Laici Missionari della Carità

ASSEMBLEA GENERALE
Roma, Via Tiburtina 994, Via S. Agapito 8
14-21 aprile 2009
“Let us love until we die of love.”

The General Letters – (1984-Present) of the Founder of the Lay Missionaries
of Charity:
Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala, M.C.
as the
Primary Source for Formation of the Lay Missionaries of Charity

Our whole lives are a series of choices in which we are always moving farther away from, or closer to, the will of God. Every choice is a spiritual choice. A Saint is a person who has consistently, over time, with God’s grace, chosen to do His will. Mother Teresa has often said to make a firm resolution to “will, to want, to be holy.” “Holiness is a simple duty.” This duty to God must be of our will. To help us, to guide us, God has given us His commandments, and He has given us the example of His own life, and the example of the lives of the Saints, and sanctifying grace. With the Eucharist, with the Sacraments, and with our will to grow in holiness, we journey. We have been given a most special gift of God. We have received a special call, specifically, personally, and for a purpose: we have been called to be Lay Missionaries of Charity. Not only have we been called, we have been called to a particular community of souls whom He has also called. To each of us personally, and to our LMC community worldwide, has been given the beautiful grace of learning from the life and the teaching of Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala, M.C., Superior General of the Missionary of Charity Brothers Contemplative, and Founder of the Lay Missionaries of Charity in 1984 in the presence of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. We are “Mother Teresa’s Grandchildren” because he was first, her spiritual son. As Blessed Teresa said of Fr.Sebastian: “We know each other by heart.”
Some time before March of 1947, Blessed Teresa wrote a most significant and historic letter to Archbishop Perrier which refers to our very origins. Our Founder, Fr. Sebastian , writes of this letter that it can be considered the very foundation of the Movement of the Lay Missionaries of Charity (LMC). Quoting Fr Sebastian, he writes: “ In the letter she expresses and explains the fundamental motive for which God wanted her to found the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity: “Your Grace, tell the Holy Father. . . that the Institute will be especially for the unity and happiness of family life- the life of which he has so much at heart” Fr. Sebastian wrote that Blessed Teresa was “very happy to know that the Movement is entrusted to the care and protection of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, who are their mirror and their model in everything. Their families are meant to resemble the Holy Family, which has been the first “domestic sanctuary of the Church.”
In Life With Mother Teresa (Servant Books) Fr Sebastian observes that in all that Mother said and wrote was the call to holiness. Running through the letters of our Founder this is the call: to union with Christ, to the life of sacrifice, service, virtue, mercy, faithfulness, forgiveness, goodness, and most especially the Cross. The Statutes of the Lay Missionaries of Charity themselves, written by Fr Sebastian over a period of about six months with intense prayer and reflection, in response to the desire of the first four Lay Missionaries of Charity for a life more closely united to the life of the Missionaries of Charity. Fr. Sebastian found his inspiration in the heart of the Church- her Documents, foremost among them for the laity- Christifideles Laici, expressing and articulating the universal call to holiness. Within the Statutes of the Lay Missionaries of Charity we find these luminous passages:

“To awaken and satisfy the hunger for God is the heart of the
Vocation of the L.M.C.s”

“It is through prayer that the L.M.C.’s maintain their intimate
Union with Christ and the Church and become authentic Missionaries
Of Charity in their own families, toward the members of the Movement,
and the Poorest of the Poor.”

“The Lord Jesus Himself will teach us how we should pray. He is the
One key-stone of our religious life and exercises. He is the creative
Word whom we receive in the silence of our heart and the fruitful soil
of our life. We listen attentively to what He will say, and what He will
ask of us. He has promised to give His Holy Spirit who will bear our
poor little efforts before the throne of grace and into the intimacy of
the living God.” (from the Contemplative Bros. Const. 125)

“It is almighty God in person who calls you.”

Holding in your hands, and reading with your heart – the General Letters of Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala, M.C. to the Lay Missionaries of Charity, you learn much about our Founder, but are also lead most profoundly to an insight into the mind of Christ, and into the depths of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy. These two hearts, that of our Saviour, and that of Our Lady, are the root and foundation. As Our Lady said to St. Catherine Labouré at the Rue de Bac in Paris, regarding the image she intended for what was to become known as “The Miraculous Medal” - “The two hearts say it all.” This holy teacher, his Priest, and instrument of the Holy Spirit, Fr. Sebastian, brought us to this place of the giving of the Miraculous Medal when the LMCs experienced their journey to France, and as Our Lady did, taught us to pray: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Given by Our Lady, a prayer of intercession, we have the assurance of her role as Mediatrix and the graces of Our Savior - “one heart”.
We go with love and obedience, to be carriers of God’s love. “Do whatever He tells you” Our Lady said at Cana, at the wedding feast, to the servants. They, responding, filled the jars to the brim, setting the metaphor for love and grace overflowing, obedience to the fullest. “Do – whatever He tells you.”
In 1996 in Lourdes, France, the Lay Missionaries of Charity held their second International Conference. Writing of Lourdes, Msgr. John Moloney PP of Dublin, Ireland notes: “ The definition of the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Lady in 1854 was like a great light in a dark age. It was preceded by her appearance at Rue-de-Back in Paris in 1830: heaven’s preparation and followed by Lourdes in 1858: heaven's approval. Saint Bernadette said to Our Lady: “Lady, would you have the goodness to tell me who you are, if you please.” The Lady smiled on her in silence. Three times she repeated the request. The fourth time the Lady placed her rosary on her right arm, opened her hands looking to the ground, then raising her arms she lifted her eyes towards heaven and said: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” We pause in the silence of these timeless moments, and wonder in our hearts: to what depths of holiness are we called as Lay Missionaries of Charity in our life of contemplative prayer, and our life of service in the heart of the world. Heaven prepares, heaven provides. All the work we will ever do, all the love that flows from our hearts, has its source in Him, and with Our Lady, he has given us every grace. “To Jesus, through Mary.”
You find, throughout all the Letters of Our Founder, Fr. Sebastian, the inspiring zeal for souls, the deepening in understanding through his words and teaching of Mother’s Founding Grace, and the beauty of the Holy Spirit. Truly these are “A Message of Love Through a Collection of Letters.” They are immersed in the Chalice, and in the Book of the Gospels.
The Letters of the Founder can be studied by various means. They can be studied chronologically, they can be studied by theme, and they can be studied in a synthesis of the graces and teachings of the MC Charism and the life, for the laity, as contemplatives in the heart of the world. By theme, the Letters are notated as follows:
MC Train
Missionaries of Charity Charism
The Missionaries of Charity Contemplative Brothers
The Lay Missionaries of Charity
Our Lady
Pilgrimages to India
Mother Teresa
General Letters
Giving Thanks
Grateful Memories
Lent and Easter
Advent and Christmas

Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala, M.C. was born on September 2, 1942 in Kerala, India. He was baptized on September 6, 1942 in Kerala St. Mary’s Church, Kuravilangad, Kottayam, D.L., India. He received his First Holy Communion on May 4, 1950, and received the Holy Spirit in Confirmation on May 9, 1950. The first time that he heard Mother Teresa speak was at St. Albert’s College in Ranchi, India in March of 1966. He met her personally at noon on November 30, 1966, in the Motherhouse parlor in Calcutta. Fr. Sebastian joined the Missionary of Charity Brothers in March of 1967 in Calcutta. His First Vows were made on Pentecost Sunday, June 2, 1968. Fr. Sebastian is the first MC Priest, and was ordained on October 23, 1971. On March 19, 1979 he was Co-Founder with Blessed Teresa M.C. of the Missionaries of Charity Contemplative. In 1984 he founded the Lay Missionaries of Charity. He was in charge of the Novices until 1972, in Calcutta and Los Angeles for two years. He arrived in Los Angeles, California,U.S.A., on June 25, 1976, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Since 1978 he has been in Rome, serving as Superior General of the M.C. Brothers Contemplative at Via S. Agapito. The M.C. Brothers Contemplative were erected into a Diocesan Religious Congregation on December 8, 1993. Father’s work has included Casa Serena at Via S. Agapito (from May 29, 1993); Deepashram (“House of Light”) in Gurgaon, Haryana, Delhi, India (July 3, 1994); and Shkodra, the M.C. house in Northern Albania (September 8, 1991).
There were years of united work, united prayer, and the graces of God in the lives of Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala M.C. and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. Yes, Mother’s words succintly expressed the reality of God’s gift to us all in these two souls, our Founder and Blessed Teresa M.C.: “We know each other by heart.”
In the early years of the Lay Missionaries of Charity, Fr. Sebastian wrote of LMC Fundamental Values and Priority, and from these pages among a quarter century of writing and teaching during our growth, expansion, and development, these points should be noted from the Fundamental Values:
“If I meditate on the LMC, in the light of our faith, I can find one basic value, the source value of all the others, and this value is: Total surrender to God.” “Here I am, for you called me” (1 Sam) as a safe child in the arms of the Father. An act of total faith, the root of the four vows, especially the fourth vow which differentiates the Lay Missionaries of Charity from other consecrated laity,” And further, he notes: “There is something beyond that starting from God and is waiting for an answer.” Later, in the ninth point, Father notes that “The fundamental value of the Lay Missionary of Charity is according to the Service. “Here I am Lord” is strictly connected with the service. It appears in the Fourth Vow: to move forward to Christ, the poorest. Everything is given for everybody. Christ comes to share Himself: “I AM the Bread of Life, take and eat” (Jn 6:34,51) God's communion. The LMC, the messengers of Love in the world, cannot be but Communion. In a circle, I and the neighbor, in receiving and giving at the same time.”
The Letters of the Founder, numbering most recently 146, from 1984 to the present, with their major themes, principal teachings, documentation of the history, and direction of the Way of Life, with their scriptural reference and inspired teaching, are a sure foundation in the Formation of a Lay Missionaries of Charity. Paired with the LMC Statutes, and read and studied, these primary source materials provide us with rich resources for growth and a sure path to holiness in a universal and accessible way for all who have been called to the life of a Lay Missionary of Charity. They can be fruitfully studied in a format of three interrelated parts:

PART I THE DOCUMENTS OF THE CHURCH
THE STATUTES OF THE LAY MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY

PART II THE LETTERS OF THE FOUNDER TO
THE LAY MISSIONARIES
OF CHARITY
FR. SEBASTIAN VAZHAKALA, M.C.
BLESSED TERESA OF CALCUTTA, M.C.

PART III THE TEACHINGS OF THE LMC SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS
AND THE RESOURCES OF THE LMC ARCHIVES
INCLUDING IN PARTICULAR THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF THE FOUNDER,
Life with Mother Teresa, my thirty year friendship with
The Mother of the Poor by Fr Sebastian Vazhakala M.C.

By attentive and faithful study of the LMC Statutes and the Letters of the Founder, and enhanced
by teachings to the LMCs affirmed at General Assembly, we can “ give Saints to Mother Church.”

“To Jesus, through Mary”

“Let us love until we die of love.”

Mrs. Laurie Dwyer lmc
USA National Link
April 2009