A Semi-Annual Newsletter Issue N o 1 - Summer 2010

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1 A Semi-Annual Newsletter Issue N o 1 - Summer 2010 Hello and Welcome It is with great joy that our first newsletter to our friends is finally here. Page 1 Cross of the Disciples The cross logo is an unusual one. What is the history behind it? Page 2 New brother - his story Everyone s path is different to religious life. Here is one. Page 3 History of the Order A background primer on the history of the order, from the early days to now. Page 4-5 ello Friends in Christ, brothers and sisters in faith! H As we start this humble project we entrust it to the protection of Mary, Mother of the Disciples. On our journey together we cannot forget the steps of the first Christians, who devoted themselves with o n e a c c o r d t o prayer, together w i t h s o m e women, a n d Mary the m o t h e r of Jesus, and his brothers. (Acts 1:14) A short time ago I went to confession and the priest told me to daily count my blessings. As I write this first letter to the Friends of the Disciples this thought came to me: to count my blessings is to count my friends. If that is true for the individual how much more for a young religious family like the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The good God has given us many blessings in you, and He will give us more. I envision this little program as the promise of God to Abraham: your descendants will be as the stars of the sky or the sand of the beach. Fr Jose Noriega, Superior General with Fr Alvaro Montero, Local Superior, CO A r i s t o t l e asked if it is possible to be friends with God. He concluded it is n o t, b e c a u s e friendship requires closeness and a common ground. Between the god of Aristotle and the human being there is an eternal gap. But we Christians believe in the Incarnate God: Jesus Christ. Is a friendship with God then possible? Indeed. Actually Saint Thomas Aquinas defines charity as a certain friendship between God and Man. In other words charity is the gift of God s life, shared with us, like Friends, Issue N o 1 1

2 a friend wants to share all he has with the friends. C. S. Lewis writes in his book The Four Loves that friendship is not the normal category to use in the spiritual life, because it is many times misinterpreted. However, Jesus has told us: I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. John 15:15. Therefore, with this first newsletter I want to share with you my deep gratitude to God for his multiple blessings, which are each one of you. But also I w a n t e d t o extend our h e a r t f e l t thank you to you and your families. In this tough economy, you have given yourselves as you shared your time, talent and treasure. It all comes down to sharing our time: when you share your talent and treasure you are actually giving your time in a deferred way. You give now the fruits of your time of study and formation (talents) and the fruit of your work (wages and earnings). A friend is a person who mainly shares his or her time with those he loves. Finally, I want to reassure you of our prayers and weekly masses for all the Friends of the Disciples. Every day, at morning prayer and evening prayer each one of the disciples prays the following: For our Religious Institute, for the most needy of us, for all our benefactors, for our Superior General, we pray to the Lord and for all our friends and those entrusted to our prayers, we pray to the Lord. Your intentions have been brought to the Lord every Saturday since March 6 here in Littleton and at the other communities in Spain and Italy. They also have their own designated weekdays to say mass for all the friends and benefactors. I hope you can feel the power of these, our poor but sincere prayers. The goal for all of us is to get closer to the Lord and grow in holiness through a common friendship with Him and each other. With friendship, Our Cross he monstrance is one of our family treasures and T signs of identity. Twenty years ago we decided to have a very simple monstrance in our Mother House, in the little town of Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca, Spain). Following our design, an older blacksmith crafted a very heavy, black iron monstrance. The Eucharist occupies the center of a very simple cross, without particular ornamentation. What is the symbolism? The vertical trace of the cross represents the love of God whereas the horizontal trace represents the love of mankind, the love to our neighbors and equals. Many times we experience in our life the challenge to put together both the love of God and the love of neighbors, to keep them united. Well, this is the meaning of the monstrance: precisely in the encounter between both dimensions of love, the cross opens up a space for the Eucharist. Therefore, the symbolism of the Monstrance is to show how the Eucharist realizes the union between both loves and makes the communion between God and man a reality. Jesus keeps united the vertical and horizontal dimensions of love. Furthermore, in Christ it is possible for us to love others with the same love of God, with the Heart of Jesus and its gift, the Holy Spirit. The Heart of Jesus is a sign of his infinite love and that takes a particular shape in the Eucharist. As we read in the Gospel: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one s life for one s friends. (John 15:13). With friendship, Fr. José Noriega Superior General Fr. Álvaro Montero, DCJM Local Superior Father Carlos Granados DCJM Master of Novices 2 Friends, Issue N o 1

3 Inside a Disciple y name is Juan Espino. I have M been informed that, through the Friends of the Disciples program, you will help cover the costs of my formation. I thought, therefore, that the least I could do is thank you profusely and pray especially for you and your families. The Lord has blessed our religious family with many vocations a year ago; it is truly a joy to be part of a growing family. Know that your generosity comes to our formation house at a perfect time. Your contributions will help cover my tuition costs as well as books, living and medical expenses. I was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (You probably have h e a r d a l o t a b o u t m y hometown in the news. It is truly a disconcerting situation.) We moved to El Paso when I was 8 years old. I left El Paso to attend college. Columbia University in the City of New York offered me a g e n e r o u s s c h o l a r s h i p. I completed my B.A. in Economics- Operations Research there and moved to Cambridge, MA, that year. In Cambridge, I attended Harvard s Kennedy School of Government with a fellowship from the Ford Foundation. I completed an MPP in Financial Management and Education Policy. I have four siblings: Elvia, Enrique, Gabriel, and Jose. They are all married and have children. Given that I was the only one who left El Paso, I very much wanted to go back home after my studies, but the Lord had other plans for me. Unable to find a teaching job in El Paso despite the teaching shortage in three school districts then I went to work at Policy Studies Associates, an education research/consulting firm in Washington, D.C. I became very involved in several parishes in D.C. and in Virginia, primarily Alexandria, and later in Woodbridge. My vocation flourished thanks to my parents testimony and thanks to the graces the Lord granted me in the sacraments. I remember that the first call, the first time I felt moved to become a priest was seeing my parish priest in the confessional, and sensing some form of peace in those that visited the confessional. I felt that this is what God wanted for me. He has confirmed it time and time again. After searching for some time for a spiritual director to guide me in my calling, I came across Fr. Armando Marsal, another Disciple who, at the time, lived in our house in Virginia with Fr. Jorge. This was, no doubt, God s hand at work. The fact is that I was touched by his testimony, his wisdom, and his life of prayer. He helped me confirm my calling. When the then Superior General, Fr. Luis de Prada, visited Washington, I took a day off at the office to spend the day with the community. It coincided with my birthday, April 19, I will never forget this day for God blessed me manifold. Not only did Fr. Luis respond positively when I asked to be admitted into the Institute, but a couple of hours later, having entered a church to pray for our future Pope, Fr. Armando received a phone call from Spain to tell him: Habemus Papam/we have a pope Benedict XVI. That July 2005, I flew to Spain to begin the novitiate. As you may know, at the end of the novitiate we make three vows: chastity, poverty and obedience. My parents were able to come to Spain for the event. It was here that they met the disciples for the first time. My parents went back to the States much more content because they now knew where I lived and with whom. God will bless them manifold for their generosity, I am sure! This past September, I renewed my vows for two more years, at which point I will profess permanent vows. One last note: I visited your parish in September 2008, with my father, but only a few days. We felt ver y welcomed, although my father was unable to converse with anyone since he does not speak English. I look forward to visiting Denver again soon. In the meantime, several of the teenagers we work with here in Spain (from Barcelona and Madrid) will spend a few weeks in Denver this summer, many repeating from last year. Please know that this is something that our families really appreciate. We pray that the Lord continue to bless your community. Thank you for your support. Please continue to pray so that the Lord may bless us with more vocations. United in Christ, our Lord, Juan Espino, DCJM Friends, Issue N o 1 3

4 Dawn of the Disciples n 1985 a group of five I s e m i n a r i a n s o f t h e Archdiocese of Toledo (Spain) got permission to leave the Seminary and start a new way of life, with the hope of becoming a new religious institute. Our goal was to live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience as friends of Christ, sealing them with public vows along with community life. That is the essence of religious life. The main sources of our spirituality were the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius, together with a desire to deepen our theological understanding and devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We e n v i s i o n e d our life style as a religious c o m m u n i t y committed to s p i r i t u a l direction, our own pursuit of h o l i n e s s t h r o u g h t h e sanc tification and service of the people of God, with special fidelity to the Magisterium and the Holy Father. The first step was to find a house and a place to study. One generous donor gave us a rural home which became our Mother House (in the town of Villaescusa de Haro, Cuenca, Spain). During the following school years, however, we moved to the bigger town of Burgos to pursue our degrees in Theology. We rented a house close to the college and we started to receive new members who wanted to join the group. On January 1 st 1987, the bishop of Cuenca (Msgr. José Guerra) gave the first canonical approval as Public association of Faithful/Religious Institute in Formation and approved the first text of the constitutions. In June 1989, some of the first disciples took their public vows. The number of youth joining the Order grew in few years, so that by September 1998, already five Noviciates had taken place. The noviciate is the first year of formation for a religious and is the time to deeper discern the call and understanding of religious life. The novices do not attend college for one year but focus on prayer, growing the friendship with Christ and each other, getting to know the spirituality of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the meaning and content of the vows. The first priestly ordinations took place in 1987 (Fr. Luis de Prada) and 1990 (Fr. José Noriega and Fr. Javier O Connor) was an important year for two reasons: we opened a new apostolic community in Madrid with our first priests and the first disciple to pursue a doctorate was sent to Rome (Fr. José Noriega, our current Superior General). In 1996, the first community of Disciples in Rome was founded, when more Disciples were sent to Rome. Due to the growth in number and the increasing quality of the newly founded Faculty of Theology in Madrid, the Disciples decided to move our Formation House from Burgos to Madrid. That was school year 1998/1999. We were able to buy a house for the students of Philosophy and Theology. We were also entrusted with our first rural parish as the bishop of Cuenca asked us to take care of a little Marian shrine for a few years. As our apostolic demands grew in number and more Disciples were ordained priests, we were also afforded another challenge: to open a new, larger residence for our priests in Madrid. The community of Rome also moved to a bigger house and received more students pursuing their masters and doctorates. The day of our canonical approval as religious order finally came on May 2002, after much work and providential circumstances. O n t h e S o l e m n i t y o f Pe n t e c o s t, a n d a f t e r consultation with the Vatican, the bishop of Cuenca, Msgr. Ramón del Hoyo issued a decree approving the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary as a Religious Institute of Diocesan Right. By the beginning of 2004 we had four communities: the Mother House in Villaescusa, the House of Formation and the Apostolic House for Priests in Madrid and the Community of Rome for after graduation studies. The biggest step was then taken: the leap of faith to the land of the opportunities, the United States of America. Fr. José Granados came in 2004, accompanied by Fr. Jorge Agüera and Fr. Armando Marsal, to open a new house in Falls Church, VA. Why Virginia? That will come in the next Newsletter. (To be continued) 4 Friends, Issue N o 1

5 Priests for the Family ach religious order has a E p a r t i c u l a r f o c u s a n d orientation that sets it apart. The mission of the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary revolves around family and youth life; the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola; spiritual d i r e c t i o n, t h e o l o g i c a l formation, and other ways of helping people develop their own call to holiness. Each of these areas is lived in profound communion with the universal Church. What we bring to you is deeply rooted in the teaching and guidance of the Church. Today, I want to focus on the ministry of the Disciples to the family. We see ourselves as priests for the family. What does this mean? How do we view the family? What are some of our goals in working with families? Where do our teachings come from? Way of holiness and love The teachings of Pope John Paul II, called the Pope of the Family, have been profoundly influential for the Disciples and form how we express our ministry to the family. As a young priest, the late Pope wrote, I learned to love human love. In our work with families, it is our desire to show, as he did, that human love according to God s plan is a way toward holiness. One of our goals as Disciples is to help people under our care discover that the identity of the human p e r s o n, that their identity, is formed in family relationships as son and daughter; husband and wife; brother and sister. These relationships open up the way to happiness and a path towards God because they open up the way of love. The human person does not exist in isolation. The family teaches us that we belong to others, that we have received life as a gift, and that we are called to give ourselves in love in order to give life to others. Spiritual fatherhood We Disciples, as well, live in our communities this very kind of family life. We understand that our priesthood does not mean being without a family but i n s t e a d i t i s a w ay o f belonging to the family of Jesus to those who are Jesus brothers, sisters, mothers. We live our priesthood as a spiritual fatherhood and as a spousal self-gift to the Church in the image of Christ s love. It is our desire that our spiritual fatherhood communicates to you the life of God. Church as family Finally, the Disciples see the Church as a big family a family of families in w h i c h each family is called to develop. The family is not a closed environment but must open up towards the whole of society, to give fruit to it in order to make of the whole world a home. Priests for your family I hope these thoughts have given you some i n s i g h t i n t o t h e Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. It is our desire to foster within Saint Mary Parish an environment in which each of your families can flourish and develop its mission of communicating the Gospel to other families. Father José Granados DCJM Vicar General Friends, Issue N o 1 5

6 Friends of the Disciples Issue N o 1 - Summer 2010 DISCIPLES OF THE HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY 6853 South Prince Street Littleton, CO Over 400 Friends Thank you Gracias Grazie Vows The disciple learns day after day to contemplate the heart of Christ with Mary his mother Constitutions #5 1st Vows of Novices, Obedience, Poverty, and Chasity. September 2009 Front Page photo, Painting by our Brother Ionut Gotia DCJM, Front wall of our chapel in Rome Newly professed Brothers Constitution, Crucifix, and Cassock of the newly professed.