SPIRITUALITY:

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

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 concious adherence to God's own choice. In Jesus Christ, we become the children of God; in Him, through the Holy Spirit, we recieve 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, recieve Mary as Mother and dare call her "Woman-Mother" (Joh 19,27). Father, by professing our faith in Jesus Christ as God, we ipso facto recognise and venerate Mary as Mother of God. Mary is the perfect disciples of Jesus who bore him in her womb, hands and legs. She was with 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, 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.

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... Recieve the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20, 21-22; see also Jn 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 of 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 1,39-40). The Marian Missionaries embrace Mary as model in their mission of transmitting Jesus and his Gospel of God's Kingdom.

The spirit of the Kingdom: At the heart of the spirituality of the Marian Missionaries Ad Regnum Dei lies the three pillars that constitutes the spirit of the Kingdom of God; "childlikeness", "poorlikeness" and a profound joy that characterizes those who sincerely incarnates these qualities. In all circumstances, the joy of the Marian Missionaries, born of their love of Christ, is to be real, concrete and contagious.

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 "poorlikeness" that Jesus speaks about in the beatitudes(Mat 5, 3). the nudity of the newly born speaks also of the original innocence that Characterised humanity in its origins: Before their fall, Adam and Eve were naked but were not ashamed (Gen 2,25).

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. Read more...