches us that we belong together in a covenant of mutual support; that we need each other to grow to our full capacity of love and sacrifice.
The Good Shepherd gave His life each day for the sheep until he died devoured by the wolves. The hired hand is very different. For him, sheep are a job, not a relationship. He is with them only as long as they are profitable. There is no love and no willingness to stay and suffer for them.
The sheep can also act as hired hands towards the Shepherd and each other. Do we really LISTEN to Him? Do we follow Him WHEREVER He leads us? Do we love one another or do we view our “ministry” or “apostolate” as a job that we need to do in order to be right with God, without any real commitment to brothers and sisters?
A sheep on her own cannot be nourished by the Shepherd nor will she survive the wolves. The wolves represent the devil who is always trying to separate the sheep in order to devour them. The wolf works inside of us, in our minds and hearts. He knows and exploits our fears, weaknesses and wounds; he does all he can to bring division between brothers and sisters. He makes us think that we must run away.
In order to overcome the devil's attacks we need to:
1-Live fully our vocation. Otherwise, we become distracted and weakened and then stray.
2-Know that we belong and need our community.
3-Prepare for battle, ready to suffer and persevere, united with Christ to the Cross when we feel like running away. We cannot be over-confident and lower our guard. Many seem to be doing great, but when a wound is touched, they feel even aversion to brothers and sisters whom they loved.
4-Be careful to discern the origin of our thoughts. The devil can plant ideas that appear very real to us.
5-Do not be lead your emotions or feelings. The devil can work on those.
6-Do not change commitments under trial. Wait until peace returns. Under trial we tend to forget all the blessings we have received in community.
7-Break the isolation and talk about our concerns. Do not allow steam to build up. Go to accompaniment. Under trial it becomes most difficult to open up and be vulnerable.
All this takes lots of humility, honesty and love.
Since the beginning the sheep have been tempted to abandon the Shepherd as the Apostles did. More often though, the temptation comes in a way that is easier to justify. The devil tells us "Stay with Jesus and keep un practicing your faith, but leave the community”.
Do I run away from my family/community when it gets difficult to bear the faults of others or when they have failed me, or do I persevere and give my life for them?
If I have run away from family/community, do I trust in the Lord that I can return and be forgiven? I'm I willing to be humble and return?
We sheep, are also called to be good shepherds. Am I a good shepherd to my family/Community? Do I know, belong, love, give my life as Jesus does? Do I let them know me, love me, give themselves to me?
What are the fears that block me? The wolves are real and we are afraid of being hurt. Do I persevere in humility and willingness to suffer for others?
We cannot do it on our own but the Lord gives us brothers and sisters and promised to be with us always.