Book of Life

"Then one of the elders said to me, ’Do not weep! He has triumphed, the Lion of the Tribe of Juda, the Root of David. He has been found worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ Then I saw a lamb as if slain bearing seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God on mission throughout the world." "I write to you in His precious Blood with the desire to see you as a humble and gentle lamb, in the image of the Lamb without stain who was so humble and so gentle that He was never heard to utter a single complaint... And I want to see you as a powerful lion that roars within the Holy Church. That your voice and your virtue may be strong enough to bring back to life the children who lie dead in its bosom." From the first moments of the Community’s life, the two faces of Jesus imposed themselves upon our meditation; the Lion and the Lamb; strength and weakness, God-Almighty, All-Powerful, and little child; abundant life and annihilation.

Death which conquers death to open the gates of eternal life. United to the Lamb of God, our silent oblation triumphs in the victory of the Lion of Juda over all the forces of evil. And even if it pleases Him to reveal to us one face rather than another, we must never dissociate them in our faith and our adoration. Of if in a certain country where we may be sent, it is possible to keep only part of our name, it is upon the totality of this mystery that our meditation will bear. 117 To this beautiful name is attached the consolation, "Do not weep!", of this call had rung out: "Console, console my people", but no one was found to have compassion and we had searched for consolation but in vain. Yet, even if a mother abandoned her children, the Lord would never abandon us, for He has engraved us on the palms of His hand. "Heavens, shout for joy! Earth, jubilate! Mountains, burst with joy! For Adonai consoles His people and takes pity upon their afflicted."

Spirit In these times which are the last, the Lord sends forth His consoling Spirit to renew His Church, in order to adorn His Bride and invite Her to the wedding banquet of the Lamb. He rejuvenates and renews Her unceasingly, bringing Her towards perfect union with Her Bridegroom. The spirit and the Bride, in effect, say to the Lord: "Come!" Seized by this eschatological reality fascinated by the perfection of the world to come, the community sighs and groans with the whole of creation in a watchful and unending prayer. It proclaims by its life, in an implicit and explicit declaration, the reality of the Kingdom and the imminence of its coming; it anticipates it through brotherly life, sacramental life, adoration, and through the liturgy which makes us participants in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims." Journey without purse or staff, abandoned to Providence, guided by the Immaculate Virgin, the Morning Star who vanquished the Ancient Serpent. Faith of those who pray in silence and silent lips of the Apostles, Mary, Daughter of Zion, Mother of the Church and our Mother, bears us into the contemplation of the mysteries of Her Son in the joining together of our wounded hearts to Her pierced heart. She invites us to follow her on the path of renunciation of our own will and selfishness, for, through her obedience, she has become, both for herself and the whole of mankind, cause of salvation. Bearer of the One who bears all, Mary initiates us to the riches of the Eucharistic Body of Christ, uniting the earthly praise to the jubilation of the Church or Heaven where the saints and the blessed spirits unceasingly sing the canticle of the Lamb.

The contemplative life is a grace producing fruits which are not to be kept for ourselves: "You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows." The practice of hospitality and of almsgiving will occupy the first place in our sharing. Nonetheless, the needs of the church, the promptings of grace may push us towards more apostolic work and a more systematic evangelization. The vocation of the Community is one other than a call to be a People of God, aspiring to the Trinitarian life and, like Therese, choosing everything in order to be Love in the heart of the Church.

Meditation of the mysteries of Christ, the Pattern of Consecrated Life

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