We are an Easter people! and alleluia is our song!
4/25/22 – We have celebrated Easter - our Savior's glorious Resurrection! Concluding the octave with Divine Mercy Sunday, what a wonderful season we have only begun! This is the culmination of the great desire of God to bring us back to Himself - in an eternal Marriage Banquet of the Lamb! So, what a great moment to recap on what we have learned about Conjugal Spirituality this Lent! And what it means for us now.
1st week: we learned that there are two unique things about marriage. And St. John Paul II told us the 1st thing is that Marriage is unique because “there are simultaneously two persons that enter in the orbit of grace.”[1] Two people enter into that orbit of grace and together have a new relationship with God.
2nd week: we learned the 2nd thing is that Marriage is the ONLY Sacrament that the faithful give to each other. This unique giving of the Sacrament to each other does not end at the altar, but continues EVERY DAY of our married lives! This makes each spouse the ACTION of God in their spouse’s life.
3rd week: we learned that we have a JOB in bringing about Conjugal Spirituality in our marriage: we must remain OPEN TO GRACE.
4th week: we learned that we need not fear such a profound unity with our spouse and God. We learned that this unity does not take away from or mute our personality, but PERFECTS IT!
5th week: we learned that every little thing we do in our vocation of marriage can be PERMEATED with DIVINE LOVE! Who the husband and wife are is being constantly infused with the mystery of Christ’s self-giving love to bring them to who they are meant to be.
6th week/ Palm Sunday: we learned 2 things. First, we learned that even our sexual union with our spouse, can be permeated with Divine Love through conjugal spirituality! Not to transcend the real corporality of your physical union, but to transform it within the physical, real experience to be a holy union! Even in this most corporal part of our married life, Divine Love ENTERS IN – if we are open to His grace! St. John Paul II tells us that when husband and wife have oriented their lives to be open to the grace of the sacrament, and are growing in their conjugal spirituality, they need not fear the flesh. Through the mystery of the Incarnation, the body has been redeemed. The fruitful communion of husband and wife is a gift from God.
Second, we also learned that Christ is our Bridegroom Messiah! The cross is his marriage bed – he lays down everything, in such self-giving love. This radical vision of Christ’s complete gift of self in love can be frightening, unnerving. Yet, it is not the suffering of the cross that makes “the Eucharist and the cross … stumbling blocks”[2] but the LOVE it expresses. The profound love of the Bridegroom Messiah for His Church is the very reason that marriage is a sacrament!
Marriage is a living icon of Divine Love. Marriage is a sacrament because it reveals and draws humanity into the very love of God.
SO, what does TODAY hold for us? In a culture that is increasingly anti-Christian, St. John Paul II said that living an authentically Christian marriage “does demand an increased effort towards reaching and preserving the moral perfection than ever before.”[3]
So, if the culture is not on our side, then we will have to work extra hard to live an authentically Christian marriage. Our commitment to pursuing holiness must be even stronger than marriages of generations past. He said being a Christian in a secular culture requires a certain “heroism.” We need to live with heroic virtue. This is not easy.
How can a married couple maintain the heroic virtue needed to live an authentically Christian marriage in a secular world?
Living out a truly Christian marriage today takes great courage! But with God all things are possible. It can be done, but now we must ask how. How do spouses find the moral stamina to live heroically and stand up to the onslaught of secularism? How do we find the strength to persevere? And how do we go beyond the white-knuckled faith, and find lasting joy?
St. John Paul II gives us the answer in The Rule.
The Rule for Married Couple Groups was written by St. John Paul II when he was Cardinal Wojtyła.[4] He wrote The Rule after St. Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae was promulgated. When we first came upon The Rule in the Italian translation, we were surprised such a thing existed and even more surprised that it was virtually unknown! The Rule is not anything extreme, but it helps focus couples on the elements that matter most in their path to holiness. Everything about The Rule is pointed towards deepening the spouses’ relationship with God, drawing us in to the heart of the Father and saturating our love in divine love. Oftentimes, spouses sell themselves short of their God-given potential, because they don’t even know it is possible.
Can you imagine the wellspring of renewal the Church would experience if countless couples were able to cross that threshold into lasting joy and pour that joy and witness to divine love back into their parish?!
So, how do we do this? How do we live with heroic virtue and never give up hope in our times? St. John Paul II says through the support of community; and when there is no community that upholds the culture of the person and encourages conjugal spirituality, then it must be created.[5]
Our hearts were moved to respond to this plea. We are delighted to share with you, that in honor of this beloved Saint, and in acknowledgement of the time in his life when he offered this pastoral guide of The Rule, we have founded the Wojtyła Community & Institute, Inc (WCI).
The Rule by St. John Paul II is the gift he left for our generation – just waiting to be unwrapped!
Have you ever thought, ‘if only St. John Paul II was still pope!’ ‘If only we could learn one more thing from him!’?
Well, now you can.
Join us!
Jesus promised St. Faustina, “I bear a special love for Poland, and if she will be obedient to My will, I will exalt her in might and holiness. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming” (Diary, 1732).
Many see St. John Paul II as this spark, this light from Poland. Not only was he the most influential pope in modern times, but now he has left for us – when it seems we need it most! – a Rule for spouses to follow in order to guide us through these challenging times.
God is asking us to pick up the torch of this light from Poland, and carry it to the world once more!
This is the key to transforming the culture through the family, marriage by marriage, by supporting spouses and showing them the sanctity possible for them.
One match can light up the darkness. Let us together, carry the spark from Poland forward! Let us bring the light of Christ to spouses! Let us open ourselves to the Holy Spirit! Let us be courageous! Let us create a groundswell of new evangelization that washes out the influence of secularism!
A new dawn of Catholicism awaits. And together we will march forth with St. John Paul II’s voice ringing in our ears,
JOIN US TODAY!
To do this week
- Pray about which other couples would like to start a group with you. You need 4-5 couples for a Married Couple Group following JPII’s Rule. Pray about who would be perfect for this and start speaking with them about it!
- Contact the WCI Team! We are all volunteers here, and our only mission and greatest passion at the WCI is to share The Rule of St. John Paul II with as many couples as possible! We would love to show you how to get started forming a Married Couple Group (MCG), and we have all the materials you need in our Welcome Box! Not only will you get a copy of the hot off the press book - The Rule for a Joy-filled Marriage of Divine Love - but you will get MCG workbooks, Leader Insights guides, copies of Humanae Vitae, prayers cards, your personal WCI mentor couple and more! Reach out now!
- Can't Join yet? Help our mission by making a monthly donation! You, too, can change the world!
GOD BLESS YOU!
in Jesus and Mary,
The WCI Team
[1] Reflections on Marriage, The Order of Grace.
[2] CCC, 1336.
[3] Reflections on Marriage, section 3. Economy and Personalism[4] K. WOJTYŁA, “Reguła dla grupy małżeństw Humanae vitae (założenia)”, in AWDR M 23. (AWDR – an official abbreviation of the Archives of the Office of the Metropolitan Curia of Krakow for family and pastoral care – Archiwum Wydziału Duszpasterstwa Rodzin Kurii Metropolitalnej w Krakowie). Translated by A. Pata, 2020.
[5] Found in the accompanying texts in Part II.