Communal Life

As the name Brothers and Sisters of Charity implies, we are a spiritual family bound in the life of Jesus Christ. As Jesus is our brother, so we are brothers and sisters in Him. As love is the fulfillment of the entire law and prophets, the greatest law of our community is love, and the greatest prophetic message is charity.

As a true spiritual family in Christ, the community is incarnationally guided by the leadership of a spiritual father and mother who act as spiritual parents. As Christians both the father and mother stand as Christ to each other and to the whole community. In this relationship a true and loving attitude of family is retained between the sons and daughters and the parents. The parents normally seek the appropriate input of the whole family before exercising the proper role of decision-making in leadership that affects the whole family. In turn, the family is called to support the parents as the ones upon whom the greater burden is laid through familial dialogue and loving obedience. In this family relationship is found the balance of mutual support which is love. 

This attitude of family relationship reaches out to all branches of the Franciscan family tree from whom we have been birthed and nourished as a new fruit of the Spirit of God. This attitude permeates outward to all religious and monastic communities of the Church, the entire Church, and to all of creation, both human and non-human, animate and inanimate. Knowing that the Church is Christ's body, all human beings are created in the image of God and all creation bears the distinct traces of the Creator. Consequently, a holistic attitude of love, peace, and justice, permeates our whole environment and ecology as a community and as individuals. 

In keeping with the name, the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, the most important charism of our family is love. Jesus teaches us that love of God and the neighbor is the fulfillment of the whole law and all the prophets. The Apostle Paul tells us that it is the greatest charismatic gift and is first on his list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, love is the greatest charism and our most important law in the community. When you cannot find a law or a leader to guide you in what to do, follow the advice of St. Augustine who said, “Love God and do what you will”, and ask the question, “What would Jesus do?” 

The humility of love cannot foster either independence or codependency in community. Independence denies our dependence on God, our interdependency with the Church, the human race, and the created world. It is ultimately egotistical and proud. Codependency seeks a false dependency on God and people as a reaction to a lack of a true appreciation of self or positive self-image. Ultimately, it causes unrealistic expectations in our love relationship with God and with people, and leads to disappointment, despair, and even hate. Attitudes of independence and codependency work in opposition to the true charism of love, which fosters attitudes of humility based on the truth. Since an attitude of true humility is necessary in community, a mature attitude of self-love and self-worth in the Lord which breeds a positive self image is needed by all.