THE MARIAN MISSIONARIES AD REGNUM DEI, MMR

AND

THE AD REGNUM DEI ASSOCIATION

Excerpts from the Statutes

“Father, the glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (Joh 17,22-23).

“For Christ is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2,14)

Introduction

Ethnic prejudice and discrimination is still prevalent in Nigeria and in most parts of Africa, in spite of the continued growth of Christianity and the progress that has been made in modern education and statehood. Instead of decreasing, the ill has found its way into the Church. Sometimes the local Church leaders are the worst culprits in spreading ethnic prejudices and intolerance. The persistence of this situation among Catholics is unacceptable, since by its name, which means “universal”, the Catholic Church cannot allow itself to be tied down, in its mission, to ethnic or parochial sentiments. The need to address the challenge couldn’t be more urgent.

The pontificate of Pope Francis provides the ideal context. The constant call of the Holy Father to go outside ourselves and to reach out to others, especially to the marginalized and frequent victims of prejudices and discrimination, is an invitation to return to the roots of the Catholic Church, to its catholicity. It is a call to renew our faith; a call to true reconciliation with God, with ourselves and our neighbours, in line with the spirit of the second special assembly on Africa of the Synod of Bishops: “You are the salt of the earth,… the light of the world” (Mat 5,13.14). The creation of the Marian Missionaries Ad Regnum Dei wishes to respond to this call. The response is aimed primarily at a problem and need that are present in the Nigerian local Church as well as in Africa, but it is not difficult to see its universal relevance and possible outreach with regard to the persistence of racial prejudice and discrimination in various parts of the world.

Name

1. The Marian Missionaries Ad Regnum Dei(the Marian Missionaries of God’s Kingdom), MMR, is an association comprising men and women, who consecrate themselves with religious vows to following Christ propter Regnum Dei (for the sake of God’s Kingdom) and share community life, harmoniously contemplative and active. Although they constitute a family, share the same religious identity and spirituality, and recognize and support each other as brothers and sisters, the men and women live in separate communities. Their rules of life are the same, except for specific distinctions made necessary by gender needs and peculiarities, which will be outlined in the Constitutions of their respective branches of the Family. For practical purposes, while maintaining the official acronym, MMR, the female branch of the Family is also referred to as the Marian Missionary Sisters Ad Regnum Dei while the men are also called the Marian Missionary Friars Ad Regnum Dei.

2. Closely linked to the Marian Missionaries of God’s Kingdom, as associates, is the Ad Regnum Dei Association. This comprises lay persons, priests, religious and lay consecrated persons who pursue the same mission to which the Marian Missionaries dedicate themselves and are guided by a delegate of their General Moderator. Particular details of their internal organization will be spelt out in a separate document.

Goals

3. The general goal of the Foundation is the greater glory of God through the personal sanctification of its members and the salvation of all, by means of the Gospel of God’s Kingdom proclaimed by Christ, as well as the preparation for and the awaiting of the coming of the Kingdom with prayer and good works.

4. The life and mission of the Marian Missionaries Ad Regnum Dei to closely follow and imitate Christ through the radical observance of the Gospel teachings. They welcome and spread the teaching of Jesus Christ on the Kingdom of God, according to the example of Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ. They use the witness of their lives and words, in line with the principles and spirituality of the Kingdom, to confront the problems of ethnic, racial and social prejudices and discriminations within the Church and in the society.

5. To do this, they bind themselves with public vows to observing the evangelical counsels (chastity, poverty and obedience) and to proclaiming the Gospel of God’s Kingdom, following the footsteps of Christ in the hidden and public dimensions of his life.

6. They also share community life of prayer, in the spirit of poverty and penance, according to the Gospel teachings of Christ; they consecrate themselves to the love of Mary Immaculate and practice that love in the service of the poor and the marginalized, as well as by proclaiming the reign of Christ to the whole world, with the example of their lives and words.

7. The members of the Ad Regnum Dei Association, like the Marian Missionaries, commit themselves also to using the Gospel to combat ethnic, racial and social prejudices and discriminations. They support and work in consonance with the Marian Missionaries Ad Regnum Dei, with whom they share the same goals. They do so not only with the witness of their personal lives, words and actions, but also with their material means, according to their various states of life.

8. It is part of the mission of the Marian Missionaries Ad Regnum Dei to animate the Ad Regnum Dei Association.

Specific Aims

9. Concretely, the mission of the Marian Missionaries of the God’s Kingdom will involve:

Headquarters and Address

10. With the inauguration of the first House of the Marian Missionaries Ad Regnum Dei, the “Domus Regina Mundi”, on 1 January 2016, the headquarters of the Association and its address are currently: Marian Missionaries Ad Regnum Dei, MMR, Domus Regina Mundi Umuarakpa, Arongwa, Osisioma Ngwa LGA, P.O. Box 21755 Aba, Abia State, Nigeria.

Membership

11. Membership of Marian Missionaries ad Regnum Dei is open to all the faithful, who have completed their seventeenth year of life and intend to consecrate themselves in the Church to the goals and mission indicated above. The candidates should not be above twenty-five years of age and should have completed the secondary school education or its equivalent, with good results. Exceptions to these conditions will be carefully examined before they are taken into consideration.

12. The Ad Regnum Dei Association is open to all the faithful, lay men and women, priests and religious, who intend to assume by consecration in the Church the enunciated goals and mission of this Association

Conditions for Membership

13. The candidates for membership of the Marian Missionaries ad Regnum Dei must be:

14. Physically handicapped candidates may also be admitted if they fulfil the above requirements.

15. Candidates desirous to join the Marian Missionaries ad Regnum Dei must also have:

16. The following may not be admitted to join the Regnum Dei Marian Missionaries:

17. Before admission the candidates must present:

Spirituality

18. The spirituality of the Marian Missionaries ad Regnum Dei, as is reflected in their name, comprises three fundamental elements: it is Marian, missionary and aimed at the Kingdom of God.

19. As Marian, the Marian Missionaries ad Regnum Dei see and seek in Mary, the Mother of Jesus, maternal guidance, care and source of intimacy with her son. God chose Mary to be the Mother of Jesus Christ. The attachment to Mary is a conscious adherence to God’s own choice. In Jesus Christ we become the children of God; in him, through the Holy Spirit, we receive God as Father and dare call him intimately “Abba! Father” (Rom 8,15-17). In the same vein, in Jesus Christ we become sons of Mary; by his clear wish before he died on the cross, we, as disciples whom he loves, receive Mary as Mother and dare call her “Woman-Mother” (Joh 19,27). Further, by professing our faith in Jesus Christ as God, we ipso facto recognize and venerate Mary as Mother of God. Mary is the perfect disciple of Jesus who bore him in her womb, hands and legs; she was with him at his birth and death, and she followed him in his journey of life (Luk 2,51-52) and from Galilee to Jerusalem; she listened attentively to his words, empathized with him in his concrete life’s experiences, and silently conserved them all in her heart (Luk 2,51). She is the model of discipleship for the Marian Missionaries. In her they learn fidelity to Jesus Christ, devotion to the word of God and silent obedience to his will.

20. Jesus not only took flesh in the womb of Mary but granted her a unique intimacy of mind and body with himself. In the Gospels, her request is never turned down by Jesus, even when they seem to arrive at awkward moments (see Luk 2,48-51; Joh 2,1-11). The Marian Missionaries bind themselves to her as an unfailing source of graces from her son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

21. As expression of their Marian identity in their specific choice of life, the whole Institute and every single member are to consecrate themselves to the Immaculate with a specific public act. Living the consecration, together with the filial love for and devotion to the Immaculate, goes beyond practicing and imitating the virtues of Mary and enjoying fervent Marian prayers. It also means trying by all means to make her known and loved, propagating her devotion and veneration (Marian pilgrimages, consecration to her Immaculate Heart, various Marian pious activities) and fostering studies and publications on the mystery of her union with Christ, all in view of the advent of the Kingdom of Christ in the world. It means propagating through Mary the Kingdom of Christ: “Adveniat Regnum Mariae ut adveniat Regnum Domini Nostri Jesu Christi”. The Queenship of Mary proclaims the Kingship of Christ.

22. As Missionaries, the members respond to the mandate of Jesus to bring his message to all peoples (Mat 28,19). A missionary is someone sent with a message to deliver. The Marian Missionaries ad Regnum Dei commit themselves in a special way to the mission which Jesus entrusted to the Church through the apostles: “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you… Receive the Holy Spirit” (Joh 20,21-22; see also Joh 17,18). Filled with the Holy Spirit and moved by him, they seek to be witnesses of Jesus’ Gospel of God’s love and compassion, of repentance and conversion, of liberation to those bound by various physical and spiritual handicaps, especially the victims of prejudice and discrimination; they announce the joy of God’s Kingdom. Mary was the perfect missionary sent by God to bring Jesus to the world; she also hurried to bring Jesus to John the Baptist, his precursor and the last of the prophets before him (Luk 1,39-41). The Marian Missionaries embrace Mary as model in their mission of transmitting Jesus and his Gospel of God’s Kingdom.

23. God wished to associate Saint Joseph to the divine election of Mary. He was a faithful, reassuring and yet discrete presence beside her and the child Jesus; supporting them with the labour of his hand. The Marian Missionaries ad Regnum Dei will also draw inspiration from the Saint Joseph’s dedication to duty, as well as from the discretion of his presence beside Mary; they will constantly refer to him for support in their endeavours.

24. As Missionaries they must be:

25. The spirit of the Kingdom: At the heart of the spirituality of the Marian Missionaries ad Regnum Dei lie the three pillars that constitute the spirit of the Kingdom of God: “childlikeness”, “poorlikeness” and a profound joy that characterizes those who sincerely incarnate these qualities. In all circumstances the joy of the Marian Missionaries, born of their love of Christ, is to be real, concrete and contagious.

26. In line with the emphatic teaching of Jesus, the spirituality of the Kingdom comprises a preferential option for children and the childlike, and for the poor and the poor-like, as well as a constant childlike joy of heart and life. (See, for example: Mat 5,3 for the poor and poor-like; Mat18, 2-6; 19,12-15; Mar 10,13-16; Luk 19,15-17; Joh 3,3.5 for children and the chidlike; Mat 5,12; Luk 15, 7.10 for the joy of God’s Kingdom).

27. Childlikeness has a universal dimension, that cuts across all human barriers of prejudices and discriminations. In all places and among all peoples, a child is usually newly born, born of someone, born naked, small, fragile and dependent. The spirit of childlikeness, also called the spirit of infancy, usually entails being constantly new or renewed, being born anew or from above “of water and the Spirit”. This refers to the Christian birth and rebirth through the sacraments and sacramental; but it also echoes the two-dimensional birth of every Christian, the human (by water, tangible and redolent of the fluid of the human mother’s womb) and the spiritual (from above, intangible, like the wind, drawing the Christian constantly upwards towards Jesus Christ as he is lifted up like the bronze-serpent of Moses in the desert. Cf. Joh 3,14). The Marian missionary ad Regnum Dei lives the newness or freshness of this birth or rebirth in his or her personal spirit and outward expressions.

28. As the child is born naked, the spirit of childlikeness entails a strong mentality of detachment from material things and in their use; this is the spirit of poverty or the “poorlikeness” that Jesus speaks about in the beatitudes (Mat 5,3). The nudity of the newly born speaks also of the original innocence that characterized humanity in its origins: Before their fall, Adam and Eve were naked but were not ashamed (Gen 2,25).

29. The nakedness of the newly born goes with and indicates the child’s fragility, defencelessness and dependence. The lack of clothing exposes the newly born to things and situations from which it cannot defend or protect itself. The baby depends wholly on the other for its covering, defence and protection. In the case of our first parents, God wished them to be totally dependent on him on deciding between the good and the bad (Gen 2,17); it was he also who finally clothed them with garments of skins, in place of the shabby aprons they made themselves from fig leaves (Gen 3,7.21). The Marian missionary Ad Regnum Dei embodies an awareness of human fragility and deep confident dependence on divine providence.

30. Childlikeness means also recognizing one’s filiation, both individually and in communion with others: knowing oneself as son or daughter of a Father and a Mother, as well as brother or sister of another.

31. The “poorlikeness” for the Kingdom, as was preached by Jesus, corresponds with childlikeness in a number of factors: detachment from material things, both in their possession and use; sense of humility and simplicity; consciousness of human fragility and trusting dependence on divine providence.

32. In its liturgical life, the Church celebrates God’s Kingdom as “an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace” (See Preface of the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe). Universality, eternity, truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love and peace are qualities which complete the spirituality of the Marian Missionaries of the Kingdom.

The Regnum Dei Association

33. The Regnum Dei Association is associated intimately with the Marian Missionaries of God’s Kingdom and depends on it for spiritual support and guidance. Its members pursue the same goals and mission, mentioned above, to the which the Marian Missionaries dedicate themselves. The General Moderator of the Marian Missionaries, after due consultation with his councillors, and with the approval of the Founder, will appoint a Delegate to lead the Association.

34. The members of the Regnum Dei Association may include every faithful, lay persons, priests and religious who wish to consecrate themselves in the Church to using the Gospel teaching to combat forms of ethnic, racial and social prejudices and discriminations among believers in Christ and in the society. The Association will be guided by separate by-laws, which will be duly approved by the General Moderator of the Marian Missionaries and the competent ecclesiastical authority.

35. More concretely, the members of the Association are divided into three categories:

36. This third group of members shares the rules of life of the Marian Missionaries, except their community life and religious outfit. They dedicate themselves more fully, like Saint Joseph, to secular and social works or activities. They will also be obliged to observe faithfully the special statutes which define more clearly their state of life.

Although the members are free to choose their own clothing, they are to dress up decently, with great modesty and without unnecessary exhibition of body or pomp. Moreover, for official meetings and other formal occasions, all the members are to wear a common uniform: for the women, a combination of sky-blue (up) and dark-blue (down), white scarf and a black belt; for the men, a combination of sky-blue shirt and dark-blue pair of trousers, with a black belt. According to particular circumstances, they may also be required to wear a dark-blue jacket, without undermining the basic principles of simplicity and decorum. For such official meetings and formal occasions, all are also to wear the crucifix of the embrace.