The Cross- No Greater Love

"With Christ I am nailed to the Cross"

(Gal 2:20)

"Let the Cross be for you, as it was for Christ,

proof of the greatest love"

(Paul VI - Evangelica Testificatio 29)

40 - The LMCs must realise that in every circumstance of their life, above all in suffering, they must be inspired by their Divine Model, Jesus, our King, crowned with thorns and crucified. Humiliation is a bitter cross. Abandonment is a real crucifixion when it is rightly understood. mass and communion are inseparable from Calvary. There is no reparation without penance and sacrifice. In the apostolate, the money to buy souls is suffering, accepted with love. Suppress the cross from our life, and everything vanishes. The Cross is the structure. Since it bore our saviour, it leads to salvation, and so must it be also for us in all our works.

The Church i invites us, in response to the immeasurable love of Christ to:

- fill up in our flesh what is lacking in the suffering of Christ on behalf of His Body, the Church;

- express our union with and sharing in the sufferings of the poor for their salvation and sanctification;

- offer sacrifices in reparation for our sins and for the sins of others, in order to be continually converted to God and to greater holiness.

41 - Our penance must be characterised by renunciation and joy, sacrifice and magnanimity, discipline and spiritual freedom, since it is deeply rooted in the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection. not all are able to practice penance and mortification in the same manner; each couple or individual must be able to decide, with the help of their spiritual Director, the way and the measure of penance most pleasing to the lord. certain forms however can be practised by all. The principle ones are:

1) - the whole-hearted effort to live simply and generously the consecrated life, persevering in one's proper vocation until death;

2) - submission, the joyous and voluntary acceptance of the crosses that might arise from humiliations, sorrows, illness, old-age, solitude, isolation, inclemencies of weather and the other trials of life,

3) - the faithful performance of our duties in a spirit of penance and reparation, since they are the manifest expression of the will of God. The fulfilment of our duties in the most perfect manner possible is to offer the most perfect sacrifice to god that we can present to Him and is a perpetual holocaust in-as-much as we are called to carry it out constantly;

4) - living constantly in the presence of God and doing whatever we are doing as an act of love and worship of God;

5) - observing joyfully and faithfully the penances that the Church imposes, such as fast and abstinence. Each may choose mother forms also, but always under the strict guidance of his / her own spiritual director;

6) - mortification of both interior and exterior senses;

7) - proper measure e in the use of material things, such as food, clothing and other necessities of life;

8) - intensifying the spirit of prayer and penance during the period of Advent and especially during Lent;

"The merit of the Cross we bear does not depend on its weight but on the way we bear it" (St. Francis de Sales).