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 Cross, The Eucharist and COVID-19
This is part II in audio, video and text. (series)
The pandemic is an opportunity to be purified and grow in holiness, but only if we are living it as ONE with Jesus in the Cross and the Eucharist

See also:
Cardinal Gerhard Müller Calls COVID-Related Sacrament Restrictions ‘Grave Sin’
Our Decisive Times II: The Eucharist and COVID–19
Fr. Jordi Rivero | August 13, 2021 | Video 🎥
The Messiah was expected to free humanity from the two things that are most feared: suffering and death. Instead, Jesus chose to suffer and die on the Cross. Why?
What is the cross
The cross is a Roman instrument used to dominate by fear. Behind this tactic is Satan. He uses it to make us afraid of responding to God. Satan came at Jesus with the Cross to keep Him from doing the Father’s will. But Jesus overcame fear with love for His Father’s will and embraced suffering. His act of love defeated Satan. The cross became a sign of His victory and a reminder that we must be one with Him to enter the same battle.
Jesus made it clear: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). Yes, Christians, like Jesus, seek to heal and alleviate suffering, but also, like Jesus, we embrace any suffering that is in the path of obedience to God. In other words, we do not allow suffering to stop us from following God’s will. If we are ONE with Jesus, His love casts out fear of suffering and death. We may still have fear, but it no longer controls us.
To embrace the cross is the decisive test of discipleship.
The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18).
COVID-19 is a cross
It has killed many people and caused untold suffering. It has brought division and ruin.
How do we know how to live the cross of COVID-19?
Jesus asked his disciples at Gethsemane to accompany Him. Our Gethsemane is Jesus in His Eucharistic presence. This is our priority.
Jesus knew that Satan would come after us. He gave Himself as Eucharist so that we could stand strong at the Cross and conquer as ONE with Him. He guides us, removes our fears, and gives us courage, no matter what evil we may face, what cross we must embrace.
Without the Eucharist, our soul languishes, just as our body does without food. The Church teaches us that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.[1]” It is, therefore, essential to go deep in prayer and listen to the Spirit and understand what we are facing.
St. John Paul II said:
Through prayer, especially to Jesus at Communion, you will understand so many things about the world and its relationship to him, and you will be in a position to read accurately what are referred to as the “signs of the times.”
The first thing Satan wants is to deny us is the Eucharist.
The disciples fell asleep; they did not stay in prayer united with Him. Then, overcome with fear, they abandoned Jesus. Fear has an effect on our cognitive process and in our spirit. If it dominates us, it makes us weak and incapable of discernment. As a result, we only want to avoid the cross at any price.
The COVID crisis has revealed how easily we too fall into fear and abandon Him. Churches remained closed for months. This is a great tragedy.
The example of the saints
The argument for closing the Churches has been to protect from contagion. We are told that decisions are made “in an abundance of prudence.” Such prudence is not a virtue; it is the logic of the world, played out by government and the media. Let us attend to the wisdom of God found in the saints:
In every century and region of the world, since the catacombs, the saints risked their lives to receive the Eucharist. Many were martyred. They are too numerous to count.[2] [3] [4]
Some were teenagers, like Blessed Joan Roig of Barcelona[5]. In 1936, the communists had closed the churches, so Joan Roig went to the homes in secret to distribute Holy Communion. During one of these visits, he told a family that he knew that red militiamen were trying to kill him. “I fear nothing; I take the Master with me,” he said. When those seeking his life knocked on his door, Joan consumed the hosts he had to protect them from desecration. He was martyred.
Others were married men, like Blessed Peter to Rot, who distributed the Eucharist in the underground Church of Papua New Guinea until arrested and martyred in 1945.
Others were women. Archbishop Fulton Sheen told a story of the martyr who inspired his Eucharistic devotion. During the Boxer Rebellion in China at the turn of the 20th century, soldiers broke into a Catholic Church, arrested the priest, and destroyed the tabernacle, scattering the 32 hosts it had contained. That night, one of the parishioners – a young Chinese girl – sneaked into the Church and spent an hour in Adoration before the scattered hosts before consuming one of them. She did this every night for 32 nights, and it was on the final night, after all the hosts had been safely consumed, that she was caught and killed by one of the guards.
This is normal Christianity; this is the love of the saints for the Eucharist, and we are all called to be saints. The Lord has called us in Love Crucified to be his victims of love. He is now giving us the opportunity to live it; he has put us to the test with COVID-19. How are we doing so far?
“Be safe”
During this pandemic, the saying “be safe” has become a mantra. But the first concern of Christians is for the safety of our soul.
Father Henry Timothy Vakoc died from wounds suffered in Afghanistan as he was returning from celebrating Mass for soldiers in the field. He didn’t need to go to Afghanistan, and once there, he did not have to go to the front lines. They had warned him of the danger but said: “the safest place to be is in the center of God’s will, no matter what” Martyrs are truly safe because they chose to lay down their lives for love.
Our focus should be on God’s will, which often means the Cross. We try to keep everybody and ourselves safe. But there are risks that we need to be willing to take.
There were also many saints who lived through plagues of much higher mortality than COVID-19. How did they respond? St Rocco, St Bernardino of Siena, who, at the age of 17, took charge of the hospital in Siena during the plague.
St. Charles Borromeo, bishop of Milan [6], [7]
The plague of the 1570s killed 30% of the population. Compare to COVID-19, which has a 99.74 survival rate [8]. Authorities, out of fear of contagion, had forbidden public processions and religious ceremonies, but they fled the city. St. Charles stayed. He did not neglect using remedies available, but said that the only cure was to pray and do penance more piously than before. Masses were not canceled, but were moved outdoors. He ordered more Masses said than before. He organized religious processions.
St. Charles counseled his clergy:
Take the plague of the soul in consideration more than the contagion of the body, which, for many reasons, is less pernicious.
He offered himself as an expiatory victim for the sins of his people. He went out every day to visit the sick and dying. He said to the people:
I will be going out among you every day, on account of the sick.”
To the priests who were afraid to minister, he said,
We have only one life, and we should spend it for Jesus Christ and souls, not as we wish.
In Milan, deaths were less than in other cities. St. Charles commented:
Not by our prudence, which was caught asleep. Not by science of the doctors who could not discover the sources of the contagion, much less a cure. Not by the care of those in authority who abandoned the city. No, my dear children, but only by the mercy of God.
Processions in times of plague are an old tradition. For example, in 590 AD, Rome suffered a terrible plague, and Pope Saint Gregory the Great kept celebrating the Mass. He was aware of the danger since his predecessor had died during the plague. During a procession on the streets, angels appeared singing “Regina Cœli” to the Blessed Mother, who was enthroned above them. St. Michael was seen sheathing his sword. At that moment, the plague ceased. It was April 25, and since that day, there is a yearly procession.
Now it’s our turn to trust and accompany our Eucharistic Lord at any cost. COVID will then become a passage to a new fulfilled life as never before.
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324.
[2] https://www.thegregorian.org/2019/real-presence-real-faith-9-eucharistic-martyrs
[3] https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/eucharist-martyrs/
[4] https://www.ncregister.com/features/ordinary-heroes-martyrs-for-the-eucharist
[5] https://www.ncregister.com/news/teen-martyred-while-protecting-the-eucharist-beatified-in-spain
[8] https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-5352
[9] Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324.
[10] https://www.thegregorian.org/2019/real-presence-real-faith-9-eucharistic-martyrs
[11] https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/eucharist-martyrs/
[12] https://www.ncregister.com/features/ordinary-heroes-martyrs-for-the-eucharist
[13] https://www.ncregister.com/news/teen-martyred-while-protecting-the-eucharist-beatified-in-spain