 “TO
IMITATE MORE DEEPLY THE LIFESTYLE
OF THE FAMILY OF NAZARETH”
Fr. Innocenzo Dante,
ssp
The beginnings of the Institute of
the Holy Family
“After many
years of prayer and preparation, in his strong desire to comply with
the will of God and to answer the requests of so many spouses and
parents wanting to live their married life as “true consecrated
persons”, Fr. James Alberione founded the Institute of the “Holy
Family” that forms part of the Pauline complex”.
We pick up
the text of this declaration that Blessed James Alberione himself,
in the issue of Decenber 1964, has written and published in
Vita Pastorale.
1964:
recurring was the fiftieth year of foundation of the Society of St.
Paul, the first of the ten institutions that form “the wonderful
Pauline Family”. And we can believe that the Founder wanted to
“solemnize” this fifty-year journey of Grace and Providence by
officially communicating what for years he nourished in his spirit:
“after many years of prayer and preparation... he founded the
Institute of the “Holy Family” that forms part of the Pauline
complex”. A declaration in full relief as only men enlightened
and guided by God know how to do with unquestionable clarity as to
origin (the will of God) and finality:“They
can be members of this Institute all spouses and the married who
want to tend to their perfection by living in a holy manner their
married life... The special aim of the members of the Institute
“Holy Family” consists in tending to sanctity, always making
operative the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony through their
reciprocal love, the Christian education of their children and
mutual help for their sanctification. All of this while practicing
the holy vows that they observe according to their state of life and
their active participation in the life of the ecclesial community of
which they are a part”.
His announcement
was not the result of a momentary exultation, but of mature
reflection. In fact, only three months after, in March 1965, Fr.
Alberione wanted the same declaration with the same motivations to
be published in Cooperatore Paolino; even more, he wanted to
inform about the birth of a new Institute in the context of an
article written by him, through which he presented to all the
families the particular exemplariness of Saint Joseph, head of the
“holy family of Nazareth” and “universal patron” of the whole
Church.
But we cannot underestimate that Fr.
Alberione nurtured the conviction of the sanctification of the
families certainly already many years before.
In a
historical small volume written by Fr. Stefano Lamera (“Piccolo
grande nido”) – Fr. Lamera was the one who has concretely and
institutionally realized the dream of Fr. Alberione regarding the
Holy Family Institute – the Founder himself had introduced
it. The year is 1940 and Fr. Alberione writes:
“God, wanting to restore all things in Jesus Christ,
disposed to start his work by presenting to all families a perfect
model in the Family of Nazareth. In the Holy Family, in fact, the
fathers, the mothers and the children find divine lessons on
patience, chastity, filial love, industriousness. It is there that
Jesus lived, worked and prayed for many years, and so the
restoration started from the family”.
As we can notice, the realism of our
Founder does not contradict itself: an ideal of exalted and true
sanctity is reserved for couples of Christian spouses, one that
passes and expresses itself in the everyday of conjugal and familial
life; because from the Sacrament of Marriage the everyday of the
family has received the seal of the Holy Spirit that enables the
spouses to be authentic collaborators with God in the work of
creation and in that of its full realization, the same everyday not
only does not debase but is enriched, becoming an authentic and
exalted plan of life.
Certainly, in
itself this reality ought to be clear to all spouses; in all of them
ought to be present and ardent the desire for a married existence
full of love, unitary, harmonious, collaborative, indissoluble…;
but weakness and even egoism and malice are such that – today more
than ever – not only is the plan of God disregarded, but its reality
itself is relativized, undermined, trivialized, frustrated.
But God does not
fail in his loving pedagogy toward his creatures. Just as from the
dawn of human history he sends his prophets to “restore” and
“rebuild”, so he has stirred up in Fr. Alberione also this
particular “plan for the families”, this “vocation”, so that for
some families, by sanctifying themselves, may result help,
sanctification and salvation for all.
Official recognitions
a)
1960: first
approval of the HFI, together with the three other “Aggregated
Institutes”: Jesus Priest, Saint Gabriel the Archangel and Mary of
the Annunciation
b)
1963: Decree
on the part of the Holy See
c)
1964: Fr. Alberione talks about it first in Vita
Pastorale and then in Cooperatore
Paolino
d)
1982: the
Holy See declares the HFI as an “association proper of the Society
of St. Paul”
e)
1993: the
Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the
Societies of Apostolic Life approves definitively its Statute.
Nature and aim of the Institute
The vocation
and mission of the members of the Institute of the Holy Family are
clearly traced in their Statute:
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The members,
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- “moved by the Spirit”;
- to imitate more
deeply the lifestyle of the Family of Nazareth;
- to live more
integrally the gift of conjugal life and thus “sanctify the ecclesial community and the world”;
- to accomplish more
effectively and everywhere the apostolate;
commit themselves
to look for evangelical perfection in marriage, by means of the vows
of conjugal chastity, poverty, and obedience, ordering their life
according to the provisions of the present Statute (art. 2).
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The members “will
develop all their Christian and evangelical potentialities”, “so
that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by
all men”, especially in the sphere of the family which is the first
educating nucleus of society (art. 4).
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The members consider
the “Holy Family” of Nazareth as their model and example for
imitation... (art. 5).
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Information:
Istituto Santa Famiglia
http://www.alberione.org/ita/fondazion_isf_ita.html
Institute of The Holy Family
http://www.vocations-holyfamily.com/
Wikipedia: Institute of the Holy Family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_the_Holy_Family
Santa Familia
http://www.san-pablo.com.ar/institucional/familia/santafamilia.htm
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