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The Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in the Church
Article 1. Beginning
1. The Servant of God Felix de Jesus Rougier, in obedience to a special divine call, founded our Congregation under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on December 25, 1914, on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City.
2. St. Pius X recognized our charism and through the mission that God had entrusted to the Congregation, gave us the name of Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, “which is the program of our priestly and religious life”.
3. The Church approved the Institute and its Constitutions on the 12th of December of 1939 and assists us with solicitude to grow and bear fruits out of fidelity to the fundamental charism.
4. Our Congregation is a Religious Clerical Institute of Pontifical Right whose members may be priests, deacons, or brothers.
5. We are one of five Works of the Cross. These were born in the Church through the initiation of the Servant of God, Concepción Cabrera de Armida. They were approved by the Holy See thanks to the pastoral zeal of Venerable Msgr. Ramón Ibarra y González, the first Archbishop of Puebla, Mexico.
Article 2. Spirit
6. Through the Divine Will, the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit have been called as religious to radically follow Christ Priest and Victim. Our goal is to transform ourselves in Him and share in his priestly sentiments, enlivened by His qualities and virtues: love, purity, and sacrifice.
7. Subject to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit we will imitate Jesus in many ways: in his obedient love for the Father and his humble love for all people, in his purity and in the holiness of his life. We imitate Jesus exercising our spiritual priesthood, offering Him and ourselves with Him, as Eucharistic hosts pleasant to God. We will be expiatory victims in union with Christ’s sacrifice, consoling his Heart that has been wounded by our sins.
8. Aware that only the Holy Spirit can transform us in Christ, we consecrate ourselves to the Holy Spirit, and we will be docile to his inspirations.
9. The Virgin Mary is the perfect model for this kind of transformation. We profess a filial love to her in the mystery of her Sorrows, especially her Solitude.
10. The spirit of the Congregation is renewed when we offer the Word Incarnate and ourselves with Him to the Father, though the hands of Mary, for the salvation of the world.
11. The expression “Spirit of the Cross” is a phrase that synthesizes our spirituality. The characteristic way of living our spirituality is the “Chain of Love”. The symbol of our spirituality is the “Cross of the Apostleship.
Article 3. Mission
12. Our mission is the same as the mission of Jesus, who was sent to save and sanctify us through the gift of the Spirit.
13. As apostles of the Holy Spirit and of the cross we are sent to all of the People of God to promote holiness, according to the spirit of the Congregation (cf 2.10): this is how we extend the Reign of the Holy Spirit.
Article 4. Type of Life
14. To follow Christ radically requires the total giving of our person to God through the profession of the evangelical counsels. We are a Religious Congregation within the Church, and the nature of our order is contemplation and apostolic action .
Article 5. Lifestyle
15. A fruit of the Holy Spirit’s action that enriches the Church with a variety of charisms, our lifestyle distinguishes us from the many other Institutes of apostolic life.
16. Our spirit and mission are ground and inspire our particular way of living our consecration to God. For this reason our Founder, Fr. Félix, wanted us to be “first and foremost contemplative and then men of action».
17. We must give primary attention to contemplation, not only in theory but also in concrete and living practice. Our apostolic action is ordered and subordinated to contemplation. It is not enough to be contemplatives in action: it is impossible to carry out our mission if our apostolic action is not derived from an abundance of contemplation.
18. This means that we must be men of prayer, lovingly attentive to God in order to arrive at a place where contemplation is a continual way of being. In this state prayer dominates one’s entire life, and one’s soul is unceasingly under its influence.
19. The Center of our contemplative lives is the mystery of Christ the Priest and Victim, who exists and comes to us in the Eucharist. In him an intense liturgical life that culminates in the celebration of the Holy Mass springs forth as a primary response to our lifestyle. Since Christ continues his priestly oblation in the Eucharist, fidelity to personal and communal Eucharistic adoration occupy an elemental place in our religious life.
20. In the Eucharistic mystery, the Lord brings us together in the unity of faith and in the communion of charity. Thus, living a deep participation and communion as brothers, we might be signs and instruments of salvation for all people.
21. The spirit of sacrifice, necessary for the imitation of Christ crucified and in order to obtain a greater charity and purity of soul, is a special characteristic of our life.
22. By means of self-sacrifice and religious austerity, our life should be an evangelical witness.
23. We will cultivate personal reflection and we will maintain a custom in our houses of kindness, a welcoming spirit, and silence.
24. Study nourishes our contemplative life and the many potential needs of our apostolate.
25. Our apostolic activity should bear a definite stamp in accordance with our mission. The primary people to whom our work is directed are priests, then Christians who profess the evangelical counsels; our preferred works are the Works of the Cross; and our characteristic means of activity are spiritual direction, the liturgical apostolate, and the preaching of retreats and spiritual exercises.
26. The characteristic way of life of the Congregation should be expressed faithfully by each community in a picture of its lifestyle that keeps in mind the specific circumstances of the community.
27. We will love the Congregation as our mother, so we will be faithful to her Constitutions that, along with the healthy traditions and our sources, are the living expression of our charism. The Constitutions are the foundation of the support we need, in our consecrated life and in our apostolate.
Article 6. In the Church and in the Service of the Church
28. Our Congregation is a part of the life and holiness of the Church, and it lives in her for its improvement. Incorporated into Christ through baptism, and united more intimately to the mystery of the Mystical Body through the profession of the evangelical counsels, we totally consecrate our life to the service of God and of his people.
29. Through the Church we receive the mission to continue the work of Jesus, the Savior of the world. We exercise this mission in his name, as corresponds with the charism of our vocation.
30. Since the Church’s richness resides in a variety of charisms, we will be faithful to our Institute’s identity, and we will enter into the life of the Church through the strength of our charism.
Article 7. The Family of the Cross
31. In the Church, God has raised up many different living institutions that spread the spirit of Christ the Priest and Victim, and that make up the “Family of the Cross”.
32. The Works of the Cross are the nucleus of the Family of the Cross. The Works extend to all of the people of God. “Although there are five, they form but one reality, one Work of love and sacrifice.”
33. As well as the recognition of the primary authority of the Congregation, there are other works that belong to this Family. These were born from the apostolic zeal of our Fathers in the spirit, and various institutions that, enlivened by the Spirit of the Cross, carry out distinct missions.
34. This Family of the Cross lives and is developed through the work of the Holy Spirit, in order to continue through time and space that intercessory cry that was its origin: JESUS, SAVIOR OF ALL PEOPLE, SAVE THEM!
