Way of Life
Community of Love Crucified
The vocation of the Love Crucified Community is to live passionately Christ's 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🔗. 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.
6. Five 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! —From her "Rule of life", Bl. 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, 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 —Lumen Gentium 34
The Eucharist as seen by the Church and the saints, edited by Fr. Jordi Rivero🔗
2. Marian Consecration
To come to the most perfect intimate union of love with Christ—as victims united to the Victim, we need to consecrate ourselves to Mary, Mother and Bride, with the understanding and abandonment that she will take 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.
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.
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, cited on Path, p. 9
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, where we receive the gift of self-knowledge, into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, unto the union 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 Simple Path to lead them through the painful purification and healing of their hearts into a deep 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.
See "The Joy of Knowing who you are" The Path p.319.
• 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 and our 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. Five Stones: Humility, Purity, Simplicity, Trust and Courage
The Mothers of the Cross and Missionaries of the Cross 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 going 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.
See: Repentance by Fr. Jordi 🔗
8. Community Life
We are a community that makes a covenant to God and to each other to walk with Christ as a family, according to the charism of the community. We embrace the community's way of life and the Simple Path and help each other to live it. As one body, we are attentive to the needs of others both by serving and praying. While we live dispersed in different countries, states and cities, our hearts are united by the Holy Spirit to form one family within the Church.
See Community, Fr Jordi Rivero 🔗
We commit to:
• Living the Simple Path
Meditating and studying the teachings of the community as a means to become transformed into our identities as victims of love.
• Cenacles
We participate in the weekly cenacles which are transmitted on the internet and made available to all members throughout the world.
• Yearly Encounters (Retreats)
We have a retreat once a year at the Love Crucified Retreat House in Covington, Georgia and in Bogota, Colombia.
• Accompaniment
Monthly accompaniment provides a guide to assist us through our journey on the Simple Path. It helps bring to light the wounds, disorders, and lies that keep us from our true identity in Christ. It is through accompaniment that we grow in greater self-knowledge and begin the process of transformation needed to fulfill the mission entrusted to us by God-- to be Christ's witnesses, His light in the darkness, and pure, holy victims of love.
Monthly accompaniment is a fundamental link with the community thus, no member can be without it. In addition to accompaniment, members may have a spiritual director of their choice.
• Covenant
Living the Covenant🔗 (oath) of the LC community.
• Prayer Life
We are called to be men and women of intense prayer life centered on the Eucharist. We make our hidden lives a continuous prayer offering as we unite to Jesus crucified our prayers, daily sacrifices, and sufferings in love to bring consolation and joy to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and aid in the sanctification of priests and countless souls.
When I say your life is a prayer, [I mean that] your life is an offering. To offer Me your life is the perfect prayer.… Your most perfect prayer is your pure suffering united to Me and My Mother… The prayer of pure suffering is the sweetest fragrance that reaches and delights the Heart of our Father. This is also the prayer that produces an abundance of fruit. This is the prayer that is most united to Mine as I intercede before the throne of My Father…. see full message🔗
Prayer commitments:
• Daily Mass, if possible.
• Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, daily if possible.
• Daily Rosary.
• Renew Consecration to Mary and Holy Spirit often.
• Monthly Confession.
• Chaplet of Divine Mercy, daily if possible.
• Offer sacrifices & mortifications, “Mortify yourself in silence.”
9. Obedience to Mother Church
We take an oath of fidelity and, with firm faith, believe and profess each and everything that is contained in the Symbol of Faith, namely:
• The Nicene Creed
• Everything contained in the Word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.
• All the Church’s teachings regarding faith and morals.
•To the teachings of the Magisterium.
10. Fidelity to our State of Life
We embrace our state in life (single, married, widowed, priest, or consecrated...) as our God-given identity, our way of holiness and union with God. The community honors and supports the state in life of each member.
We unite the daily chores of our vocation, our sufferings, and joys, to Christ, doing all things from the heart for love of Him.
We all share the same baptismal vocation.
Prior to any particular call to a state in life, we have a primary vocation, received in baptism, that demands our whole life: A personal relationship with Christ. All vocations are founded in Him. He is the Lord who wants to reign in our hearts so that our intellect, will, and emotions are subject to Him in love. He is the fire of our hearts. This vocation must be answered every day and must grow so that we become ever more one with Christ. This call is the essence of our life. He gives himself to us and asks us to do the same. The resulting union transforms us and determines our identity. We become Christ's body. We are commanded to love all in Christ's love. Objective: goal: total transformation in Christ. Our particular State in Life is where we live our baptismal vocation.
The simplest tasks lived with great care
"A soul in love with God and immersed in Him approaches her duties with the same dispositions as she does Holy Communion and carries out the simplest tasks with great care, under the loving gaze of God" —Diary of St. Faustina #890.
O Jesus, I want to live in the present moment, to live as if this were the last day of my life. I want to use every moment scrupulously for the greater glory of God, to use every circumstance for the benefit of my soul. I want to look upon everything from the point of view that nothing happens without the will of God. –St. Faustina #1183
"Know, my daughter, that your silent, day-to-day martyrdom in complete submission to My will ushers many souls into heaven. And when it seems to you that your suffering exceeds your strength, contemplate my wounds." –St. Faustina #1184.
The Family in union with the Holy Family
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph had only one life, one purpose: To glorify the Heavenly Father. That is what we also must want. To achieve it, we have to enter into union with Mary and Joseph to share their life—family life, the intimate interior life of which God alone is secret. What happiness to be called to this life. Our love will consist in living with Mary and Joseph on the love of Jesus Eucharistic" —St. Peter Julian Eymard).
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Seeing Our Misery, Abandonment, and Perseverance
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. My daughter, form My family well in the teachings I give to you. You each must also approach the battle with five stones. First, the stone of humility, possessing the perfect knowledge of your nothingness and of My power and majesty. Second, the stone of purity, purity of mind, heart, intention, word, desire… Third, simplicity, detached from all, most especially from your ego. Fourth, trust perfectly abandoned to My will. 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. Therefore, My family, prepare for battle. Be attentive to Me. —1/18/12 Simple Path #148 p. 436