Our simple and decent clothes,
to be worn every day
and suitable for committed people,
are appropriate for the time and place
in which we live.
It is not our clothes that declare
our belonging to God,
but goodness, love,
our mutual esteem
and putting our neighbours before ourselves.
If we let God live within us
and love Him with all our heart,
with all our forces,
with all our weaknesses,
we will be filled with Him
and hold His essence.
The crosses we wear around our necks
are inspired by those of the beginning of the Christian era,
found in a copper mine in Jordan.
They were crosses
forged by hand,
for their love for God,
by men and women
imprisoned for their faith
and exploited like slaves.
These crosses,
representing that of Jesus,
are a memory
of the suffering and pain
of all the people of goodwill,
both believers and not,
of every period and part of the world,
enslaved, deported, imprisoned, tortured or killed
for an ideal,
because of their faith,
in crematoria, gulags,
foibe, camps,
or just despised
in their houses or cities.
The heart of our Rule
reminds us that
when loved, we love.
Jesus loved us first,
up to the cross:
the mystery of love defeating evil.
This cross bears the trace
of His resurrection;
of His mother, who is also our Mother,
and who loved Her Son until the very end,
and until the very end did not leave Him,
and none of us, too.
Wearing these crosses
is stating our belonging
to the Lord and His Church.
They remind us our complete commitment
and the mission that God gave us:
giving hope to those who suffer;
to those who need love,
bread and justice
and to educate young people to goodness and protect them.
«Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.» (Luke 9, 23-24).
«Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.» (John 19, 25-27).