THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PASSIONIST CHARISM
A study document for
the 45 General Chapter
Our Founder St Paul of the Cross held a deep sense of God’s Trinitarian love given to us freely and inexhaustibly. This insight motivated his early life and the development of his vocation, inspired him to found our Congregation and marked his personal witness, preaching and spiritual writings throughout his life as a Passionist.
The deepest mystery of God’s Trinitarian self-revelation is the obedience of the Son to the Father’s will to the extent of giving himself up to death, death on a cross.
This mystery is the heart of all Christian mysticism unfolding over 2000 years, including the mystical understanding of our Founder, St Paul of the Cross.
This mystery continues to be revealed in the contemporary world through the lives of all human beings. Every woman and man is called to live and comprehend life within this Trinitarian mystery.
Passionists are men and women who bind themselves to one another in a search to enter into and witness to this mystery and also to help others recognise its reality in every personal and world experience.
2. The Charism – a living reality
The Passion is the most wonderful reality of God’s love in the world.
Our Charism flows from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and is revealed most fully in Jesus. The more fully and openly we enter into relationship with Jesus, the more fully we will know the Charism.
At the same time the Charism is an energy that is mediated by the Spirit and experienced in relationship to others. Thus we can experience it in and through our relationship with Jesus in prayer, or through our religious community life, through our pastoral care of others, or in and through radical insertion amongst, presence to and identification with those who suffer.
The Passionist Charism is proclaimed in relationship to others. It is shared in and through the life we live and witness to; by what is said or taught; and through our pastoral contact with others. When we stand near those who suffer pain and loss, we enter into relationships that allow us to manifest the Charism and its central truth – that the sufferings of Jesus manifest God’s boundless love and that in this sense we can find hope even in suffering.
3. The Charism invites us into life.
The Charism is a life giving force in the world. It is like a fountain offering living water to all who long for the experience of God’s love in the midst of their suffering and who cry out like Jesus “I thirst”. As a gift of God the Passionist Charism exists in the world in its full force and whilst it is alive in people in all situations, in is most evident in the crucified of our world. The Charism ever invites men and women to embrace it, discover it and live it in the context of their own faith-filled response to God.
Each person must embrace the Charism as his or her own. An encounter with our Charism invites one to conversion and indeed, coming to understand that one can live one’s life through the energy of a ‘Charism’ is in itself a gift from God. Like all graces, it cannot be forced upon us. It is offered and invites the individual to embrace the responsibility of claiming, naming and celebrating the Charism as his or her own. Many people live a Passionist Charism in their daily lives, but may not have the ‘words’ or the ‘spirituality’ to describe the central reality of their lives. But they are witnesses no less.
The Passion – the most overwhelming sign of God’s love for us – takes is foundational moment in the love of the Father for humankind. This deep love was matched entirely and completely by the love of Jesus expressed in his wholehearted and selfless obedience to the will of the Father. The fusion of this great love was seen most radically in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Passionists take a vow not just to live, but to promote ‘the living memory’ of the Passion amongst people. We try to live daily life with the same openness to God’s will that Jesus lived in relationship to the Father.
This vow expresses the distinctive element of our Congregation. In St Paul’s words “I have been crucified with Christ. Yet, I live no not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:19-20) Jesus lived a life of self emptying (kenosis) and we are called to be a living witness to the gift of God’s love for us Jesus. Living this means abandoning ourselves to the loving hand of God. This means we seek to be open to do God’s will, not just to know God’s will.
The starting point for such abandonment to God is the overwhelming sense that God loves me. This knowledge can only be found in prayer – and thus St Paul of the Cross wanted us to be teachers of prayer.
Thus our Charism encourages a ‘letting go’ into the loving hands of God – even in suffering and tragic circumstances. This is the way to peace – believing and sharing with others St. Paul of the Cross’ teaching that whatever happens comes from the loving hand of God. We can promote this in our personal and pastoral presence to others, in preaching, through writing and spiritual direction, in retreats and parochial life.
5. The witness of Passionist Apostolic Community
Each Passionist today lives a life based upon the Charism and in that sense witnesses to it and reveals it to others. Thus another essential characteristic of the Passionist Charism is that it is lived in the reality of each Passionist vocation. This vocation is a relational entity and one lives the Charism in relationship to God, to others, to self and to the World..
Our call as religious is to live the Charism in apostolic community and amongst professed Passionists. In our religious life poverty, prayer, penance and solitude help us to form the spirituality that surrounds the living of the Charism. Our preaching, pastoral outreach, spiritual guidance of others allows us to take the message of the cross beyond our community life to all in need. The deeper we identify our community life and mission with the lives of those who suffer, the deeper and more immediate will be our witness to and proclamation of the Charism.
Yet in our living of Passionist Apostolic Community the Passionist Charism is like a contemplative cloak that surrounds our lives and ministry and blends with our personal identity and focuses our energy on people, not institutions.
The living of the Charism requires that we withdraw from time to time into creative silence and prayerful reflection so that one might come to an awareness of God in self and others and thus contemplate the world as Jesus does. Nevertheless different social setting, cultural requirements, individual ministries and local contexts will all influence and shape the necessary ‘tension’ between ministry and solitude.
6. The witness in ministry
Our vocation is to live and promote the living memory of the Passion. God’s Spirit is guiding this work; we are just the instruments. We can promote the living memory in and through our ministry, but it must be a ministry based in contemplation.
A deep foundational insight and teaching of our founder was to take time to stand with the Crucified One in prayer before going out to the crucified in the world. In this way the Spirit assists us in the challenge of ‘naming’ the Charism so that we can speak about it, reflect upon it and describe it to fellow seekers.
We have a message that “speaks” to the deeper, darker, more desperate side of human life and especially to situations of human suffering, loss and injustice. In this sense all ministries give visible expression to the Charism in action - that is, in its healing, forgiving, prophetic dimensions - but they are not the Charism. The Charism is a deeper life force that can flow to the surface and change the ‘tone’ ‘quality’ or ‘impact’ of anything we do. When we act together then the Charism is not only amplified, but its relational quality is seen more completely. We share something that is intimate and healing with people.
Yet we have nothing to give except through Christ crucified and thus we must surrender our hearts to Jesus. Our message to people is to ‘let go’ and trust in God’s love and mercy. We share with them the insight that suffering does not mean we must lose peace with God and that God dares to share our human experience without reserve or restraint.
7. The Lay Vocation and our Charism
St Paul of the Cross wanted a movement for laity to be part of the growth of our Charism in the world. He collaborated closely with laity, formed many friendships and associated them with his mission throughout his life. Numerous women have followed the Charism and witnessed to it in their religious lives. Our 2000 General Chapter expressed the insight that all those who wish to stand with us at the foot of the cross, to contemplate the love of God and then to proclaim its saving power to others could be called ‘Passionists’. Thus many lay people live the Charism in the midst of marriage, family, single life and share the Charism with ‘fellow travellers’ (or the professed) when they chance upon a meeting.
8. Our Charism gives rise to our Spirituality
We need to distinguish between the Charism and the Spirituality that gives expression to and flows from it.
The Charism is the central truth of one’s vocation – by the grace of God’s call one is attracted to the Charism, embraces it, makes a home for it deep within and lives from its inspiration.
By contrast ‘spirituality’ encompasses all the ways one ‘names’ ones relationship to God that is based upon and built from that same Charism – through prayers, devotions, writings and acts of faith in action etc.
In this sense the Passionist Charism has been ‘named’, that is, identified, lived and proclaimed in and through various ways. Amongst these are:
· The experience and life of St Paul of the Cross.
· The traditions and Constitutions of the Congregation.
· The different and new interpretations of Passionist religious life that have emerged in various settings.
· The elements that mark the life of a Passionist Apostolic Community (e.g. common life, poverty, prayer, penance, solitude etc)
· The lives of the Passionist Saints.
· The new incarnations that the various lay movements and wider Passionist Family witness to across the globe
· The lived experience & history of our Provinces and of the men that we have encountered.
· The experience of men and women – laity – who are part of the Passionist Family.
The Passionist Charism it is a living, dynamic entity that is ever evolving. It is God’s gift to the world and it cannot be confined or constrained. Each time we attempt a definition of ‘the Passionist Charism’ we discover that the reality is greater than our concepts – it cannot be contained in a theology, spirituality or a series of devotions or actions.
9. The Charism is complex in its richness and diversity.
Nevertheless in order describe the Charism we must adopt a ‘starting point’ – a certain perspective or approach. There are numerous possible perspectives through which to describe the Charism. One’s reflection on, and articulation of, the Charism may arise from:
· A perspective of learning and study
· A perspective of prayer
· A perspective of pastoral outreach
· A perspective of social justice
· A perspective of the witness of scripture and tradition
· A perspective of those living close to the poor
However to do justice to a description of the richness of the Passionist Charism one would also need to consider all of the following:
· Scriptural and theological insights
· Historical factors, tradition and the evolution of our Congregation’s witness to the Charism
· Liturgical and devotional aspects.
· Ecological concerns
· Social justice issues
· Our pastoral practices and lived compassion
In Summary:
Our reflection on the material presented to date has led us to a point where we present the following summary. It is an attempt to articulate the key characteristics that are central to the identity of a Passionist. Thus we offer the view that to be a Passionist one must possess:
1. An attitude of prayerful constant attention to, and contemplation of, this central Trinitarian mystery.
2. A willingness to share with fellow Passionists a lifelong commitment to this witness.
3. A readiness to search for the ongoing expression of this mystery’s manifestation in contemporary reality and particularly to stand in solidarity with those who are placed in situations of alienation and oppression.
4. A keen appreciation of the richness of our spirituality that has developed throughout Passionist history.
5. A humble recognition that God’s loving presence in our world is manifested in the lives of every man and woman, sometimes recognised and acknowledged, other times hidden and unspoken.
6. A readiness to allow the Cross to point us to go to those places where we can live our lives in service to this mystery.
7. A willingness to serve and challenge the Church as a prophetic ecclesial movement of religious life in service of God’s self revelation in the mystery of the death of Jesus.
8. A readiness to travel lightly and remain open and flexible in reverencing the movements of the Spirit directing our resources to the changing contexts of where the Cross of Jesus is planted.
Do you agree with this summary statement?
Have we included all that is dear to your heart?
What more would complete this statement so that it reflected your understanding?
Each Capitular and/or Community is invited to reflect on this letter, to discuss it in common and to share your reflections with each other.
(b) Each person is invited to take a passage from Scripture that best sums up our Charism and to pray with this passage in the weeks leading up to the Chapter.
(c) Each Capitular is asked to address the Question: What do you believe are the essential characteristics of our Charism?
For your own preparations for our General Chapter we invite you to answer this question and to please prepare a short summary statement that best expresses your view.