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.
Suffer with Him - Entering the Pierced Side of Jesus
Lourdes Pinto — 2012
The Pierced Side of Jesus reveals the mystery of suffering with Christ
Jesus allowed a sword to pierce His side so that it would be a passage to enter His Sacred Heart.
This passage becomes the means to make our hardened hearts docile and tender so that we can receive His touch and His precious Blood can penetrate our wounds. Just like a seed can not take root in rocky soil, it needs soil that has been plowed and fertilized, our hearts also need to be made docile to bear an abundance of fruit.
In the book, The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come!", it says, "Calvary is the necessary 'passage' of which Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah while on Tabor and of which he spoke to his disciples. It is the 'passage' that must come before the resurrection and Pentecost."(p 18)
This passage includes:
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a way of life centered in the Eucharist, Sacrament of Penance, reflecting daily on the Word, self-denial and mortification. The complete way of life (See end of manual)
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learning to suffer all with Jesus
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allowing our hearts to be pierced with Jesus' thorns
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Perfection in the virtues
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Silence
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Tenderness
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Childlike innocence
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Poverty
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Purity
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Obedience
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Faith
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Fear of the Lord
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Prayer
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The ordinary and hidden life
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victim intercessors
*SUFFER WITH HIM
ROMANS 8:12-17
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh -- for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him
The Spirit and the Bride Say, Come! P 77
“It is precisely here that the role of Mary, the Mother of Sorrows, is most effective. She has been commissioned by Jesus on the Cross (John 19:26) to prepare us for this baptism of suffering as she did Jesus. She wants to bring us to the docility of Jesus on the Cross, a docility of total trust and obedience, offering this as a sacrifice to the Father. By entrusting to her all that we are, by our consecration to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, we enable her to transform our weaknesses and our burdened hearts and thus prepare us for the Eucharistic Sacrifice. She then will “offer us up” as a pleasing sacrifice to the Father, uniting us with the sacrifice of Jesus for the salvation of the world. “
“Receive the pearl of suffering I am giving you…”
The Spirit and the Bride Say, Come! P 77
“Suffering is so precious to God that it seems he allows it to continue until the last moment, as he did with his own Son.”
8/27/11
Why do I desire and need for you to suffer with Me?
It is through My suffering that you come to know Love. Love is purified in suffering, but My suffering is pure love, therefore, when you suffer with Me your love is purified in Me. This suffering with Me and loving with Me brings new life, a new creation. Allow all suffering to draw you into My sufferings and sorrows and in this way you will come to know Love. My Sacred Heart is pure love. You were created for Love, but how few, My little one, come to know Love and enter the joy of living in Love.
Satan and the principalities of darkness have been conquered by My crucified love. The triumph of My Cross, which is the triumph of Love, will come to fullness through My martyrs of love. This is your mission: to raise up many martyrs of love for the decisive battle at hand. ... (I asked about the MC) My daughter, I wish to perfect you in love...trust in all that I place in your heart. The time is short and the battle is fierce.
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Spe Salvi (In hope we are saved) Encyclical of Benedict XVI, 2007.
39. To suffer with the other and for others; to suffer for the sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in order to become a person who truly loves—these are fundamental elements of humanity, and to abandon them would destroy man himself. Yet once again the question arises: are we capable of this? Is the other important enough to warrant my becoming, on his account, a person who suffers? Does truth matter to me enough to make suffering worthwhile? Is the promise of love so great that it justifies the gift of myself? In the history of humanity, it was the Christian faith that had the particular merit of bringing forth within man a new and deeper capacity for these kinds of suffering that are decisive for his humanity. The Christian faith has shown us that truth, justice and love are not simply ideals, but enormously weighty realities. It has shown us that God —Truth and Love in person—desired to suffer for us and with us. Bernard of Clairvaux coined the marvelous expression: —God cannot suffer, but he can suffer with. Man is worth so much to God that he himself became man in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way—in flesh and blood—as is revealed to us in the account of Jesus's Passion.
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Consolation:
“Desire solely the Cross and give Me rest... Very few souls participate in My suffering and share in My sorrows.” (9/7/11)
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True intimacy is to suffer as one heart with the beloved, to enter a union of sorrows.
"Do grant, oh my God, that when my lips approach Yours to kiss You, I may taste the gall that was given to You; when my shoulders lean against Yours, make me feel Your scourging; when my flesh is united with Yours, in the Holy Eucharist, make me feel Your passion; when my head comes near Yours, make me feel Your thorns; when my heart is close to Yours, make me feel Your spear." (St. Gemma Galgani)
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The Spirit and the Bride Say Come p 74
“Suffering is not meaningless, but rather when embraced as the Cross of Christ, it becomes “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24)... It is not useless, but rather is tremendously precious because it brings salvation to souls by applying the power of the Cross to their need... Nor is redemptive suffering a rejection of healing; rather, it is a way of bringing total healing, that is, salvation to ourselves and others. One effect of healing is that it removes the obstacles within us that prevent us from recognizing the Cross and embracing the Cross and embracing it with joy.
10/07/2010
Jeremiah 13: 12-27
The Jars Filled with Wine
I am preparing My pure, holy vessels by cleansing them with My precious blood. These living chalices will be filled with My precious blood as I unite them to the World of the Cross and they suffer with Me. My blood will be poured upon My Church to cleanse Her through them. You have been given the particular mission of cleansing My priesthood. “Woe to you, O Jerusalem. How long will it be before you are made clean?”
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WILL YOU SUFFER WITH ME? (11/10)
Will you suffer with Me? Will you unite with My suffering to purchase the redemption of many? You see, My suffering and resurrection has purchased the salvation of the world but My Father from the beginning of time willed for the fulfillment of salvation to come through My Body, the Church. Therefore, the salvation of many souls is dependent on your response to suffer with me.
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1//13/11
“My daughter, the purest love on earth must be united to suffering. I came from Heaven to Earth to suffer in expiation for the sins of the world. This is love. Pure love gives itself solely because of love. The love of the Trinity is pure love, therefore, the Father gives His life by giving to the world His only begotten Son. The Holy Spirit flows from this most pure love, thus igniting the hearts of souls to suffer with Me so that they can enter in Love. The Cross without My Sacred Heart is useless suffering brought about by sin. But suffering united to My Cross is new life; it is participation in the work of redemption which is participation in the life of the Trinity. These mysteries can only be grasped by a humble heart, therefore, you must call My sons first to repentance at the foot of My Cross to receive the gold of precious repentance. Be still My daughter, for it is the pure suffering of the Mothers of the Cross that I will use to pierce the harshness of My sons' hearts. Suffer all with perfect faith in My crucified love.”
JN 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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TO SUFFER WITH ME
11/2/11
To suffer with Me is to be made pure like Me... To suffer with Me is to begin to love with Me... To suffer with Me is to become Love... To suffer with Me is to enter the fullness of JOY and happiness on earth...
Our Lord last week had given me an interior image of one of His thorns in my heart. I could see light issuing out of His thorn into my heart. All around that one thorn was a light moving out into the darkness of my heart expanding and purifying it. I can understand how every thorn received is not only a source of healing grace for other souls but especially for our own hearts.
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THE WISDOM OF THE CROSS
The Spirit and the Bride say Come, p 74-75
To grasp the folly of the Cross as the power of God and the wisdom of God takes a wisdom that is pure gift. Without this wisdom all suffering, pain and the Cross of Christ are utter foolishness and a stumbling block. If we don't have this wisdom, we need to acquire it at any price! Fortunately, St. James tells us it is available for the asking, as long as we ask with faith and patient perseverance: ”My brothers, count it pure joy when you are involved in every sort of trial. Realize that when you're faith is tested it makes for endurance. Let endurance come to its perfection so that you may mature in everything. If any of you is without wisdom, let him ask for it from God who gives generously and ungrudgingly to all, and it will be given him. Yet he must ask in faith, never doubting…” (James 1:2–6).
Suffering is the wisdom and power of God when it is the Cross of Christ. Precisely, the Cross is the wisdom and power of God because it is the Cross that is the answer to sin, to Satan and to death itself. Only the suffering of Christ crucified, Head and Body, brings salvation from sin and its consequences, namely, the domination of Satan and death. It is by dying that we are born to eternal life. Only by losing our life can we gain life (Matthew 16:25). This is the wisdom of God.
Ibid pg 29
“You need wisdom from me that you do not have. You need the power of my Holy Spirit in a way that you have not possessed it; you need understanding of my will and of the ways that I work that you do not yet have“
It is our conviction that Mary is to provide the new wisdom and new power that we do not yet have in order to understand the ways of the Lord and to accomplish his work.
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SUFFER IN MY AGONY OF LOVE
2/24/12
Suffer all with Me... See through My eyes the emptiness and darkness in their hearts and suffer in My agony of love. In this suffering your life becomes a prayer of offering for them.... Live the martyrdom of My Heart.... It is in this union of suffering with Love and in Love that the Holy Spirit will consume you in the fire of His embrace.
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ONE WITH THE MOTHER OF SORROWS/ Anniversary of LC
3/11/12
You are chosen to be ONE with My Mother of Sorrows. You are called to live and taste My agony of love as ONE with My Mother.
I cry for _______ for he has turned away from Me in his rebelliousness, and like him, so many, My daughter. I shed tears for each and every one.
Look at the God Who loves you nailed to the Cross. See My tears as I look down upon every son and daughter who has not come to Me to gaze at Love.
Can you hear My groans that come forth from the depth of My crucified Heart? The groans of My agony of love. Listen to My groans of love.
I thirst for you to quench My thirst with your kiss of love, your kiss of gratitude, your kiss of purity, your kiss of sorrow, your kiss of desire to be ONE with Me, suffering in love with Me.
Do not fear to feel the sorrows of My Heart, to partake in My chalice of suffering in Love and for Love. Embrace through your arms of silence each and every sorrow I place in your heart and participate with My Mother in My agony of love. This union of sorrows will bring many graces to the world. Teach My family (LC) how to suffer with Me. Raise up many victims of love to defeat the prince of darkness.
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Hebrews 2:10 Perfected in sufferings
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.