The three congregations and the laity share a common spirit:
- A deep concern for all of humanity;
- A belief in the love of God revealed in Jesus, as an answer to people’s deep needs;
- A mission to give witness of this love to all people, through the practice of kindness and compassion.
Jules Chevalier’s Charism and the Identity of the Chevalier Family; H Kwakman MSC, page 11
In 1864 Chevalier came up with his ‘Plan of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart’, in which he stated: ‘in order to fulfil its mission, the Society must spread as much as possible, but it will spread only so far as it answers the aspirations of the people.’ In this Society, as he envisaged it, there should be a place for a variety of people. Firstly, ‘the religious’, consisting of priests and brothers with vows of poverty, obedience and chastity; these religious were named Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and lived together in religious communities. Secondly, diocesan priests … and thirdly, lay-people, men and woman, who belonged to the Third Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
‘ The sort of life to which members of the Third Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus devote themselves is this; to remain in their families, to carry out the duties of their state of life, to retain freedom of activity in the world, and nevertheless, to aim for perfection, to put no limit on their devotion to Our Lord, and to carry out in society an apostolate which is all the more useful in that it does not give rise to mistrust.’
Jules Chevalier, Tiers Ordre, 1865, quoted in Kwakman, page 82
Image: A New Heart - Bruce Woods (used with permission)
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26