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Brother basics
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March 2, 2018At the tail-end of the Year of Consecrated Life, the Congregation of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life released a document entitled, Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in the Church. As you might imagine, this document was greatly anticipated by our community of brothers! I want to share with you, our friends and benefactors, a few excerpts from the document. These quotes eloquently capture the mission and identity of our particular community of brothers, things that all Catholics should know about our special call. Please enjoy them, and as you read them, think about your own interactions with the various brothers you personally know and how they have witnessed to these truths.
On the Call to Holiness:- “The first ministry that Brothers develop in the Church as religious is ‘to remind the baptized of the fundamental values of the Gospel’ and ‘the need to respond with holiness of life to the love of God’”. (#7)
- “The community of Brothers lives its prophetic mission counter-culturally, because its lifestyle, according to the Gospel, is opposed to what the world promotes. The community of Brothers is a ‘brotherhood born of the Spirit,’ of the interior freedom of those who put their trust in God despite the human limitations of those who represent him.” (#25)
- “The Brother lives in communion with the Father, source of all life, through the total offering of his life to God in an attitude of praise and worship.” (#16)
- “The fraternity of Religious Brothers is an encouragement for the whole Church, because it makes present the Gospel value of fraternal relationships of equality in the face of the temptation to dominate’.” (#7)
- Brothers “give witness to brotherhood and sonship to which all the faithful are called. ... In that way they are responding to the call to be experts in communion, effective signs of the possibility of living deeper relationships rooted in the love of Christ. Mutual love is the hallmark of Christians (cf. Jn 13:35), and this is the sign which Brothers offer.” (#24)
- “The vocation of the Brother is part of the answer that God gives to the absence of brotherhood which is wounding the world today.” (#6)
- “The Religious Brother makes visible in the Church the face of brother Christ, ‘firstborn among many brothers’ (Rom 8:20), creator of a new brotherhood which he established with his teaching and with his life.” (#15)
- Their apostolic action “consists in transmitting what the Brothers have previously lived in community. Their brotherhood will create brotherhood, and the mission of the Brothers is characterized from the beginning as one of being in communion and creating communion.”(#24)
- “All Brothers, whatever their specific mission, must take seriously their being witnesses of the hope they carry within. They are called to be expressions of hope, being present in situations of pain and misery, demonstrating that the tenderness of God knows no boundaries.” (#29)
