Spiritual Life Committee Monthly Reflection: December, 2005      THE CENACLE FIRE Fr. Ermeregildo Saldana, ST               The Spirit invites us to live in communion with the Father, to embark on an apostolic journey, to experience intimacy, to sight a horizon and to walk the way that leads us to conversion and life. These invitations become the tasks of each Missionary Servant in keeping alive the spirit of Fr. Judge who exhorted us that the Missionary Cenacle has a mission: to share the fire of the Spirit among the poor and the abandoned.               The mission Fr. Judge left to the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity is to continue inflaming the fire that Jesus has come to bring to the world, to be the salt of the earth. You have to inspire others with this Catholic spirit. It is the will of Jesus Christ that you understand that this fire has to spread and to spread through you. You have to give thanks to God for this grace for having been so chosen as a vessel. This grace ought to make you feel a holy and tremendous joy in the knowledge that the Holy Spirit has enkindled and made it burn in you for others and that he wants it communicated to others through you. Our spirituality is shaped as a particular response especially to the Spirit of God who has been given to the world and is known through Jesus Christ. Our spirituality invites us to an ongoing transformation from which we would maintain alive the traditions of the Missionary Servants which are to impact the world until we realize that by being ourselves, in the very mystery that we are we make present the reign of God. Our spirituality is a response to the fire of the Spirit to cooperate with our entire being with the power and presence of the living Spirit working in each person as they are: in their personal hopes, dreams, fears, thoughts and feelings, in their emotions and passions.               Since the beginnings in the South of the United States, Father Judge worked towards inflaming the fire of the Spirit in his mission of serving the poor and the abandoned and in promoting the Cenacles to meet the demands of the Kingdom. Today, that fire has extended well in other places like Puerto Rico, Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia, channeling the Spirit of God as Father Judge envisioned a ministry to the poor and the abandoned in accordance with the signs of the times and the growing needs in the community.               When the Spirit works in each person, although he may come from a culture different in the ways which Father Judge instituted as means of keeping the fire of the Spirit burning, he too celebrates Jesus who illuminates current events, the hopes, the sufferings and the promises. And in his efforts to blend the elements of contemplation and action with respect to the charism of the Missionary Servants, he continues the practice of keeping alive the Cenacle fire in order to cast light for those who are on the way. Finally, he too will not let the flame be extinguished.             What are the consequences for the works of the Missionary Servants to keep the fire burning?  Where does the work take root that Jesus said he has come to cast fire on earth?  We have been chosen to share the Good News of Jesus and to continue announcing the Reign of God in this life, especially in the fire that has been given us to manifest the mysteries of God which invite us to approach like he did with Moses.  At the same time we remember that we have been sent to bring not only the fire but also the experience of the fire which announced the presence of God. Jesus brought the fire to earth as a sign of God’s indwelling where we shall have life and shall have it abundantly.             The mission exhorts us to re-engage ourselves in the role of the prophet as a front blazer in running with the fire of the Spirit of God who calls us to authentic transformation in our calling as Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity-  to carry the spirit of service and surrender of who we are to that vision which identifies us as a congregation working together not only as in a dream but in deed. The vision calls us to move beyond the mysteries and doubts because God shall have a new message for us.    Reflection Questions:   1.      What, from the depth of who I am, will make me keep the fire of the Spirit burning? 2.      What relationship is there between the fire of the Spirit and the prophetic ministry which I live and experience as a Missionary Servant? 3.      How and where have we as Missionary Servants ignored the Fire of the Spirit? What are the fears preventing us to discover something new out of our charism as Missionary Servants?