Involvement in the Families of Nazareth Movement

As members of the Families of Nazareth Movement (FNM), we are called to seek a radical way of entrusting ourselves to God through the Blessed Virgin Mother. In its essence, the charism of the Movement consists of an effort to live in full personal communion with Christ the Savior, described as: The act of total abandonment for the service of Christ in His Holy Church. This communion teaches the love of God and of other human beings in the way Christ loves.

The one word which perfectly describes the Movement is ENTRUSTMENT. This is abandonment to the Blessed Virgin Mother, as described by [Saint] Pope John Paul II:

The essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable relationship between two people: between mother and child and between child and mother. (…) This is true not only of John, who at that hour stood at the foot of the Cross together with his Master’s Mother, but it is also true of every disciple of Christ, of every Christian. The Redeemer entrusts His mother to the disciple, and at the same time He gives her to him as his mother. Mary’s motherhood, which becomes man’s inheritance, is a gift: a gift which Christ Himself makes personally to every individual. The Redeemer entrusts Mary to John because He entrusts John to Mary. At the foot of the Cross there begins that special entrusting of humanity to the Mother of Christ, which in the history of the Church has been practiced and expressed in different ways. The same Apostle and Evangelist, after reporting the words addressed by Jesus on the Cross to His Mother and to himself, adds: “And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (Jn. 19:27) (…) Entrusting himself to Mary in a filial manner, the Christian, like the Apostle John, “welcomes” the Mother of Christ “into his own home” and brings her into everything that makes up his inner life, that is to say into his human and Christian “I” he “took her to his own home.” Thus the Christian seeks to be taken into that “maternal charity” with which the Redeemer’s Mother “cares for the brethren of her Son in whose birth and development she cooperates” in the measure of the gift proper to each one through the power of Christ’s Spirit (Redemptoris Mater, 45).

Additionally, the Families of Nazareth Movement highlights the importance of Mary in the History of Salvation and in our personal lives. For us, as members of the Movement, the Virgin Mother is seen as the Mother of the Church and that is why we entrust ourselves to her, following the example of Saint John the Apostle. As Mary guided her Son and St. John, we trust that she will guide us on the shortest path to holiness, and help us to fulfill the will of God in our lives.

The basic principle of the Movement’s spirituality is to establish a unique relationship with Mary. In day to day living, this calls for surrendering to God’s will through Mary, and following Mary’s footsteps in humility, trust and total obedience to God. Life in communion with Mary establishes the proper hierarchy:

-  primacy of person above action;

-  an act of pure love being more valuable than all other acts;

-  contemplation as the source of this act.

According to St. Basil’s thought, we must remember that God cares more about us than about our actions. In our lives we must strive to reach the point where the role of Christ is increased in us, and as a result our actions will become more submissive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

We, as members of the FNM, are encouraged to pay special attention to the Holy Mass where we find the source of spiritual nourishment, healing and authentic Christian life. Deeper understanding of the Holy Eucharist should lead us to fuller and more frequent participation.

The spirituality of the Families of Nazareth Movement is based on Gospel values. The most important characteristics are:

Christocentric – as an endeavor directed toward full communion with Christ the Redeemer, that is, to love God and people with the love of Christ.

The ideal of Nazareth – imitating Christ in His poverty and humility.

Eucharistic – frequent participation in the Eucharist, and life in the state of sanctifying grace.

The love of ‘poor means’ – a predilection for, among other things, renunciation, self-denial, and prayer as a perfect help on the way to God.

Marian devotion – entrustment to Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of the Church.

Ecclesiality – seeing, in the light of faith, the Church’s hierarchy as a particular channel of grace, which generates a filial relationship of love and obedience toward bishops.

The formation of the FNM members consists of following elements:

Spiritual Direction – Spiritual direction by the Movement’s priest is a very special blessing for those of us in the Movement who are seriously seeking holiness. It is an amazing grace. This direction provides life-long spiritual formation and is especially valuable when emotional dryness and distractions in prayer begin. Taking care of spiritual life requires frequent cooperation with a priest, whose help in the Movement becomes spiritual direction.

Spiritual Reading – The practice of spiritual reading helps to form a new way of thinking and evaluating reality. It helps a person to acquire a faith-filled outlook on life.

Weekly group meetings – Spiritual formation of the members of the Movement takes place at weekly group meetings, typically held at local parishes. The purpose of the meeting is to share different experiences of faith and to discover God’s presence in our lives. The meetings, led by the animators, consist of prayer, readings, and faith sharing. The readings are selected from the Bible or the Movement publications. They focus on a particular aspect of the Movement’s spirituality and its application to everyday life.

General meeting – Every month, all members are invited to gather at a general meeting, which includes celebration of the Holy Eucharist, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, a conference followed by faith sharing, and fellowship.

Annual retreat – At least once a year members are encouraged to gather at a special (up to 5 days) retreat. Usually, priests from the Movement are present to give conferences.

Finally, the ministry of the Families of Nazareth Movement is a continuation of the Papal program of the New Evangelization. As members of the Movement, we strive for sanctity within our communities and neighborhoods. One of the main goals of the Movement is the evangelization of the family. Its goal is to create the atmosphere and ideals of Christian family life that would be visible in the society.

The building of God’s Kingdom, that is, an increase of Christ within us, is the goal of the history of humankind as well as our own. Acceptance or rejection of Christ determines the individual history of every human soul. It seems that this is the context in which we can locate the call to the New Evangelization as [Saint] Pope John Paul II identifies it. The task of the New Evangelization requires our surrender to Christ, after the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary – without any hesitation and looking back. The New Evangelization, by which we should respond to our baptismal call to holiness, takes place in an extremely difficult situation, because it is addressed to the world, which is penetrated by the decomposition of human and Christian values.

To the contemporary human being incapable of denying himself and turning away from his own egoism, the Church wants to remind the ideal of the evangelical child.

Spiritual infancy, expressing itself in being small and helpless up to the limits of an abyss, calls for and attracts another abyss – the abyss of God’s mercy.

God desires that in response to His Love we allow Him to work within us, that we allow Him to love us (Booklet number 1, FNM, Poland).

The apostolic activities of FNM members are directed toward local parish communities. Besides the prayer meetings, we are directed to cooperate with the local pastors as they make an effort to respond to the needs of the parish. We participate in the parish’s ministries, participate in liturgical life as extraordinary Eucharistic ministers and lectors, and engage in helping churches in need.

Only with the gift of faith - that comes through a deep and abiding relationship with our Lord – can the graces of real joy, genuine peace, and true happiness be found. As we travel this path, we learn to listen to the voice of God as He speaks to us in many ways. By teaching us to see every situation through the eyes of faith, this spirituality offers us solutions for life’s problems. Along the way, we see that faith becomes a way of life, and that faith and life must go together, not be experienced as two conditions existing separately. We experience that everything we encounter is connected to the love of God and, as we recognize this truth, we come to understand how much He loves each of us – not for what we do, but for who we are in His Loving Presence.