Spirituality

At the Core of the thought of St Michael Garicoits : The Manifesto.

In 1835 the first six “Betharram Priests” formed a community.  But the Saint had been thinking about it for a long time and he knew what he wanted both for himself and for those whom Providence would send him.  He’s still only in his forties and has lost nothing of the flame of his youth, he the man of here I am.
Three years later he wrote the essential of his thought in a text which came to be known as “The Manifesto” because of its importance.

It has pleased God to make Himself loved, and while we were still his enemies, He loved us so much that he sent his only son: He gave Him to us to be the magnet which draws us to divine love, to be the model which shows us the laws of love, and to be the means of attaining divine love: the Son of God became man.
At the moment He entered the world animated by the Spirit of God His Father, He gave Himself up to all God's designs for Him; He took the place of all victims; He said: "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure". Then I said: "Here I am, I have come to do your will, 0 my God.
Jesus began His life's work by this great act which he never discontinued. From this moment onward he remained always in a state of victim, annihilated before God. He did nothing on His own; His actions were always directed by the Spirit of God; His disposition was one of constant abandonment to the orders of God, to suffer and do whatever He wanted: “He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross".
This is how God loves us...
At the sight of this marvellous spectacle, the priests of Betharram felt drawn to dedicate themselves to imitating Jesus, humble and obedient, and to working whole-heartily to bring the same happiness to others, under the protection of Mary; she was always disposed to do what God wanted and was always submissive to what God did.

With the “Manifesto” of 1838 we are at the very heart of the spiritual preoccupations of the Saint and Founder.  Here we are at the very source.  It is quite simply a meditation in three points.
From the Father’s heart, through the Son’s heart, to the heart of St Michael and to ours… from heart to heart!   Is love not the key word of our religion?  Is the history of salvation not a history of love, the most beautiful and the most dramatic, with some episodes like the fall of mankind or the death of a God on a cross.  Love?  Didn’t St Michael always want everything to be done for love?  He demanded it of the novices – a trace of love at least.  “If love is lacking, he used to say, there is nothing to be done!”

1
FROM THE FATHER’S HEART

In this text everything springs from the heart of God who is Father and who is happy to be loved.  Love has prevented God from remaining alone.  He takes the first steps.  And what steps!  He sends us his Son.  He gives him to us. “It pleased God to seek love” (Bossuet).  “God is Love”.  “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son”.  “He didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us”.

2
THROUGH THE SON’S HEART

The Saint now contemplates the Incarnate Word offering himself freely and from the first instant to all the wishes of his Father for the accomplishment of his great plan of love.  He admires the depth and extension of the “Ecce Venio” which is to become his normal state and which will lead him to the supreme sacrifice.
On entering the world … The dispositions of the Son… spontaneous reaction … the whole of the Gospel, especially St John’s shows us this attitude of Jesus;  e.g. such words as these which are not to be forgotten: “doing nothing of himself” when we are thinking of Him through whom all things were made, divine Wisdom  “The Son can do nothing of himself ….  I talk as my Father taught me.”

3
TO THE HEART OF ST MICHAEL AND TO OURS

Here is the Saint’s answer to such love, and to such an example-  Bossuet is forgotten; it is the Saint’s heart which speaks, a wounded heart , a wound which is all more the more painful because of the indifference of too many souls, even priests.  He then offers himself and with him, offers us too.  “This is how God loved us”
The central phrase:  “At the sight of this extraordinary spectacle”.  Here we are at last!  As well as our ideal we also have our birth certificate.  As the Church was born from the open side of her Crucified Lord, we were born from the wounded heart of St Michael. And like St Michael, every Betharramite will be a man of “Here I am” “What do you want of me?”.  How great it is to be at God’s disposition!”
The Betharramite is in a constant state of oblation.  Not just available, but vowed, consecrated, given. Abandoned through love to the Divine Will.  In a constant state of oblation like the Son of God, with Him and in Him.

We are men of God’s Will.  A Spirit of dedication, the Betharramite dedication which is easy to recognise.  No problem for anyone already offered.  It’s natural.  Nobody considers himself wonderful!
A Spirit of freedom, of withdrawal, of dejection.  “instruments stripped of everything, above all of themselves”. “I count for nothing” (Fr Buzy).  It’s a question of following Christ humble and obedient”
Don’t take ones self too seriously.  “Work hard “.  “We are but useless servants”  A Spirit of simplicity, fruits of self-effacement.  A Spirit of discretion… “ without delay but no hurry, without reserve but no waste, without a backward glance but without insistence.

Joseph Mirande, SCJ