Monthly Reflection
November, 2002

Spiritual Life Committee of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity   
“I declare I recognize the value…of a family working in the Church”

Mission With the Missionary Cenacle Family

By John Seymour, S.T.  
 

 Fr. Judge did not plan out beforehand the founding of a missionary family of men and women, lay and religious.  Yet as he saw it unfold he recognized it as a gift of the Holy Spirit and embraced it as an essential part of our charism.  In a conference to the Missionary Servants in 1924 he said:  

You are anxious to know my mind on this matter. You know it, but to make it the more positive and to help this holy tradition, I declare that I recognize the value of a family spirit, of a family working in the Church, of a family that with ardor will take these words from our dear Lord's lips: Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”(Mt. 28:19)  MCM, p. 121.

It was the family spirit that attracted me to the Missionary Servants as a college student and MCA member in New York City in 1962. I had never seen anything like it before in the Church.  I thought, “Well, as a priest I won’t have my own wife and children, but I will have a family.” I came to realize later that “family” is not simply handed to us on a silver platter, but something that needs to be fostered and recreated in every generation.      

Our place in the Church is unique in so far as the lay branch, formerly known as the Outer Cenacle, gave birth to the religious branches, the Inner Cenacle. But whether Outer or Inner we form one Cenacle. We are one because we share a common founder, a common charism and spirituality. The religious branches share a common Rule of Life, and the lay branches have same Rule with appropriate adaptations to the lay state. In addition to our individual General Councils we now have the Missionary Cenacle Family Council.  Where else is this found in the Church? There is also is a beautiful sense that we belong to one another. We speak of “our Sisters,” “our Priests and Brothers,” and “our Cenacle missionaries.”     

We have in the past and continue in the present to support one another in numerous ways. We have had a long history with one another with its ups and downs, as in any family. Happily there has been a remarkable growth in the family spirit and unity in the last twenty years, a sure sign of the work of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Fr. Judge, Mother Boniface and Dr. Margaret Healy.   As in any family there is some resistance to moving further in this direction.  Many have had no formation regarding the MCA.  Others are uncomfortable working with women. Still others have difficulty dealing with priests. However, the Holy Spirit can help us work on these and on other issues, if we are willing to try.

Yet even with all of the above can speak of “a family working in the Church” only because we have a common mission to work for the Preservation of the Faith, especially among the poor and abandoned, by helping every Catholic to be a missionary in the providence of their daily lives.   

This common mission is manifested wherever two or more branches of the MCF collaborate in a particular mission or apostolic work. This is happening more and more. Examples can be found in nearly every region. These ventures set us apart in the Church and have produced much fruit and many graces.  Others can see our family spirit. Young people especially find it attractive.   

Yet it would fall short of the vision of Father Judge to restrict our ideas of “Mission with the MCF” to the above concept, important as it is. He thought big.  In a conference to the Missionary Cenacle Family on Pentecost of 1924 Fr. Judge challenged us:   

Must we not put this question to ourselves: how much expansion will be made manifest in the methods we are adopting? Good is expansive. Will these methods, systems, and movements stretch out, gather up and infuse into the general Catholic body a missionary spirit? If not, it seems to me that they are useless for otherwise we are schooling a few to do good when the need is universal….What can be done to inspire, to provoke, to lead the everyday Catholic into the missionary work in the providence of his everyday life? ….How can we get our people to realize that in their everyday providence they are the Catholic Church, that they are responsible for the Church, that they should act for the Church, be vigilant for her interests and plead her cause?....If this can be effected then every one of these vexing problems will be solved. (MCM, p.226)  

Mission with the Missionary Cenacle Family is about spreading an apostolic spirit as broadly as possible, challenging, forming, encouraging and supporting lay apostles throughout the Church, not just those who are members of our parish mission or with whom we collaborate.   

This is a big order. How can we do it, or even attempt to do it?  What methods can we employ? What tools can we use?  Fr. Judge and the Cenacle pioneers used the magazine, The Holy Ghost Messenger. It was his way of reaching out as broadly as possible in the Church of the United States.  Today our reach is even broader. We have new and better tools, such as the Internet, at our disposal.  Thus, the question he posed in 1924 is valid for us in 2004: “How much expansion will be manifest in the methods we are adopting?”  Whatever the answer we can only hope to find it as “a family working together in the Church.”   

Questions for reflection:
 
1. What struck you the most in the above reflection? Why?
2. What value do you see in “a family working together in the Church?
3. In what way do you feel called to Mission with the MCF?