Spirit and Lifestyle
by Edwina Gateley
First Published 1981
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At a time in the
history of the Church
when passive obedience and
reception of the sacraments
was generally accepted
by the laity
as what being Church
was all about,
the VMM emerged as a
new and challenging movement
calling Christian men and women
to respond to Vatican II's call
for full and active involvement
in the Church's life and mission.
This involvement has a
double thrust:
to witness to God’s action
through Jesus Christ
in our world today,
to respond to the
material and human needs of
the marginalized and the
dispossessed of our world.
We are first called and
moved by the very Love that
lives within us:
"The love of Christ overwhelms us..."
(2 Cor. 5:14)
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We who enjoy
the gift of faith,
calling us to continual
conversion and
transformation,
are impelled to share
the love that springs from faith.
We, who have received
the love of Christ through
the Spirit
must not contain it.
It must reach out to others,
spilling out, touching and
transforming the world in which
we live.
We believe that,
as in the Parable of the Talents,
(Matt. 25:14-30)
We have an
urgent obligation to
take Christ seriously enough
to share his mission of human liberation,
justice and dignity
with others.
We are, therefore,
sharers of the Good News
through witness and service.
It is only through
the way we live, love and serve
that we can truly witness to
the Christ who served,
and invited us to do likewise.
Only in following His way
faithfully
dare we claim the name
Christian.
"If I, the Lord and Master,
have washed your feet,
you should wash each other's feet.
I have given you an example
so that you may copy
what I have done to you."
(John 13:14-15)
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The spirit and calling
of the VMM missionary is,
first and foremost, one of
love and service in and to the world.
As lay people we give a
special witness
to the reality that all
the People of God
are called to involvement
in Christ's mission.
All who hear God's Word
are called to respond.
Bishops, builders and nurses alike
must work together
equally
towards the coming of the Realm of God.
Mission is given
to us all.
We believe that
God calls all people
to peace, unity
and interdependence
through justice, and a sharing
of the world’s resources and goods.
We wish to challenge and dissolve
the barriers that divide
People and Church and nations.
We stand for oneness in
the body of Christ.
We commit ourselves
to the service of
our God
to work among all people
seeking to break down
all forms of injustice and oppression
and all inequalities
of sex, status,
color, creed or nationality.
"And there are no more distinctions
between Jew and Greek,
slave and free,
male and female,
but all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
(Gal. 3:28)
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Of its very nature
this mission cannot be
a temporary thing.
It is a total commitment
to the Gospel
and can be nothing less than
a way of life.
We take the Gospel
seriously.
We must live it.
In giving ourselves
to each other
we will come
to fullness of love and revelation
promised through Christ.
We pursue our mission with
that same trust and confidence
that Christ had.
For we know that
God is with us
and will not abandon us.
"I shall ask God
And God will give you
another Advocate
to be with you for ever,
that Spirit of truth
whom the world can never receive
since it neither sees
nor knows the Spirit,
but you know,
because the Spirit is with you,
and in you.
I will not leave you orphans."
(John. 14:16-18)
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Our mission begins with
our faith in the Resurrection
which sends us out
on the path of Jesus
in hope and love to all the world.
As lay persons we wish
to demonstrate
the ability of all
men and women to be
fully committed Christians
whilst pursuing
our own lifestyles
and work in the world.
We do not separate
our mission as Christians
from our day-to-day life.
We wish rather,
to ground our own
personal and spiritual growth
in striving
to become fully human
within the context of
our work and service in the world.
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We represent a wide variety
of charisms and lifestyles
and may be distinctive only
by our commitment and openness
to the Spirit of God.
Each VMM missionary
takes personal responsibility
to seek and pursue
fullness of Christian faith
in his or her own situation
and lifestyle
and, aware of the
support and prayer of the whole VMM,
our task
is to be true Christian witnesses
in the world
with that freedom and flexibility
that invites and embraces all.
We recognize that
we need each other.
We are a community-based movement
that stresses and encourages
the value of living together,
praying together,
working together,
and sharing our Christian journey.
We believe that it is through
our shared and reflected experience
in family and community
that we will truly
grow together
deepening our spirituality and making
a difference in our World.
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"Above all the Gospel must be
proclaimed by witness. Take a
Christian or a handful of Christians
who, in the midst of their own community,
show their capacity for understanding and acceptance, their sharing of rite and destiny with other people, their solidarity with
the efforts of all for whatever is noble and good. Let us suppose that, in addition, they radiate in an altogether simple and unaffected way their faith in values that go beyond
current values, and their hope in
something that is not seen and that
one would not dare to imagine.
Through this wordless witness these
Christians stir up irresistible questions in the hearts of those who see how they live: Why are they like this? Why do they live this
way? What or who is it that inspires
them? Why are they in our midst? Such a witness is already a silent proclamation of the Good News, and a very powerful and
effective one. Here we have an initial act of
evangelization."
(Evangelization in the Modern World - Para: 21)
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Whenever possible, therefore,
VMM missionaries
live together in small groups
or renew and strengthen each other
through visits, correspondence or
regular shared activities.
And so the VMM missionaries
say Yes to Christ,
and Yes to our mission of
transformation.
We say Yes to the Christian Community
of which we are part,
and we offer to the Church
our service, our commitment
and the vision and the vigor
that we bring.
We must be
men and women whose action
is motivated and strengthened
through prayer.
We gather together
to share our worship and prayer,
recognizing that Christ is
at the center of our lives,
and that as People of God,
celebration and worship
mean sharing and gathering.
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Our prayers, as well as being
shared and public,
also involve
personal and silent encounters
with God
for which there can be
no substitute.
We learn to be still and to listen
in all types of prayer,
not only to the needs
of our brothers and sisters
in the noise and action
of today's world,
but also to that silent movement
of God's action within us
which leads us to a deeper
awareness of God's love for each
of us
and a greater sensitivity and caring
for all God's People.
We bring together in harmony
the voice of the people and
the voice of the Spirit,
and we strive
to respond to both.
VMM missionaries
are therefore listeners.
Our witness will be seen
when God’s Spirit
is so strong within us
that it is visible
in our lives and actions.
Christ was available to all
and reached out
to the poor, the sick and the rejected.
His mission is now ours.
It is a call to be wherever
there is injustice
of any kind.
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"Wherever there are people
in need of food and drink,
clothing, housing, medicine,
employment, education;
wherever people lack the facilities necessary
for living a truly human life,
or are afflicted
with serious distress or illness
or suffer exile or imprisonment
there Christian love
should seek them out
and find them."
(Apostolate of the Laity -Paragraph 8:4)
The majority of our world
lives in hunger and want
deprived of the most basic necessities
to live a decent human life.
Impelled and driven by
the Spirit of Christ,
we do not stand by unresponsive
to the needs
of our brother and sisters.
They must have the tools
to enable them to develop
and be free.
They need the skills and the expertise
to bring out
their own resources and gifts.
It is not simply a matter
of handing out money,
food, or equipment.
It calls
for more than that.
Our response
is to share who we are
as well as what we have.
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We are invited
to be fully and actively involved
in all areas
of human activity and development,
education, medicine, agriculture,
craftwork and building.
We are the carpenters,
the catechists, the nurses,
the community builders, the doctors
and the farmers.
These are the skills
with which we have been blessed,
the talents
which we have received.
We are not to bury them
but to freely share them
so that people might live with dignity
and be helped to reach
their full human potential.
It is not a matter
of charity or good deeds.
It is a basic Christian obligation
to justice.
What we have to offer
is what we have been freely given.
We live with the people.
We work with the people.
We rejoice with the people.
We become part of the people.
Our sharing becomes
a journey we walk together
towards liberation,
community,
and a reaching out together for
growth and fulfillment.
But we do not impose ourselves
or our way of doing things.
We are at the service of
those to whom we go.
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We are available,
to go wherever we are invited
in the world.
It presupposes an openness
to the needs of other
sand a spirit
of confidence and poverty.
This spirit of poverty
makes itself available
as fertile ground open
to whatever fruit God
wishes to plant.
We may never see
the results of our work.
If we truly follow
the way of Christ,
we will find the cross
as well as the Resurrection.
The path of Jesus
which we freely choose to follow
has no trace
of glory or honor or pomp.
It calls for a confidence of faith
And looks for nothing
Beyond that.
We are aware
that through our service,
we receive far more
than we are able to give
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We realize that
we are enriched
by our encounter
with people of other cultures
and beliefs.
We come to discover
That we, too, are poor in many ways.
We go as representatives
of our local churches
to share the gifts we have.
We are in solidarity
with the church that sends us
and have a commitment
to return
and share the gifts and riches
which we have received.
We see that we are part
of a church which
is a human institution,
struggling to respond
to its mission,
and ever in need
of growth and renewal.
Our task is then,
to continue our works as missionaries
in our own home countries.
Our mission is a life long commitment to
justice
and transformation.
It is a prophetic task.
We help renew and invigorate
our own church,
for we recognize
our own needs, inadequacies and hunger.
And we acknowledge that
we too, in the rich and stronger nations
are in need of evangelization
and renewal and an on-going awareness of our
call to justice.
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We see, therefore, that mission
is not a one-way process,
and the monopoly of one church or religion.
But it is a cyclical process,
going from one church
to another church
in continuous, mutual sharing.
This is the dynamic of mission.
It is never static, it is ever moving,
ever growing and
ever calling forth
the gifts and life in the other.
We recognize
the fire and dynamic power
of the Holy Spirit in mission
which cannot be contained by,
or monopolized within,
any human institution,
but which is at work
wherever God wills.
We see the Spirit at work
in those to whom we go,
as well as within ourselves;
We are channels of the spirit,
called forth to renew and strengthen,
and be renewed and strengthened
in return.
VMM missionaries are open
to this dynamic and free action
of the Spirit
who first inspired and called us
to the service of God and all God’s people.
VMM missionaries are
followers of Jesus,
engaged fully
in sharing the Good News of the Gospel.
We praise and bless God
Who calls us to live and to be
in the world,
and to share this mission
of love and peace
with all men and women
of every color, race and belief.
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