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Growing as a Faith Family Dear Brothers and Sisters, As was published in the October issue of the Miles Jesu Monthly, the founder of Miles Jesu, Very Rev. Alphonsus Maria Duran, has been declining in health, necessitating the election of a new General Director. After being elected to be the new General Director of Miles Jesu this past August, I ask all of you for your prayers. This is a historic moment for Miles Jesu and a time of special grace for all our members. It is an occasion for us to grow in appreciation for the rich heritage that our founder has left us. As our Constitutions say, the Church “is a garden with many different flowers in which God reflects His Infinite Beauty and Power, creating many gifts and vocations according to each temperament and historical circumstance” (no. 194). In our own day and age, the Church is approving many initiatives for the sanctification of the laity as a response to the particular historical circumstances of our day. We live in an extremely secular world, a world that in many ways has excluded God from having any practical influence on its endeavors. It was this realization that inspired Fr. Duran to found an Institute that would aid lay people to fulfill their vocations to transform the temporal realm by sanctifying their lives through their daily duties; by knowing and bearing witness to their faith within their realm of influence; and even for some, to profess the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, while yet remaining in the world as a way to sanctify themselves and to lead others closer to Christ. It was the Servant of God Paul Murphy, one of the first members of Miles Jesu to make his profession of vows, who confirmed for our Father Founder that God wanted such witnesses in our modern world, and whose cause for canonization was officially opened by the Church in 2004. Fr. Duran started Miles Jesu after bringing the Cursillos in Christianity Movement to the Southwest United States in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and gave it a special insight into the spiritual life that he had gained through years of dynamic leadership among lay men and women in the Cursillo Movement. Looking back now, we can see that Father was inspired to found Miles Jesu right around the time that the Church was beginning to develop and deepen Her doctrine concerning the role of lay people in evangelization. At Vatican Council II, the Church declared that lay people play a principal role in bringing the spirit of Christ to the world, by aiding one another “to greater holiness of life” through their secular activity (Lumen Gentium, 36). In Miles Jesu we aim to assist one another in implementing this message from the Church for today’s day and age. Miles Jesu is a form of consecrated life in the Church for lay people, known officially as an Ecclesial Family of Consecrated Life. This description denotes the unique vocation in the Church that Miles Jesu members share. It is an insight brought to Miles Jesu by our Father Founder that is based on a deep understanding of the sacraments of the Church, particularly the dignity that we receive through baptism: Our call to the highest intimate life in the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. It is true that sometimes we must undergo trials and purifications in the realization of our vocation. But it is important to remember that, as baptized Catholics, we are “members of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19). God revealed Himself as a Family. Likewise the supernatural life which God communicates to man is revealed as a filial adoption into His Family, as sons in His Son. Being members of Miles Jesu is a realization of our baptismal call to share in God's family, by forming a faith-family of consecrated individuals. I would ask all the members of Miles Jesu to join me in prayer for a spirit of unity as we begin to move forward in this next phase of Miles Jesu’s development. It is the gift of a founder to spread many seeds and to give his spiritual sons and daughters the tools necessary to make those seeds grow and bring them to fruition. I would like to thank those of you who, as members of Miles Jesu, have been faithful in your own vocations, contributing to the unity of our faith family through your prayers and sacrifices. All the members of Miles Jesu should consider it a great privilege to be able to carry on the work that was begun by our founder. It is the responsibility of each of us to build up this wonderful faith family that God has called us to, for our salvation and the salvation of many souls. God can do many great things through all of us by our united effort. As a final word of inspiration for us all, I would like to quote our Holy Father Benedict XVI, from his address at World Youth Day in Cologne: “In recent decades, movements and communities have come to birth in which the power of the Gospel is keenly felt. Seek communion in faith, like fellow travelers who continue together to follow the path of the great pilgrimage that the Magi from the East first pointed out to us.” |