Guidelines Sheet - Series on Verbum Dei Sources of Spirituality: 20-26 May, 2024

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One week after Pentecost, we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

Creation and redemption have their origin in the Trinity: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit- one God in three Persons. The Trinity is the origin of humanity´s salvation, each divine Person has a role in the common mission.

Pope Francis writes that our confession of faith asks us “to believe in a Father who loves all men and women with an infinite love… To believe that the Son of God assumed our human flesh… that Jesus shed his blood for us that removes any doubt about the boundless love…to believe that the Holy Spirit is at work in everyone… The very mystery of the Trinity reminds us that we have been created in the image of that divine communion, and so we cannot achieve fulfilment or salvation purely by our own efforts” (Evangelii Gaudium, 178)

In Verbum Dei, the Holy Trinity is a source of our spirituality. “The sources of the Verbum Dei Spirituality, from which we drink and in which we consolidate our self-giving, are: the indwelling of the Trinity in us, the Holy Eucharist, the crucified Christ—the Mystical Body of Christ—and Mary. These sources, objects of our special devotion, are based on the Sacred Scriptures, Tradition and Magisterium of the Church. (Constitutions VDMF, 68)
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“The Three Divine Persons, that give us their own existence and infinite happiness, work together in the creation, redemption and sanctification of mankind” (Statutes VDMF, 213)

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MONDAY (20)
Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:6​

Those led by the Spirit are sons and daughters of God. We can address ourselves to our Father God because the Spirit opens our eyes of faith to acknowledge Him as our Creator and Father. It´s the Holy Spirit who internally leads and guides us to enter into dialogue with the Father and with Jesus.

Believe that God´s love can satisfy your deeper thirst! He´s a provider of all our needs because we´re His sons and daughters. His loving presence makes us free from fears and His embrace is the source of security during adversities and uncertainties.

Do I experience security and freedom in His love? Teach us, Holy Spirit, to dwell in His love.

“One will not benefit from the Love of the Trinity unless one tries to drink from that inexhaustible spring of infinite love of God that enters in us, in a gratuitous way. They come on their own initiative, and long for us to invite them in. They long to eat with us, and they invite us to a dinner without end”
​(Statutes VDMF, 217)

“The Verbum Dei spirituality is deeply rooted in the personal experience of God's love that leads us to love as He loved us; it is centered in Christ, the one sent by the Father, and is a way of identification with Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, where our way of living, praying, and carrying out the mission is determined”
(Identity and Mission of the Verbum Dei Missionary Family, 60)

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TUESDAY (MAY 21)
John 16:28-33

Our Lord Jesus has experienced all kind of situations we are passing through, even death. Jesus understood death as “going back to the Father.” Every human being when facing difficult and scary moments prefers to be with somebody close to them.

Jesus foresaw that His close ones, His disciples, would not be with Him during His Passion.  Who was with Jesus during the darkest hours of His earthly life? His Father.  Many times, we are alone facing hardships and problematic situations. Who is accompanying us? Our Father in heaven.  When we believe that the Trinity is within us, we are never alone.

“There is no bigger declaration of love than that of our God for mankind. The Trinity offers us their total friendship and coexistence, trust, and intimacy, in a simple, tender, committed, fraternal, spousal, and eternal relationship”
(Statutes VDMF, 214)

“Indwelling of the Trinity: we are aware that the Holy Trinity lives within us. With our diverse realities, we seek to live in missionary communion with Them. We desire to reveal the close and familiar face of the Trinity in our way of relating with others”
(Regulation of VDMDs, 71,1)
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In my daily life, do I search for the companionship of the Trinity? How do I dialogue with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? Do I consider them to be my best friends who are always there for me?

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WEDNESDAY (MAY 22)
Jn 5,19; Jn 12:47-50; Jn 14: 9-11

Reading these passages, we realize that the Father and Jesus were very one in carrying  out their salvific mission for the whole humanity to the point that Jesus says: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”(Jn 14:9);  “I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what I must say and speak”(Jn 12:49); “the Son can do nothing on his own; he does only what he sees his Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does” (Jn 5:19).

During His earthly life, Jesus was depending on the Father´s will. He supported faithfully God´s plan of salvation and He couldn´t do what He wanted or to speak in whatever way. Being the Son in filial submission to the Father, He perceived the call to be witness of unity with the Father. How was Jesus able to do so? With the help from the Holy Spirit who guided Him to oneness with the Father.
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“Transformed by the Spirit and inhabited by Him, we spontaneously irradiate his same love, joy, and peace. Faithful to the Spirit, our life opens like Jesus' side so that many may be born to the Life of God” (Constitutions VDMF, 71)
Do I identify the concrete moments or situations in which I can also say that whoever sees me sees also the Father?

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THURSDAY (MAY 23)
Lk 11:9-13

We need the Holy Spirit to live our Christian life and our discipleship in accordance to God´s will. Jesus couldn´t be faithful to God´s saving plan without the Spirit and we can´t pray and live out Jesus´ teachings and mission without the Holy Spirit.

How often do we ask to the Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit? Many times, we pray for good health, financial stability, prosperous future… because we prioritize these needs. We may not be aware of the essential role of the Spirit in our lives. “If you only knew what God gives…you would ask Him…” (Jn 4:10). In this passage Jesus is reminding us: "The Father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Let us ask for the Holy Spirit. To start our daily prayer: Holy Spirit, I need you today.

“The Holy Spirit comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray” (Rom 8:26). “Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants. To be controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace” (Rom 8:5-6)
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How do I allow the Spirit to control my thoughts, feelings, reactions and my way of living?

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FRIDAY (MAY 24)
Mt 28:16-20

This passage presents the great commissioning of the apostles by the risen Christ. During his public ministry, Jesus sent his disciples to the towns and villages of Israel with the authority to preach the Good News, to cure the sick, to raise the dead and to drive out demons (Mt 10:5-8). Now, at the close of the gospel of Mathew, they are sent to all nations, making disciples of them, and baptizing them “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” After Jesus´ resurrection, which establishes Him as the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness (Rom1:4), the believers are baptized no longer “in the name of Jesus” but in the name and power of the Trinity.

“Through this habitual coexistence with the Trinity, the Kingdom of God is within us.”
(Statutes VDMF, 220)
 
“The Holy Spirit can transform each one into Jesus, and into a living member of his Body, forming of all people with Jesus, the total fullness of Christ. Brought to life with Christ, we may form the true Kingdom of God on earth. This was the objective of the life of Jesus in the world, and is the objective of the call of Jesus to each one of us to preach the gospel to all creature.”
​(Statutes VDMF, 162)
 
Do I hear Jesus calling me to announce that the Trinity lives in each one of us? How to make it clear to those around us?

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PRAYER FOR THE CONGRESS
To be held in Loeches, Spain from August 30 – September 27, 2024

“Communion, Consecration and Participation in the Mission"

Father, you who create and sustain all things with your love, we ask you to make us artisans of communion, so that as we journey towards the Congress we may know how to welcome the diversity that characterises us as the Verbum Dei Missionary Family.
 
Jesus, human face of God, consecrate us to your Word so that the Congress may be prepared and carried out in profound fidelity to your voice, listening to each one of us and to the signs of the times.
 
Holy Spirit, you who open rivers in the desert, guide us in this time of discernment and decision, so that we may live, embody and offer our charism ever more fully, so that all the baptised may participate in the mission of Jesus entrusted to the Church.
 
Accompany us, Mary, with your loving motherly presence and intercession, so that this Congress may be a channel of hope in which God transforms us and makes all things new. Amen.