May 1 - St. Joseph the Worker
The first annual Religious Brothers Day
Religious Brothers - Ministers of Communion
Reading:
From Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in the Church
(Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, 2015)
The Religious Brother (and sister) by participating in the saving mystery of Christ and the Church, are permanent reminders for all Christian people of the importance of the total gift of self to God and a reminder that the mission of the Church, respecting the various vocations and ministries within it, is one and is shared by all. (#1)
Being part of [God’s] people and its mission, the Religious Brother lives the call to be memory of the covenant by his consecration to God in a fraternal life in community for mission. Thus he makes more visible the communion that all God's people are called to embody. (#5)
The bonds of communion of the Religious Brother extend beyond the boundaries of the Church, because he is driven by the same "universal character that distinguishes the People of God." The vocation of the Brother is part of the answer that God gives to the absence of brotherhood which is wounding the world today. At the root of a Brother’s vocation lies a profound experience of solidarity that essentially matches that of Moses before the burning bush: he discovers himself as the eyes, ears and heart of God, the God who sees the oppression of his people, who hears their cry, feels their anguish and comes down to liberate them. In this intimate experience, the Brother hears the call: "Come, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt." (Exodus 3:7-10).
Therefore, the dimension of communion is closely linked in the Brother to a fine sensitivity for everything that affects the least privileged of people; those oppressed by various forms of injustice, abandoned on the margins of history and progress, those who, ultimately, are less likely to experience the good news of God's love in their lives. (#6)
Religious consecration itself, which presents life as a witness to the absoluteness of God, and also as a process of openness to God and people in the light of the Gospel, is a call to all the faithful, an invitation to each person to orient his or her own life along a radical path, in different situations and states of life, open to the gifts and invitations of the Spirit. (#7)
Prayer:
Lord, we pray for those young men you are calling to be brothers recognize their call and respond with generosity; and help us to guide and accompany them. We pray to the Lord.