MCA RULE OF LIFE,

DRAFT REVISION

April 26, 2000

1. Our Lord had very much at heart the creating of a spirit, a missionary spirit, an evangelical burning that would sweep over the whole world. He came to cast a fire on the earth, and he willed that it would be enkindled (Lk 12/49). The Holy Spirit has enkindled this fire in our hearts. This is our heritage: an apostolic spirit, a Gospel spirit, a Catholic spirit. The Missionary Cenacle spirit is charity, charity aflame.

NATURE AND PURPOSE

2. We, the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate, are a community of lay persons, an association of the Christian faithful, one branch of an apostolic family, who have been called by God to be missionaries in the Church. We have a special relationship with the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, and the Blessed Trinity Missionary Institute. Together, with them we comprise the Missionary Cenacle Family.

3. By our lives as Cenacle Lay Missionaries we seek first to glorify the Triune God. We follow in the footsteps of the apostles who, filled with the Holy Spirit, went forth from the Cenacle to spread everywhere the knowledge and love of Jesus. We live and work that God's name may be hallowed, that his kingdom come, that his holy will be done (Mt 6/9-10).

4. The missionary thought, the missionary idea, the missionary spirit should be dominant in our Missionary Cenacles. We meet the pressing needs of our day by undertaking works that the Church wants, that are good and necessary, and that have a note of abandonment about them. In all our apostolic commitments, we recognize the authority of the bishops and their special role as signs of unity and as pastors in the local churches.

5. Our specific mission is the preservation of the faith in those areas and among those people who are spiritually neglected and abandoned, especially the poor. Our chief effort is to develop a missionary spirit in the laity, with the goal that every Catholic be an apostle.

6. We are to have an ardent zeal for the poor, for those desolate in all things spiritual and for victims of injustice. Charity urges us to action on behalf of justice as an integral part of announcing the coming of the kingdom.

7. The Cenacle spirit is a Catholic spirit, a living, burning, operating love of God and neighbor. We are to share this spirit by promoting and supporting the ministries of the laity in the mission of the Church. We acknowledge "different gifts but the same Spirit, different ministries but the same Lord" (1 Cor 12/24).

8. We are to call forth apostolic men and women from everyday walks of life to become members of the Missionary Cenacle Family. A family spirit should be demonstrated by loving regard among the members of the branches and, when feasible, by collaboration in apostolic works. It is our particular responsibility as Cenacle Lay Missionaries to spread this Cenacle spirit through word and example. Father Judge declared that if the right spirit is maintained, if the primitive spirit is passed down, this family idea will engender the most beautiful fruits for the honor and glory of God and for the edification of the Church.

SPIRITUAL LIFE

9. The Cenacle spirit is a Christlike spirit of "faith working through love" (Gal 5/6). We are to confess in our hearts the mysteries of faith: the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. We aspire to a devotional knowledge of these mysteries, that is, a deeply personal and interior faith that is restless until it finds expression in good works; our good works, in turn, nourish our life of faith and bear fruit in apostolic holiness.

10. We are to have a personal love of God our Father, of his Son Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit who abides with us. In a particular way we cherish in our prayer and labor the naked, abandoned Jesus on Calvary. We express our love through personal service to his poor and abandoned members.

11. We are to make the Holy Spirit better known and loved. By steadfast prayer in our Cenacles we seek to attract the Holy Spirit so that our own hearts may be enkindled with God's love and that we may spread this fire to others. We ask to be filled with the gifts of the Spirit, wisdom and fortitude especially.

12. The Cenacle spirit is a Gospel spirit. In order to follow Jesus more closely, as set forth in the Gospels, we consecrate ourselves to be apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ within the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate as an expression of our baptismal consecration. The uncompromising message of the Gospels calls us to exercise our prophetic role as witnesses to truth.

13. Our consecration unites us in faith, hope and love. We strive to emulate the early Christians who had one heart and one mind and were nourished by the teaching of the apostles, and the breaking of the bread and the common prayers (Acts 2/42; 4/32).

14. We shall hold the Word of God in high esteem. We cherish the Gospels in particular because they depict Jesus showing by word and example the way to the Father. By reflection on the providence of everyday life in the light of the Gospels we come to a devotional knowledge of the mysteries of faith and a deeper understanding of our own experience. Each shall have a copy of the Sacred Scriptures and make frequent use of them in prayer and proclamation.

15. The Eucharist is the center and sun of our apostolic lives. We are to worship God in the daily celebration of the Eucharist, our sacramental participation in the mystery of Jesus' death and resurrection. We should so prepare and celebrate the Eucharistic Liturgy that it will be a genuine expression of community and source of apostolic vitality. We are to have reverence for the sacramental presence of the Lord Jesus and for all that is related to the Eucharist, especially the priesthood.

16. Because of our need for God's mercy in our brokenness, we are to approach the Sacrament of Penance frequently for reconciliation and healing. By our experience of sacramental forgiveness, we grow in mercy and compassion towards others.

17. The Cenacle spirit is a prayerful spirit. We recognize that only a spiritual person can lead an apostolic life, and that we cannot be spiritual without prayer. Great value, then, shall be placed upon periods of prayerful silence and recollection. We are to devote suitable time each day to personal prayer, meditation, and spiritual reading. Our reading should include Missionary Cenacle writings and, in keeping with our maxim, entire cum ecclesia, we are to reflect prayerfully on the documents of the Church.

18. Periodically we shall seek extended times of prayer and recollection. We are each to make an annual retreat. In order that we may be more attentive to the lights and impulses of the Holy Spirit in our following of Christ, we are encouraged to seek personal spiritual direction.

19. We are to glorify the Triune God through common prayer, especially the Liturgy of the Hours. We pray together to promote greater zeal in the apostolate, more supportive community life and stronger bonds within the Missionary Cenacle Family. We shall encourage others to share our prayer.

20. Our prayer should not be narrow, personal prayer; it should reach the throne of God only after having touched the farthest bounds of God's creation and mourned in every human misery and rejoiced in God's goodness. We are to pray, therefore, for the needs of the entire Church, especially for the Holy Father, for bishops and for priests; we pray for youth and for those who are sick, suffering or abandoned. We have a special obligation to pray for our living and deceased relatives, friends, benefactors and members of the Missionary Cenacle Family.

21. In our Missionary Cenacle Family we have a special devotion to Mary, Queen of the Missionary Cenacle, to Joseph, an unfailing and powerful friend, to the Apostles, ardent followers of Jesus, and to Vincent de Paul, patron of charity and humility.

22. The Cenacle spirit is an apostolic spirit which finds its perfection in zeal, the white heat of charity. We are to become perfect in the spirit and virtues of the Cenacle, to live and die simple, prudent, humble, charitable men and women; men and women of sacrifice, of patience, of self-denial whose lives are spent and consecrated to the service of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

23. Christ calls us to follow him with liberty of spirit and to share in his emptying of self for others (Phil 2/7). He was celibate and poor (Mt 8/20; Lk 9/58) and obedient unto death (Phil 2/8). We freely choose chastity, poverty and obedience according to our state of life as a personal response in faith to God whose love the Holy Spirit has poured out in our hearts (Rom 5/5).

24. Our consecration binds us to the Church and its mystery in a special way. By our act of consecration we are joined together for the sake of apostolic mission, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Our consecration should help us express a more generous love of one another in community. Community life, in turn, should contribute to the faithful living of our missionary consecration.

25. We imitate the single-hearted love of Jesus who gave himself for us as an offering to God (Eph 5/2). Our gift of self in consecrated chastity should liberate our hearts to love and to be loved by all those given us in community and ministry. Our chastity should find expression in a warm and selfless love of others.

26. By chastity, we promise to lead lives of perfect continence for the love of God and for the sake of the kingdom according to our state of life. By living chastely, we express our preferential love of the Lord Jesus (Mt 22/37f.).

27. In the spirit of the Missionary Cenacle, we are to offer each other support and understanding, rejoicing with those who rejoice and sorrowing with those who sorrow. In a special way, our love is given to the sick and aging who are our particular treasure in community.

28. We imitate the poverty of Jesus who for our sake "made himself poor though he was rich, so that we might become rich through his poverty" (2 Cor 8/9). The virtue of poverty inspires us to be totally dependent upon the providence of God, to be subject to the common law of labor, to heed the cry of the poor and to live simply, using what we have for the honor and glory of God.

29. By poverty, we renounce our right to dispose of and to use anything that has material value without careful attention to the demands of the Gospel. We retain the right to own and acquire goods.

30. We are to be responsible stewards of the materials goods entrusted to us. Our Cenacle heritage, moreover, directs us to be generous in sharing with others and in offering hospitality.

31. We imitate the obedience of Jesus, who "humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross" (Phil 2/8). The virtue of obedience is grounded in faith and love, generosity and forgetfulness of self. Our obedience should be humble and of the heart, simple and entire, constant and strong in everything.

32. By obedience, we pledge to obey those persons who exercise authority in everything that pertains to the observance of the Constitution and the integrity of our missionary consecration. We are to obey the Holy Father in virtue of our obedience and to show him a particular loyalty.

33. Relying on the Holy Spirit, we are to seek together to discover God's will in a climate of respect and trust. With genuine love, we call each other to grow in apostolic holiness through encouragement and mutually appropriate accountability. This practice of taking counsel in matters of life and mission is a cherished tradition in the Missionary Cenacle. After prayer and counsel, we humbly accept the decision made.

34. Authority exercised in the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate and in our local Missionary Cenacle is to call us to be faithful to our vocation as Cenacle Lay Missionaries. The functions of this authority are to assist each other to seek the will of God, to promote a true spirit of community and to unite us in pursuing our apostolic goals.

35. This authority, a ministry after the example of Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve (Mt 20/28), is to be exercised according to the Rule of Life of the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate and other statutes of common and particular law.

36. We recognize the value of counsel and consultation in important matters of common concern. In the local Missionary Cenacle, we are to share the responsibility for decisions affecting the local Cenacle. The local Custodian is responsible for calling the local Cenacle to council and to serve the local Cenacle in carrying out the decisions in keeping with the Rule of Life and Constitution.

37. In the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate, full authority shall be exercised by the General Custodian assisted by the General Council. This authority encompasses leadership and government of the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate and the call of the members to our apostolic way of life.

38. Full authority shall be exercised in an extraordinary manner by its General Cenacle, which is convened to protect the spiritual patrimony of the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate and to foster its appropriate renewal, and to legislate for the entire Institute in those matters that touch upon policy, works, and the general good.

MEMBERSHIP

39. The apostolic spirit is a rare spirit, a priceless spirit, a spirit high above that of those who are ordinarily devout. This is the spirit of those great, self-denying, sacrificing lovers of Jesus who leave everything and dispose themselves to go anywhere.

40. We are to encourage and to foster vocations to the Missionary Cenacle Family. We look for candidates who manifest a love of God, a zeal for neighbor and a spirit of sacrifice. The candidates are to be acquainted with the life and spirit of the Missionary Cenacle.

41. The candidates are introduced to the nature and practice of the apostolic life according to our charism. At the completion of candidacy , those candidates who are admitted as Cenacle Lay Missionaries make an act of consecration, renewing their baptismal consecration, according to the Rule of Life of the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate.

42. The act of consecration is made to the Triune God, according to the Rule of Life, and is received by the General Custodian or delegate. Since all members make an act of consecration according to the Rule of Life, all are equally called to its observance. Separation from the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate is to be effected with charity and equity according to the norms established.

43. Fidelity to our vocation demands that we continue our spiritual, apostolic, academic, personal and social development, within our common goals and mission. We have gifts that differ according to the favor bestowed on each of us (Rom 12/6). In community we should be challenged to discover, develop and use our gifts, lest the grace of God be given in vain (1 Cor 15/10). This is a lifelong process, and, as we advance in age, we are to follow Jesus ever more faithfully in the power of the Spirit, until that day when, with him, we enter into the glory of the Father.

Do give this much thought, do hold yourselves responsible for the future of the Cenacle; do remember that as you are, so others will be. What more beautiful legacy can you leave than that of an example and life fragrant and rich in the Cenacle traditions. This means that even after your death you will be continuing your apostleship through others whom your virtue has attracted to the service of God. Such will be my constant prayer for you; do make it your constant effort.

-- Draft Version #1 (4/9/00)

Committee on Revision of MCA Rule of Life