PART ONE

THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AND CONSECRATED LIFE
AT THE DAWN OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

The metaphor of dawn

4.   “As the third millennium of the new era draws near....” 6 With these words John Paul II begins his apostolic letter on “preparation for the Jubilee of the Year 2000.” Like the entire Church, the Order too must prepare for this jubilee celebra tion, so that the commemoration of the two thousandth anniversary of Christ's birth will be for us Servite men and women a grace-filled and inspiring occasion.

      In his letter On the Coming of the Third Millennium, the Holy Father has given the whole Church, including the institutes of consecrated life, several suggestions for a fruitful preparation of the jubilee year. He distinguishes two phases in the preparatory period 7 and points out that “the best preparation for the new millennium” will be “renewed commitment to apply ... the teachings of Vatican II to the life of every individual and the whole Church.” 8 He also says it is right for the Church, at the threshold of the new millennium, to encourage “her children to purify themselves, through repentance, of past errors and instances of infidelity, inconsistency, and slowness to act.” 9 He draws attention to the need for apostolic activity in specific areas and insists on the need for a new evangelization and for an increased ecumenical commitment. 10 He recalls, too, the urgent pastoral needs of the family and young people. Lastly, he explains that the mystery of Christ is the center of the jubilee of the year 2000 and that consequently his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, will have to be fittingly associated with the celebration of her Son: “It was in her womb that the Word became flesh! The affirmation of the central place of Christ cannot therefore be separated from the recognition of the role played by his Most Holy Mother.”11 All of these suggestions should find cordial reception in our communities.

5.    After these references to the letter On the Coming of the Third Millennium we want to pause to consider the symbolic value of the term dawn that recurs often in connection with the year 2000 and that is also present in the title of our Part I. Dawn means the first light in the heavens after the darkness of the night. It is the awe-inspiring hour of Christ's resurrection. It is the time of awakening from motionless sleep to vigilant action, a time for offering the first prayers of the day, a time filled with hope and purpose. It is the hour in which the earth is bathed in dew, a symbol of the Spirit's permeating, fruitful activity.
      The cosmic symbol of dawn has been used since ancient times for the relationship between Christ, true Sun of Justice (cf. Mal 3:20) and universal Savior, and Mary of Nazareth who, coming before Christ, is appropriately hailed as “the dawn of hope and salvation.” 12
      The wish that the symbol of dawn inspires in us is that the year 2000 be for the Order, through a gift of the Spirit and our generous response, a time of reawakening and an hour of hope. It is what we need. And we fraternally address this wish to every institute of consecrated life and to every society of apostolic life.

Section one
The reasons for a profound harmony

The Blessed Virgin Mary: a maternal presence

6.    All institutes recognize in Mary of Nazareth a maternal presence which enhances the bonds of fellowship among their members. She is also a source of inspiration for their way of life and an exemplary model of what it means to follow Christ radically.13
      The experience of Mary's maternal presence in religious communities is universal and ancient, yet we continue to be struck by this fact when we remember the existential context in which the life of Mary of Nazareth unfolded: she was a married woman and the mother of a family. This is very different from the shape of consecrated life, which includes the choice of celibacy for the Kingdom (cf. Mt 1 9:10-12) and community life lived according to a rule and under the leadership of a member of the community. There is no doubt, for example, that the married love of Mary and Joseph of Nazareth was of a different kind than the love which unites the brothers or sisters of a community animated by true charity. The same is true for the experience of motherhood. Mary had a child born of her own flesh; this is an experience not shared by those who embrace consecrated life and offer their virginity to the Lord.
      This diversity of contexts, however, does not trouble those who have chosen consecrated life. They know that paradoxes are not unusual in Christianity and that God with infinite wisdom wonderfully brings together what appears contradictory to human eyes. In our case, she who was greeted as ever virgin is proposed to the faithful as exemplary mother of a family.
      At this point it must be asked: What brings us to see such a profound harmony between consecrated life and the Mother of the Lord, despite the difference in existential context? Today, it seems to us, the following reasons stand out.

Mary, woman consecrated by the Spirit.

7.    Every form of consecrated life exists and is defined in reference to Christ, “whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world in a supreme way (cf. Jn 10: 36).”14 Jesus, upon whom the Spirit rested (cf. Is 11:2; 61:1; Mt 3:16; Lk 4:17-18), is indeed God's Anointed One: “... because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor” (Lk 4:18). In Christ “all the consecrations of the ancient Law are summed up” and in him and through him “the new people of God is consecrated.” l5
      The Lord's disciples are immersed in the Paschal mystery of Christ in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation and become sharers in the gift of Pentecost. They are a consecrated people, fully empowered to offer to the Father, through Christ and in the Spirit, the spiritual worship pleasing to God (cf. Rm 12:1). At the same time they are “ enabled to live in all fullness the demands of discipleship and mission. ” 16
      But the Lord grants to some, in view of the good of all, the gift of a special consecration which empowers them to follow Christ throngh the profession of the evangelical counsels. This special consecration “is deeply rooted in their baptismal consecration and is a fuller expression of it.” 17 There are various opinions on the nature of religious consecration, and although it is not our intention to enter into this theological debate, from the pronouncements of the magisterium, liturgical texts 18 and the writings of theologians on consecrated life there emerges the conviction that two elements, each in its own way, come together harmoniously to give form to religious consecration: the action of the Spirit and the human will sustained by grace.

8.   Consecration is essentially the Spirit's work. From this fact there derives one of the principal reasons for the intrinsic rela - tionship between consecrated life and the Blessed Virgin: Mary is preeminently a consecrated person.
      Because she was “molded, so to speak, by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature,”19 Mary's consecration coincides with the very first moment of her existence. She is filled from the very beginning with “the abundance of all heavenly gifts.” 20 Sanctified by the Spirit and totally dedicated to God, Mary became temple of the Lord, bridal chamber of the Word, repository of the Spirit.
      But it was especially in the Incarnation that Mary was consecrated by the Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Lk 1:35). The Spirit is the divine breath, the creative and consecrating power of the Most High, the richly abundant anointing that enfolds and permeates Mary, consecrating her fully, bringing life to her virginal womb, and dedicating her to the incomparable mission of being Mother of the Savior. Through the “descent of the Spirit” Mary became the “most sacred Virgin,” as the liturgical tradition calls her; she is “the one most fully consecrated to God, consecrated in the most perfect way.” 21
      Members of institutes of consecrated life love to contemplate Christ, the Consecrated One, whose every thought and gesture are directed uniquely to the glory of the Father and the salvation of the human race. This contemplation is for them a cause of gladness and a source of inspiration for their lives. In their reverent contemplation they then discern beside Christ the figure of Mary, the woman consecrated by grace. They see that she, too, is totally dedicated to doing the Father's salvific will. They thus come to understand more clearly that their own religious consecration is, like baptism, grace, gift and action of the Spirit, a holy anointing by which the Spirit continues in their hearts what it worked in the heart of Christ and in the heart of Mary.

Mary, woman faithful to her vocation

9.   Jesus is the Son of God, and just as he is the supremely Consecrated One, he is also the one most highly called. His calling is to the highest possible mission, namely, to accomplish the salvation of the human race by restoring its lost divine image and by renewing our intimacy with God. He responded to this call through absolute adherence to the Father's will: “When he came into the world, he said ... 'Behold, I come to do your will, O God”' (Hb 10:5.7; cf. Ps 40: 7-9). In the key moments of his salvific mission, Jesus renews his full assent to the Father's plan and the Father confirms his filial identity (cf. Mt 3:17; Mk 1:11; Lk 3:22; Jn 12:23-24.28).    

      But it is also true that every Christian has received a most high vocation: to become, in Christ, by the grace of the Spirit (cf. Gal 4:6; Rom 8:14-16), a child of God (cf. 1 Jn 3:1-2). For this reason, every Christian, in the words of the Apostle, must live “in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience” (Eph 4:1-2). Furthermore, the vocation to become a child of God is identical with the “universal vocation to holiness,” as Vatican Council II 22 and other documents of the magisterium 23 have reminded us. Every disciple of the Lord is in fact called to bring this vocation to complete realization and maturity, “to the extent of the full stature of Christ” (Eph 4:13).
      In the language of the Church, however, the term “vocation” is not ordinarily used in reference to the baptismal call, but rather in connection with the call to ministry and consecrated life. The reason for this is probably that for most of us the baptismal call did not involve, at the moment of baptism, a conscious, existential experience. Through pure grace and the loving care of the Church and our parents we were baptized in the first days of our life. Then, as our intelligence gradually opened to knowledge of truth and our heart to the experience of love, we learned to recognize and call upon God as “our Father” (Mt 6:9).

10.    The experience of being called to consecrated life is much different. In the dialectic of call and response we experienced something paradoxical: in the veiled language of events we perceived clearly that God was calling us to consecrated life, but we were aware, too, that God was waiting for a “free” response to which we felt “obliged” out of the obedience owed to the self-revealing Lord (cf. Rom 1 5; 16:26). We also understood that our response had to be total and definitive, a strictly personal response of faith, yet at the same time a response in need of the community's acknowledgment and the Church's guaranty.
      From earliest times reflection on what this response involves has lead those called to consecrated life to look to Sacred Scripture to find authentic models of adherence to God's call. In the Old Testament they found the heroic response of Abraham (cf. Gn 12: 1-4), the prompt reception of the Word by the youthful Samuel (cf. 1 Sam 3:1-10), the unselfish bent of Isaiah (cf. Is 6:8), the anguished assent of Jeremiah (cf. Jer 1:410), and the immediate departure of Elisha from his father's house to follow Elijah (cf. 1 Kgs 19:19-21). In the Gospel we find the prompt response of Simon and Andrew, James and John (cf. Mt 4:18-22), Philip of Bethsaida (cf. Jn 1 :43-46), Matthew the publican (cf. Mt 9:9) and many others. All of these biblical figures have become examples and vocational models of great value for the men and women who, down through the centuries, have felt themselves called by the Lord.24

11.    Members of institutes of consecrated life, nonetheless, have found in Mary of Nazareth their loftiest vocation model (Lk 1:26-38). Mary's vocation to become the virgin mother of the Savior Son of God is extraordinary. Extraordinary, too, is her answer, the purest and most intense “yes” ever pronounced by a creature in response to a plan of the Creator.       
       Few pages of the Gospel have been studied and meditated as much as this Lukan passage. It is, all in one, a birth announcement, a narrative with elements characteristic of covenant formularies, and a vocation story .25 It has been a widely used source of inspiration for the liturgy, homilies, hymns, spiritual writings, and art.
      In these many expressive forms, members of institutes of consecrated life have explored especially the multiple facets of the Virgin of Nazareth's fiat. They have seen it as an expression of freedom and sapient discernment (cf. Lk 1 :34). Mary's fiat is also seen as empowered by God's grace; only a heart illumined by the Spirit and sustained by energy from on high (cf. Lk 1:35; 24:49; Acts 1:8) was able to utter the word that introduced the Eternal One into time and made of the Son of God the Son of man. Mary's fiat is virginal, springing from a heart unacquainted with infidelity and falsehood (cf. Ez 36:26-27). It is a nuptial fiat, whereby the womb of the Daughter of Zion became the bridal chamber in which the divine Word and human nature were joined. It is the “filial and maternal” 26 fiat of a woman who is aware that she is a daughter of God and that her consent will result in her becoming the Mother of the Messiah (cf. Lk 1:30-33). As covenant response, Mary's fiat is the fulfillment of Israel's fiat at Sinai (cf. Ex 19:8) 27 and the beginning of a new pact between God and humanity that was to be ratified in the blood of the Lamb (cf. Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; Mt 26:28; 1 Cor 11:25; cf. Ex 24:8). Mary's fiat is also seen as an assent that is both total, for it includes her body, soul and spirit, and definitive, for it extended throughout her life, to Calvary (cf. Jn 19:25-27) 28 and the Pentecostal fullness of Easter (cf. Acts 1:12-14; 2:1-4). Her fiat carries within it allgenerations; as the friar theologian Thomas Aquinas explains, it was pronounced in the name of all humanity. 29 Mary's fiat is also creative, an essential moment of the new creation; it is related to the formation of the New Man, Jesus Christ, head of our renewed humanity. Mary's fiat is also an obedient fiat, an authentic expression of the spirituality of “the poor of the Lord.” 30 It cancels out the primordial act of disobedience (cf. Gn 3:1-6) with a word of gentle love. It is also a fiat of peace, a word bringing together heaven and earth and reconciling the Creator with the creature. 31 It is, last of all, a merciful fiat, a gesture of compassion toward humanity wounded by sin that is performed by a privileged daughter of Adam in solidarity with her brothers and sisters. 32
      We understand, consequently, why the Church, seeing “her unconditional response to the divine call,” proposes the Blessed Virgin as “model of ... total self-giving to God.” 33 Candidates to consecrated life make a total and definitive commitment, in freedom and love and under the influence of grace, to follow Christ radically and to dedicate themselves fully to the Kingdom. For this reason they turn to the Virgin of the Annunciation and see in her the loftiest example of a woman faithful to her vocation.

12.    In the Servite Family, as in all institutes of consecrated life, the Virgin of the Annunciation is the object of reverent love and contemplation.
      The image of the Annunciation is connected to the very origins of the Order. The Blessed Virgin in the famous Florentine fresco, with her indefinable beauty and receptive bearing, is for all Servite men and women a reminding sign that recalls the eventful word, the salutary fiat. Her fiat is the response that we would like to have springing continually from our own hearts and always on our lips to express our commitment to God's plan for us. There is abundant evidence of the Servites' constant love for the Virgin of the Annunciation: the numerous churches of the Order dedicated to this mystery, the statement of the Constitutions that recalls how “from the fiat of the lowly servant of the Lord, [the friars in every age] have learned to receive the word of God and to be attentive to the promptings of the Spirit,” 34 the prayer that Servite men and women address to the “Virgin of the Fiat” in the celebration of the Vigilia de Domina,35 and the renewed Angelus Domini devotion. 36

Mary, first and perfect disciple

13.    The theological foundation of consecrated life is Christ himself - his person, message and way of life. As Vatican II teaches, “the pursuit of perfect charity by means of the evangelical counsels traces its origins to the teaching and example of the Divine Master.”37 Without that teaching and without his example, the special way of Christian living that we call consecrated life would have never arisen. Like that of every baptized person, consecrated life is patterned on Christ in terms of discipleship and following. It is a following of Christ that aims at being total and radical. Religious strive to make their own, as much as possible, the existential project that the Lord lived in his own earthly life as he proclaimed the Kingdom and accomplished the work of salvation. This project has as its basic traits the choice of a virginal life lived in voluntary poverty and in loving obedience to the Law and the word of the Father, and the creation of a community of disciples united in fraternity (cf. Mt 23 :8), mutual service (cf. Jn 13:14-15) and the building up of the Kingdom.

14.   In the last thirty years, theologians and exegetes have taken up a patristic motif in their reflections on the Blessed Virgin 38 and highlighted the theme of Mary as disciple of the Lord. Paul VI was a forerunner here. In his famous closing address to the third session of Vatican Council II he said that Mary “in her earthly life realized the perfect figure of the disciple of Christ.” 39 And in his exhortation Marialis cultus he proposed the Blessed Virgin as the “first and the most perfect of Christ's disciples.' 40 There are numerous texts of John Paul II in which Mary is called disciple. Two of them can be mentioned here. The first is in the exhortation Catechesi tradendae, in which the Holy Father points out that the Blessed Virgin was ”the first of his disciples. She was the first in time, because even when she found her adolescent son in the Temple she received from him lessons that she kept in her heart (cf. Lk 2:51). She was the first disciple above all else because no one has been 'taught by God' (cf. Jn 6:45) to such depth.“ 41 The second text is from the encyclical Redemptoris Mater. Here the theme of discipleship is explicitly connected to the following of Christ: ”... in a certain sense Mary as Mother became the first 'disciple' of her Son, the first to whom he seemed to say: 'Follow me,' even before he addressed this call to the Apostles or to anyone else (cf. Jn 1:43).“ 42 We can also recall that on 15 August 1987 a votive Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin was promulgated with the title ”Mary, Disciple of the Lord.“ 43

15.    Mary's features as disciple of the Lord are those we find in the Gospel portraits of her. For members of institutes of consecrated life committed to the radical following of Christ, Mary as disciple is example, reminder and counsel on how to follow Christ along the way of the Gospel. Here we are again faced with one of those paradoxes or apparent contradictions that characterize the figure of Mary of Nazareth. The Church proposes her as supreme model in the following of Christ, yet she is a woman who, unlike the apostles and other women - Mary Magadalen, Joan, Susana and many others (cf. Lk 8:2-3) - did not follow the Master as ”he journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God“ (Lk 8: 1). It seems in fact that during the years of his public life Mary was with her Son only at the beginning, in the messianic manifestation at Cana in Galilee (cf. Jn 21-12), and at the end, when the hour came for Jesus ”to pass from this world to the Father“ (Jn 13:1;cf. 19:25-27).There is one other episode at which Mary seems to have been present even if it's difficult to interpret in terms of her journey of faith. This is when Jesus' relatives went looking for him thinking he was ”out of his mind“ (Mk 3:21). 44 In any case, the fact that Mary did not accompany her Son in his ministry means that the physical following of Christ, even if it was important at the beginning for defining the figure of the disciple, does not constitute the intimate essence of discipleship.

16.    Mary's exemplarity as disciple is seen especially in the journey she travelled in her commitment to the Father's plan regarding her Son Jesus and in her acceptance of Jesus' preaching, in which, ”extolling a kingdom beyond the concerns and ties of flesh and blood, he declared blessed those who heard and kept the word of God (cf. Mk3:35; Lk 11:2728) as she was faithfully doing (cf. Lk 2:19, 51).“ 45
      It was a long journey that embraced the Blessed Virgin's whole life, a difficult journey in which she advanced only with ”a particular heaviness of heart.“ 46 It was a journey of great and heroic faith 47 marked by violent persecution (cf. Mt 2:13-18) and incomprehension for her Son's actions (cf. Lk 2:48-50). Mary had to forego the acknowledgment of hermown motherhood (cf. Mt 12:46-50; Mk3:31-35; Lk 11:2728; Jn 2 4) and accept the mystery of the sword that pierced her heart in Jesus' excruciating death (cf. Lk 2:48-50; Jn 19:33-34). There was also the time of waiting after her Son's resurrection (cf. Lk 24:49; Acts 1 12-14; 2:1-6) and more suffering due to the persecution to which the early Church was subjected (cf. Acts 4 1-31; 6:8-8:3; 12 1-18; 28:2). 48
      It can be said without exaggeration that the Church proposes Mary as the first and perfect disciple because her life is an incomparable expression of the meaning of discipleship. Discipleship, first of all, requires faith (cf. Jn 14:1), which was such in Mary that she was identified simply as the one ”who believed“ (Lk 1:45). Her faith was also the cause of her beatitude (cf. Ibid.) and motherhood; ”she conceived by believing.“ 49 Discipleship also includes self-denial (cf. Mt 16:24; Lk 14:26-27) and this was part of Mary's life insofar as she, unmindful of herself, served others (cf. Lk 1:39-45) and attended to the needs of her neighbor (cf. Jn 2: 1-5). Discipleship also means acceptance of the Word (cf. Lk 1:38; 2:19.51; cf. 11:27-28) and this was a characteristic attitude of Mary, ”the Lord's poor one,“ raised in love and observance of the Law (cf. Lk 2:22-24.27.39.41). Two other identifying marks of Jesus' friends Un 13:14-15) are mutual service (cf. Mk 10,42-45; Mt 20,24-28; Lk 22,24-27) and dedication to the cause of the Kingdom, and Mary ”devoted herself totally, as handmaid of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son.“ 50 As disciple, Mary also shared in the destiny of the Master (cf. Jn 15:20) and was inseparably bound to her Son in love, suffering (cf. Lk 2:34-35) and glory. Discipleship includes the experience of the cross (cf. Mt 16:24; Lk 14:27) and this experience reached its height when Mary stood full of faith at her Son's side and accepted the words of the dying Savior (cf. Jn 19:25-27). Lastly, active and prayerful vigilance (cf. Mt 24:22-44; Mk 13:33-37; Lk 21:36) is a characteristic of discipleship which we see in Mary, member and icon of the Church, as she waited for the coming of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14) and lived in ardent desire of the Lord's final coming: ”The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come“' (Rv 22: 17).

17.    Members of institutes of consecrated life are disciples who focus their attention on living out the following of Christ radically and wholeheartedly. Vatican II states that the evangelical counsels have ”the power to conform the Christian more fully to that kind of poor and virginal life which Christ the Lord chose for himself.“ 51 Then, and not without a certain boldness, it adds ”and which his Virgin Mother embraced also.“ 52 In making this affirmation the Council does not refer to any biblical text; rather it simply gives expression to an early insight which through the centuries became matured conviction and ecclesial experience. The values of discipleship verified in the life of the Blessed Virgin justify the conciliar affirmation. The immediate existential context apart, we can say that Mary embraced that ”kind of life“ which Jesus chose for himself and which serves as a demanding and challenging model for members of institutes of consecrated life. This makes the Blessed Virgin especially close to all men and women who follow the Lord in the way of consecrated life. Each one can say: Mary of Nazareth is my companion and my sister in the sequela Christi.

18.    Sisters and brothers, Servants of St. Mary, the closeness of Mary the Disciple to our own lives as disciples is not simply a source of encouragement and legitimate spiritual delight. It is first and foremost a call to coherence, an admonition to authenticity and a summons to self-examination.
      A call to coherence. This means faithfulness to one's vocation, persevering even in times of misunderstanding and at the hour of the cross, faithfulness ”until death,“ as we say in the profession formula, 53 a faithfulness founded like Mary's on the Word as ground and purpose of our life commitment: ”Lord, trusting in your Word, / I give you my word.“ 54
      An admonition to authenticity. We strive for authenticity, so that our following of Christ be genuine and all-embracing, giving unity and meaning to our lives despite the multiple activities in which they are involved and in which they seem to get fragmented. In this way our following of Christ, free of worldly compromises and irresponsible banalities, will be evangelical yeast, courageous witness, service of the Kingdom, and prophetic anticipation of the new heavens and new earth (cf. Rv 21:1).
      A summons to self-examination. Here there are several points to be considered, First, with the Blessed Virgin's life as a mirror, we can see whether we live celibacy for the Kingdom (cf. Mt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:7-8) in such a way that our heart,free of worries for”the things of the world“(1 Cor 7:33.34), is inflamed with love for Christ and all God's children; whether, as ”singular source of spiritual fertility in the world,“ 55 celibacy is understood as full availability for apostolic service; whether it is seen in daily life as a space for the solitude that facilitates dialogue with God; and whether, in eschatological perspective, it is lived as orientation to meeting the Bridegroom who is coming (cf. Mt 25:6).
      Second, we have to see whether we offer our witness of poverty, as necessary as it is difficult, in the style of the Blessed Virgin, a woman of modest conditions (cf. Lk 2:24; Lv 12:8) and “profoundly permeated with the spirit of the poor of Yahweh” 56 ; whether our poverty is conformed to the evangelical beatitude (cf. Mt 5:3; Lk 6:20); whether we feel sorrow and indignation for the unmeasured growth of poverty in the world and for the multiple forms of social injustice; whether, sensitive to “the cries of the poor” (cf. Jb 34:28; Prv 21:13; Jas 5:4), we, like the Blessed Virgin (cf. Lk 1:51-53), raise our voices in protest on their behalf and share with them the fruits of our labor through a simple and sober life style; 57 and whether we are persuaded that social justice will be obtained only by preaching to both rich and poor, without mystification, the “Gospel of Poverty.”
      Third, we are called to see whether our obedience is above all, like that of the humble Servant of the Lord (cf. Lk 1:38.48), acceptance of the Word; 58 whether it is a listening to the interior voice of the Spirit and availability for fraternal service (cf. Lk 1:3945); and whether it is reverence for the Law of the Lord (Lk 2:22-24.27.39.41) - which means for us love of the Church and the community, respect for civil institutions (cf Lk 2:1-5) and dedication to the cause of the Kingdom.
      Fourth, we must examine whether our fraternal fellowship, the pivot of our lives and precious inheritance from our First Fathers, 59 is modelled on that of the singular pre-Pentecostal community, whose members, with Mary at the center, “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer” (Acts 1,14), and on that of the early Jerusalem community (cf. Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35). We must not forget that we have made our own the life style of the primitive community through our acceptance of the Rule of St. Augustine. 60 It is a primary source of inspiration for our living “with one heart and one mind in prayer, listening to the word of God and breaking the eucharistic bread and the bread earned by our own labor watchful expectation of the Lord who is coming.” 61

Mary, woman consecrated for the mission

19.   The teaching of the magisterium, theologians' reflections on consecrated life and the legislative texts of the various institutes, especially those founded after the Council of Trent (1545-1563) all shed light on the intrinsic relationship between consecration and mission. The Instrumentum laboris of the IX Synod of Bishop points out clearly the christological basis of this relationship: “As Christ was consecrated and sent into the world (cf. Jn 10:36), making his whole life a salvific mission, in a similar manner consecrated persons, called to reproduce in themselves the image of the first-born Son (cf Rom 8:29) through the action of the Spirit, must make their whole life a mission.” 62
      We mention here the analogy which the synod recognizes between Christ , who was consecrated and sent in to the world, and consecrated persons, because Mary of Nazareth is the first and highest expression of the relationship between consecration and mission. We are convinced of this and Sacred Scripture, when read in the light of the experience of consecrated life in the Church, confirms our conviction.

20.   Mary's consecration and vocation were basically related to her messianic motherhood (cf. Lk 1:30-33). Her mission was to give birth to the Messiah and Savior. That she be his mother, she was called; that she be his worthy mother, she was consecrated. In the gospels, Mary of Nazareth is the “mother of Jesus” (Cf. Mk 3:31-32; Mt 2:11, 13-14, 20-21; Lk 2:33-34.48.51; Jn 2:1.3.5.12; 19:25-26).
      Mary did for her Child what every mother does for her own child. She performed those very human, natural acts, such as clothing and feeding. She also performed the religious acts common to all the mothers in Israel, such as presenting the newborn in the Temple. But in the view of the gospels these deeds of the Blessed Virgin are not actions that pertain only to the private sphere; they always have a universal and perennial symbolic character that is valid for all times and for all of the Lord's disciples. In other words, they have salvific value .63 Vatican II noted this explicitly: “She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ, she presented him to the Father in the temple.... Thus, in a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior in restoring supernatural life to souls.” 64
      The Church, in time, guided by the Spirit of truth (cf. Jn 14:26; 16: 13- 15) and enriched by the patient research of exegetes and the insights of the mystics, has identified other missions of the Blessed Virgin that are closely connected to her messianic motherhood and follow from it: cooperation in the work of salvation (Socia Redemptoris), universal motherhood (Mater viventium), maternal mediation (supplex Mater), exemplarity in relation to the spousal, virginal and maternal characteristics of the Church (typus Ecclesiae) and in relation to the Church's holiness (exemplar virtutum). It is not our task here to treat each of these chapters of Church doctrine on the Mother of Jesus, but it will be instructive to show with one example that is abundantly illustrated by scholars how in the case of the Blessed Virgin mission flows directly from consecration.

21.    Consecrated and overshadowed by the Spirit (cf Lk 1 :35), the Blessed Virgin, bearing in her womb the Son of God, carried out her first mission. She brought Christ the Savior to “the house of Zechariah” (Lk 1 :40), a priest of the Jerusalem temple, and of the elderly Elizabeth, who was carrying in her womb John the future Precursor. Jesus, thus, in the womb of his Mother, undertook a salvific journey, from Nazareth to a city of Judea (cf. Lk 1:39). And this journey was in a way a prelude to the great journey (cf. Lk 9:51-19:27) he would make from Galilee to Jerusalem to offer his life for the salvation of the human race.
      The Visitation is a first pentecost, an outpouring of the Spirit. Mary, the new ark carrying the Mediator of the new Covenant, is also the sacred temple, the dwelling place of the Spirit. Each action and each word of that saving event has its source in the grace of the Spirit. The concern with which Mary hastens to make the journey draws its origin from the Spirit (cf. Lk 1:39) - St. Ambrose says that “the grace of the Holy Spirit knows no obstacles that slow its pace.” 65 John's leap of joy in the womb of his mother (cf. Lk 1 :40.44) and Elizabeth's greeting of blessing to Mary (cf. Lk 1:41-42) come from the Spirit. It is the Spirit who makes it possible for Zechariah's wife to see in Joseph's spouse“the mother of the Lord” (cf Lk 1 :43) and for John to perceive the presence of the Messiah. And from the Spirit originates the grace that sanctifies the prophet and prompts the canticle that arises from the Blessed Virgin's heart (cf. Lk 1 :46-55).
      Present day commentators of the Visitation are accustomed to call Mary the first evangelizer or the protomissionary. These titles do not seem exaggerated if you consider the salvific content of that grace-filled event, the people to whom it is directed, the form of the event - a joumey by the Blessed Virgin that recalls the journey of the ark (cf. 2 Sm 6:11 15) - and its paradigmatic value. In all this we see Mary of Nazareth as the prototype, after Christ, of dynamic consecration and mission rooted in the Spirit.

22.    The same is true of the Church. The disciples stayed on in Jerusalem and waited for “the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4; cf. Lk 24:49), i.e., to be “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5), and “they were all in one place together” (Acts 2:1). But when the Spirit, in the form of a strong driving wind and tongues of fire, descended on the first community, they opened the doors of the house and announced to the Judeans and to all who were inJerusalem (cf. Acts 2:14), “devout Jews from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5), the mystery of the crucified and risen Lord (cf. Acts 2:22-24.36) and the good news of the Kingdom.
      After being anointed with the Spirit the disciples began to announce the Kingdom to all peoples. Sharers in the ancient beatitude (cf. Is 52: 7), they went out into the world in obedience to the Lord's command: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19-20). The Spirit of Jesus is indeed “the principle agent of the whole of the Church's mission.” 66 The Spirit guides the mission and provides the interior energy that enlivens and supports it; and it is the Spirit “who sows the 'seeds of the Word' present in various customs and cultures, preparing them for full maturity in Christ.” 67

23.    The same is true of us Servants of Mary. Baptism and the anointing with chrism have made us partakers in the messianic mission of Christ with its prophetic, priestly and royal dimensions. But a special mission comes to us from our distinctive consecration to follow Christ in the Servite Family.       The Servite Constitutions give expression to the relationship that exists between the Holy Spirit and our consecration and mission: “Urged on by the grace of baptism, the stirring of the Holy Spirit and our religious consecration, we Servants of Mary set out to witness Christian love. Desiring to express the charism of the Order, we give ourselves in service to others and so prolong the active presence of the Mother of Jesus in the history of salvation.” 68

Our mission is therefore:

 — “to witness Christian love”: a demanding commitment but the only one which responds to the teaching of Jesus, the example of the primitive Jerusalem community, the Rule of St. Augustine, and the spiritual patrimony of our First Fathers.

— to “give ourselves in service to others.” The Servite charism is to serve. Sent to Serve is the title the Prior General gave his letter to the Order for the fifth centenary of the evangelization of the Americas. 69 We are called to serve God, Our Lady, the Gospel, the Church, and all our brothers and sisters, whom, according to the admonition of John (1 Jn 4,20), we are to love and serve in a visible, concrete way.

— “to extend [our] fraternity to the people of today, who are divided by reason of age, nationality, race, religion, wealth and education.” 70 In this we follow the very example of Jesus who “was sent by God the Father to gather those who were divided into the unity of brothers and sisters.” 71
 
— to “prolong the active presence of the Mother of Jesus in the history of salvation.”

This expression requires a word of clarification, so that it doesn't sound like an intolerable presumption. How can we be a perpetuation of the active presence of the Blessed Virgin in the history of salvation? In God's plan of salvation Mary is a prayerful and effective, maternal and compassionate presence in the Church. 72 It is in fact the perennial doctrine of the Church that the Blessed Virgin, assumed into heaven, did not lay aside her salvific mission, but carries it forward on behalf of “the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home.” 73 In the context of Christ's unique mediation, the glorified Virgin is present in the Church fulfilling her “maternal mission of intercession and forgiveness, of protection and grace, of reconciliation and peace.” 74
      At the same time, Mary, the perfect disciple, is also a source of inspiration for all who have embraced consecrated life. We are convinced that many consecrated persons, drawing inspiration from the Blessed Virgin for their following of Christ, reproduce in a certain sense in their own lives the attitudes, way of life and spiritual features that were hers. In this way they make her present. 75 By God's grace and mercy, we hope to be counted among these consecrated persons. It is to this that we committed ourselves in solemn profession. 76 From our consecration, then, there derives for us the mission of prolonging in the Church today the active presence of the Mother of Jesus. This means prolonging her salvific fiat (cf. Lk 1:38) through our readiness to be “aware of the call of the Spirit and to know life in the hearing of the Word.” 77 It means prolonging her song of thanksgiving and freedom (cf. Lk 1:46-55) through our commitment to “energetically support individuals and society in their struggle to be free.” 78 It means prolonging her compassionate mindfulness of others (cf. Jn 2:3) 79 through an habitual attitude of understanding and sympathy. 80 Lastly, it means prolonging her presence at the cross of Christ (cf.Jn 19:25) through the commitment to stand beside the numberless crosses where the “Son of Man is still being crucified.” 81

Conclusion

24.   At the dawn of the third millennium, despite the difficulties of the present time, 82 consecrated life appears rich in seeds of hope. 83 The reason for this is Christ who is Lord, Teacher and Bridegroom. In him consecrated life has its origin , meaning , inspirational force , supreme norm and eschatological promise. But after Christ and because of him, the future of religious life appears in the evangelical icon of the Blessed Virgin, in the value of her witness as disciple, in her gracious intercession, and in the maternal influence with which she sustains and accompanies the various institutes.
      Consecrated life is an intrinsic, charismatic component of the Church. 84 Like the whole Church, institutes of consecrated life look to Mary, “sign of certain hope,” 85 to see in her, as in a most pure image, that which they strive to become in all their members.
      At the end of this first section we can synthesize briefly the elements that have emerged in the course of our reflections. The Blessed Virgin is at the origin of consecrated life; the existential image of Mary is reflected in the life of consecrated persons; and there are serious reasons for asserting the harmony that exists between her and consecrated life.

25.    In the course of history various persons such as Elijah the prophet and John the Baptizer have been considered initiators of religious life. There are a number of reasons for this: their choice of celibacy, their austere, penitential lives, their search for the absolute, their radical service of the God of their Fathers, and the fact that they had disciples. But reflection on the figure of Mary led the Church to see eminently realized in her, because of the values of consecrated life she incarnated, the beginning of religious life in the Church. Theologians have noted the various senses in which this assertion is true.
         It is true in a chronological sense, because Mary of Nazareth, as Vatican II notes in an already quoted text, was the first to embrace the “kind of poor and virginal life” that her Son, Christ the Lord, chose for himself. 86 She was thus the first to live, despite the different existential context, the form of discipleship that today we call consecrated life.
         It is true in a historical sense, because the figure of the Mother of Jesus is certainly related to the rise, especially in women's ascetical circles, of the first organized forms of consecrated life.
         It is true in a causal sense, first of all, because the Blessed Virgin, in virtue of her spiritual motherhood, is active in the birth and formation of those forms of life in the Church which we call institutes of consecrated life. Second, by her example she draws believers to the radical following of her Son: “Mary...with her example,” Leandro of Seville (+ 600) wrote to consecrated virgins, “generated you; ... with her witness she gave birth to you.” 87 Third, by her intercession she helps the faithful make their decision to respond to the Lord's call. It is the opinion of a number of theologians that the Mother present at the baptismal font where her children were born to the life of grace stands, too, at the altar where her children make their commitment to consecrated life.
         We can conclude this paragraph with a carefully pondered statement of St. Thomas Aquinas: “Even though the full intensity of grace resided perfectly in Christ, still an inchoative full intensity was in his mother before Him. So with the keeping of the counsels under God's grace. This was done perfectly in Christ but as a prelude by his Virgin mother.” 88

26.    In a striking text Vatican II exhorts the members of institutes of consecrated life to “see well to it that the Church truly show forth Christ through them with ever-increasing clarity to believers and unbelievers alike - Christ in contemplation on the mountain, or proclaiming the kingdom of God to the multitudes, or healing the sick and maimed and converting sinners to a good life, or blessing children and doing good to all, always in obedience to the will of the Father who sent him.” 89
         By analogy and with due distinctions made, it can be said that one of the ways the Church today presents the Blessed Virgin to believers is through those institutes of consecrated life that make explicit reference to her evangelical witness. In their actions and attitudes the characteristics of Mary live on in the world today: the faith and obedience that were Mary's in her acceptance of God's plan for her, the concern she showed as bearer of grace in going to her relative Elizabeth, her faithful keeping of the Word, her trusting acceptance of the experience of sorrow, misunderstanding, refusal and persecution, her maternal presence at the cross, and her practice of constant prayer in oneness of mind and heart with the apostolic community as they awaited the Spirit.
         From this viewpoint the institutes of consecrated life are, taken together, a kind of incarnate memory and living exegesis of the Mother of Jesus.

27.   In the foregoing pages we have reflected on the reasons underlying the profound relationship that exists between Mary of Nazareth and consecrated life. We have highlighted four reasons: the consecration of the Blessed Virgin by the Holy Spirit and her total gift of self to the Lord through the power of the Spirit (n. 7-8); her fidelity to the vocation she received (n. 9-12); her condition as the first and perfect disciple of Christ (n. 13-18); and her consecration in view of mission (n. 19-23). Consecration, vocation, radical discipleship, mission: four values and four notes common to Mary and to the Church; and of these four notes the institutes of consecrated life are a visible memory.