“We follow Jesus Christ totally and freely devoted to Him, through the vows of obedience, poverty and chastity (cf. Const. 2). Our way of life and supreme rule is to observe the Holy Gospel, living in fraternal community, minority and penance, in communion with the Church and in fidelity to our charism” (Const 3).
For a Francis´ follower, for us, life itself becomes mission, accompanied of concrete deeds of service to others according to a special style. Our Congregation “drinks” from the spirituality of Francis of Assisi, transmitted through Fr. Luis Amigó, a lover and faithful to his own Franciscan-Capuchin vocation and with a specific charism stressing the merciful dimension of love.
We follow Jesus Christ according to Saint Francis of Asís and Luis Amigó’s style
Francis of Assisi had no another wealth than Christ; our Father Founder transmitted us Saint Francis’s spirit through his life and writings and proposed us to follow him as an essential principle. We follow Christ inseparable from the Father, incarnate, poor, humble, crucified and risen; Christ Good Shepherd and Redeemer.
In fraternal community
We follow Christ in fraternity, a meeting place, where we the sisters accompany each other and share the joy of our vocation. Fraternity is a gift and a task, in it we celebrates Jesus Christ, we live in humble service and mutual obedience and it implies equality among all the sisters.
In minority
Franciscan minority involves evangelical littleness and attitude of service. To be a minor sister is equivalent to be a servant, small, poor, simple, humble, subject to others and at their service, available and without desire to dominate. Minority as a compendium of evangelical attitudes has for us its concrete expressions of obedience, poverty and humility, preferential option for the most impoverished and needy, trust in the Divine Providence, commitment to justice and peace and defense of life and care of creation.
In penance-conversion
The spirit of penance and the attitude of continuous conversion are essential components of our charism. Penance is, above all, a change of mentality. And to be penitent like Francisco, Clara and Luis Amigó, implies that God becomes to be all our goodness, our supreme goodness, our only goodness ... (cf. LauDei 3), resizing in this way all the values and interests we can possess and leading a prayerful, austere and fraternal lifestyle in an unconditional service to our brothers and sisters conscious that we are all creatures in the Creator’s hands.
In fidelity to the Church
Saint Francis perceived the immediate presence of Jesus in his Church, in the very concrete person of the “Pope of the Roman Church” whom he called by his own name (cf. 2R 2), the bishops, theologians and even the poorest priests (cf. Test. 6). Father Luis Amigó founded our Congregation in a close feeling with the Church, he lived as a son obedient to Her, he instilled love, submission, respect and collaboration and invited us to deepen in its doctrine, to accept its initiatives and suggestions and to bear witness of communion as its active members.
Apostolic life
Our apostolic mission is the realization of our "way of life" expressed in the Rule and Constitutions.
As an authentic evangelical community, the Holy Spirit moves us to collaborate in the salvific mission of the Church that sends us to be presence of the Lord and messengers of peace in the world (cf. Const. 57). We evangelize through “the witness of our own life, the exercise of charity and the proclamation of the Word to those who need us, preferably to the poorest and most needy” (cf. Const. 4).
All our life and mission must be characterized by the attitude of the Good Shepherd and the spirit of the Holy Family.
With the attitude of the Good Shepherd
Jesus Christ is the only Shepherd who knows his sheep, loves them, risks everything for them and gives his life according to the mandate received from the Father. Our Father Founder incarnated this attitude in his life and distinguished himself by his sensitivity and dedication to the excluded ones. The Good Shepherd is the figure that he chose as a guide and an expression of what he wanted to live, being his episcopal motto: "I give my life for my sheep". We put that into practice when we announce and build peace, when we seek the hearts of women and men through dialogue, respect, listening, and understanding; when we go out to meet the discarded ones...
With the spirit of the Holy Family, our model
Our Father Founder placed our Congregation under the protection of the Holy Family and wanted that it be an inspiration and model for us: “... especially in its spirit of prayer, family life and openness to the will of God” (cf. Const. 6). Our Congregation, under the gaze of the Holy Family, helps us to be a family of sisters, a peculiar Franciscan fraternity.
Besides, "the family of Nazareth encourages us to create a family atmosphere in the apostolic work we carry out and to pay special attention to the Christian promotion of families" (cf. Const. 61). We are called to live acceptance, simplicity, sensitivity to suffering, concern and commitment, especially in accompanying families, defending the life and the dignity of women and children.
The image of the Holy Family that presides the chapel of our Mother House of Massamagrell (Valencia – Spain), is the one that our Founder chose, before the construction of the temple, because in this image he saw reflected his two congregations. His desire was to create a link between the Nazareth Family and our apostolic service to accompany, “moved by compassion”, helpless children and young people at risk; since the beginning of our Congregation, we are carrying out this mission close to the tomb of Father Luis and under the gaze of the Holy Family.
