HFI: Some Institute Basics

SOME
INSTITUTE
BASICS

I begin this list of different organized ways of serving the
Lord more carefully, by pointing out that ALL organized
religious groups approved by the Church are intended to
lead to the greater holiness of the members and to the
progress of the Church's work. While we are free to
examine the different ways of special Church service
before we make a choice, ,it is most unwise to compare
our situation with the situation of people in other
organizations or to say we - or they - are "better." Only
God knows who is "better" or "worse" and there are plenty
of good people who are not affiliated to ANY organization
but are more pleasing to God than any of the organized
people.

Having said that, let us distinguish between "devotions,"
"Third Orders," "Institutes" and our own Holy Family
Institute.

DEVOTIONS, of which there are thousands in the Church,
involve prayers and/or religious activities by which we
express our allegiance to a religious idea or practice
involving Our Lord, Our Lady or some Saint or Blessed.
These devotions are expressions of our faith and are
blessed by God.


THIRD ORDERS, so called because they are the lay
element in some Religious Orders where the priests are
seen as the First Order, and the Sisters as the Second
Order. Today they are also known as "Secular Orders:
e.g. "Secular Franciscans." They are groups of men and
women identifying with the prayer and spirit of the Order to
which they belong. They are laity with a special
commitment who have been in the Church for centuries'
and have produced famous Saints. They are governed by
their own internal regulations and express their basic
Baptismal commitment in this special way.

SECULAR INSTITUTES, are a relatively recent
phenomenon in the Church, going back to the last century
and distinguished from Religious because they wear no
habit and for the most part live in their own homes and
have day jobs like others. However they are unmarried,
are vowed and consecrated and have their Statutes or
Rule examined and approved by the Vatican. The first
Church legislation relating to Institutes of this nature was
provided in the 1948 Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius
XIII - Provida Mater Ecclesia - which you can probably
obtain from the Daughters.

THE HOLY FAMILY INSTITUTE is in a class by itself and
is "unique" in the true sense.

In 1960 Fr. Alberione obtained Vatican approval for
Institute for single men, for single women and for Diocesan
clergy. Such Institutes already existed in the Church and
required no special legislation. At the same time he
obtained general approval for the concept that married
couples might also make vows but he did not submit - as
in the other cases - any outline Statute because there no
aspiring members.


In the years after 1960 the three approved Institutes made
good progress but not the fourth one. Fr. Alberione found it
impossible - it seems - to interest any of his priests in this
very new concept and nothing happened until the summer
of 1970 when a group of Jesus Priest members making
their annual Retreat in Rome were invited to do something
about it. They were very interested and promised to
introduce the idea to their parishioners.

One priest in particular, Fr Furio Gaus from Trieste - his
name expressing the two cultures - Italian and Austrian of
that part of Italy - was especially enthusiastic and he had
no trouble in finding many suitable couples in his parish.
Then in November of 71 his Bishop sent him to Rome to
take part in a Conference on the pastoral (= concerning
parish life) of the means of social communication (= the
media).

When he went to the Basilica of the Queen of Apostles to
celebrate Mass he found the members in a very confused
and concerned state. Inquiring the reason he was told: "
The founder is dying!" When he finished his Mass he went
to the Founder's bedside, knelt down and told him that he
intended to begin the Holy Family Institute. Whether the
Founder heard him or not we don't know - he was already
in a coma. Fr Furio let the room and went to inquire who
was in charge of the Institute. He was told: "There's no
one!" And the Superior General later said to him: "You
had better make a start with the work." He did so and so
did other Jesus Priest members and thus in November of
1973 the first couples made their profession in the
Basilica. Later the General appoint Fr. Stefano Lamera
as the official Society Delegate. Fr Lamera had already
found several hundred members for the Jesus Priest
Institute and these - being mostly pastors - were a great
help to him to build up the Institute. So much so that in

1982 the first Statute was submitted for Vatican approval.
The initial approval was for ten years and when this
passed with the addition of many more members, a
second Statute was submitted and was finally approved on
March 19, 1993. This is the one we have now. The other
one - a large, green-covered book - was given in the
early years and the CD's are for the most part based on it.

So much for the historical background to the Institute. But
what is the situation today?

1. It is a true Institute (= organized way of
living), not a Third Order.

2 It is for married couples /the widowed.

3 It is an aggregated Institute, not a Secular
Institute, meaning it is linked to the Society of St. Paul
and does not have its own superiors or administration -
this is how it received Vatican approval.


4. Its vows are described as "simple" or "private"
but they are made in public in a Church-regulated
ceremony. ("Public Vows" is a technical term describing
the vows of Religious). These terms say nothing about
the spiritual value of either vow which is given by the
one making it, not by what it is called.

5 It has its own Statute or legislation explicitly
approved by the Church.

The Institute does not attempt to reproduce the Religious
or "regulated" life in the family. This needs to be
underlined. The Religious Life is as old as the Church (St.
Paul talks about "widows" or good women of his time who
devoted themselves to prayer and good works (1 Tm.5,9).


The Institute, however is not for people who devote
themselves to prayer and good works but much more for
the majority who live the everyday confusion and stress
of family life. While no one is saying that Mass and
Adoration are not important, they are not the typical activity
of a Holy Family member who will find the Lord more
authentically in the kitchen or workplace than in church.
Family life must be "sanctified" meaning "made a means
of growing closer to the Lord" in the exercise of patience,
forgiveness, trust, understanding, humility as we fail on
this point or that, etc. If we make the Morning Offering and
find a few minutes every now and then to turn to the Lord,
then our day closely resembles his - after all, he went to
the synagogue just once a week like everyone else. In-
other words we must courageously make a distinction
between our lifestyle and the lifestyle of Religious and be
convinced that the more we suffer with difficult spouses,
unkind neighbors, bills that never stop coming in,
challenging children and all the other flotsam and jetsam of
family life, the more we will be living our Holy Family
vocation. If we have time for prayer we should certainly
take it but never think that we are "more saintly" in church
than in the house or at our job. There are plenty of odd
moments in even the busiest day - the thing is to be close
to the Lord and ready to take them.

Remembering always, of course, that we are not "ordinary"
married folk no matter how ordinary we look but are "set
apart" people, "consecrated" people and our day is in
general far more meritorious than the day of other family
people.


THOSE MYSTERIOUS INITIALS: From time to time
member haves asked me to explain what certain letters after
this or that name mean, so here goes:

S.S.P Society of St. Paul
F.S.P Filiae Sancti Pauli - Daughters of St. Paul
P.D. Pious Disciples -Sister Disciples of the
Divine Master
SGSP Suore di Gesu Buon Pastore - Good Shepherd
Sisters
IJP Institute of Jesus the Priest
IAM Institute of the Annunciation of Mary
GABRIELITE Institute of St Gabriel the Archangel
AP Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles

The Good Shepherd Sisters - also known as "Pastorelle"
work in parishes to help the pastors. They are not in the
States but have long been in S. America. The Queen of
Apostles Sisters were Fr. Alberione's last Foundation and
have had more problems than most owing to the nature of
their apostolate: finding vocations for all the Church. They
are in Italy and S. America. So far, efforts to found the Jesus
Priest Institute in the States have not been successful though
it is in Italy and a number of other countries. All the others
groups are here - including, of course, the HFI which I did
not list, presuming that you know those initials already!
NB This item is a reprint and the comment on our
Jesus Priest Institute is incorrect and we now have our
first Jesus Priest member. Other initials, mostly the ones
appearing on the daily Calendar refer to writings of Fr.
Alberione or talks he gave and have, for the most part,
not been translated.