OUR LIFE IN FRATERNITY

Constitutions N. 88

• Fraternal life has its foundation in the mystery of love of the perfect Trinity and of the holy unity of Father, Son and Spirit.
• In the fullness of time, the Father sent his Son, firstborn among many brothers, so that through his death and resurrection and by the gift of the Holy Spirit he might form humanity into a fraternity.
• The Church, born from the side of Christ as a sacrament of unity, is essentially a mystery of communion, whose richness and depth are reflected in fraternal living, a human space inhabited by the Trinity.
• Fraternal life itself, a leaven of ecclesial communion, foreshadows the definitive unity of the People of God and constitutes testimony essential for the Church’s apostolic mission.
• For this reason the Church favors institutes whose members, rooted in love and built on love, live a fraternal life in community, assisting one another to be faithful to their vocation and thus promoting the human dignity of the children of God in freedom.
• Saint Francis, by divine inspiration, initiated a form of gospel life which he called a brotherhood, and chose to model it on the life of Christ and his disciples.
• We who profess this form of life truly constitute an Order of brothers.
• For this reason, united by faith in God our Father and nourished at the table of the divine word and the Eucharist, we love one another, so that the world may know we are Christ’s disciples.