DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE VERBUM DEI MISSIONARY FAMILY:

With great joy I write these pages to all those who are involved in the Family Verbum Dei: those who, through Verbum Dei, have experienced the treasure of knowing God and the even greater treasure of wanting to share that experience. Alongside the male and female Missionaries and Married Missionaries of the Fraternity you share the same spirituality and mission and you have come to love the Verbum Dei Family as your own family in faith; though living very diverse situations, different states of life, diverse living or cultural conditions, nevertheless, you feel that Verbum Dei is a part of you.

In name of the whole Fraternity I want to give thanks to all of you from the heart for your support during the past Congress. Many of you have shared the preparations, you have contributed suggestions, you have prayed and lived with great intensity this month in which the Holy Spirit has manifested himself abundantly; through your support others of you have made it possible for many missionaries to actually go and participate in the III. General Congress of the Fraternity.

Thank you for your spiritual and material support during the Congress, but more than that thank you for sharing this wonderful adventure of following Jesus along these same missionary paths. As a Missionary Family you help us to safeguard and nurture this treasure that is of such a great benefit for the Church and the whole of humanity. We feel that our mission would not be possible without you; but also our consecrated life, which is the first gift which we can offer to the Church. We are certain that God shows his abundant grace, the treasure of the charism , not in spite of our “ earthen vessels ” but through them (cf. 2 Co 4:7).

United to the missionary prayer of Jesus, we too have prayed to the Father for you and for those who will believe in the love of God through your life, your word and communion (cf. Jn 17.20).

A Family at the service of the Word. Identity and sense of belonging.

The III. General Congress has really been a special moment of grace in our history: we have been able to recall the action of God in the past, learning to interpret together God's work, who always acts both saving and raising us up; we have examined the present as we tried to discern his will for the current moment; we also wanted to discern the future, opening our heart and our minds to the hope which is based on the promises of God and which impels us to be more audacious, to strive beyond the apparent and all human certainties.

The motto chosen for the Congress (“Verbum Dei, a charism at the service of the Word. Identity and sense of belonging”) has helped to approach the diverse subjects which we handled during that month. We focussed on our missionary identity, the central role of the Word in our lives and what it really means to belong to a Fraternity that we regard as our home and family. Nevertheless, this sense of family is not reduced to the members of the Fraternity but it extends to the whole Verbum Dei Missionary Family. We make our own the words of Saint Paul, “There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called …” (cf. Eph 4:4).

This hope is one of the precious fruits of the Congress; since we felt as if God had spoken to us in different ways, the words of Isaiah 54, “Shout for joy, you barren women who bore no children! Break into cries of joy and gladness, you who were never in labour! For the sons of the forsaken one are more in number than the sons of the wedded wife, says Yahweh. Widen the space of your tent, stretch out your hangings freely, lengthen your ropes, make your pegs firm; for you will burst out to right and to left. Your race will take possession of the nations, and people the abandoned cities.”

It is the call to broaden the horizon of the Family Verbum Dei. The Holy Spirit has given us a renewed awareness of the scope of our missionary life: the gift of the Verbum Dei charism cannot be reduced to a small group of members of the Fraternity but rather is a gift for a prophetic, priestly and royal people of God (cf. Ex 19: 5-6).

We felt that the vital space of the Fraternity must widen to the rhythm of the heart of Jesus himself, who chose 12 (cf. Lk 6:12-16), shared his mission with 72 (cf. LK 10:1-24), appeared to 500 (cf. 1 Cor 15:6) and wished that his Word of life could reach all (cf. Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15; 1 Tm 2:4).

After the Resurrection and Pentecost, at the time of the first conversions and the consolidation of the community (cf. Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35) the promise of Joel became clear, “All your children will prophesy”. (cf. Acts 2:14-21).

In the same way that the community of Jesus expanded and planted the word of life everywhere, thus we feel that God is widening the space of Verbum Dei (12, 72, 500, to all humankind), bringing in new forms of belonging and realising this same mission and charism. A missionary heart necessarily will give rise to a missionary communion, a family of disciples and apostles making the Kingdom of God present among people of all races, sexes, social conditions, ages or personal situations; in other words, a Missionary Family at the service of the Word of God.

The Verbum Dei Missionary Family

The same call of God unites the members of the Verbum Dei Missionary Family to participate in the same spirituality and mission of Verbum Dei. God gathers the Verbum Dei Family, choosing people of different ages, states and life situations, who wish to make the Word of God the centre of their life, of the mission, forming part of the same missionary family in different ways

The Word of God, enlightens and harmonises our steps in a particular way of prayer, an evangelical witness, fraternal love and friendship, the celebration of important moments around the sacraments; also our lives are united in the same mission of announcing the Kingdom of God – each one according to his/her capacities and talents, sensitivity and potential. The faithfulness of each one of us to his/her particular call is an encouragement for all the others to persevere beyond all difficulties. This communion, developed while we are listening to God, leads us to share initiatives and suggestions longing that the love of God may reach the women and men of our world.

There are many rooms in my Father's house

The Congress has encouraged us to continue to develop new ways for all those who identify with the Verbum Dei charism. Therefore it is necessary to find a place for each one and that each one finds a place. Truly Verbum Dei has to be shaped by different ways of belonging but each way appropriate to the call and situation of each person; on the other hand, each person who feels this call of God should feel at home and be fruitful; not the fruit that he/she imagines, dreams of or desires but the real fruit which God wishes in the life of every person .

There are many rooms in my Father's house - Jesus says in the Gospel of John (14:2) -. Thus it has to be like that also in the Verbum Dei Missionary Family. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that each one will only feel at home by responding to the voice of God, answering God's call to them; thus each finds their own place to stay and to offer the best of themselves.

All those who in one way or another have known Verbum Dei and feel attracted by that spirit - spiritual harmony - are invited to know and to love Verbum Dei, to love it as their own family and as their home, to participate in the common mission in whatever way they can. Since this family is for all of us, all members should rejoice in it, celebrate life within it, grow in love within it, and teach it to others. It is in this way that many missionary miracles will happen and Verbum Dei can be a gift for the Church and the suffering Humanity of Jesus in today's world.

We need you! Nobody is unneeded for Verbum Dei to be Verbum Dei. But in order for it to be so in its fullness we need paths of discernment, consolidation, a visible structure, building up of appropriate structures, and suitable ways to do God's will.

Widen the space of your tent, do not hold back…

With this renewed sensitivity to the Verbum Dei Family, the III: Congress has asked the General Superiors of Verbum Dei to create a committee for the Verbum Dei Family and to organize a Symposium in summer 2009. Thus a way is opening for all of us, in which the Holy Spirit will guide us in the configuration and making visible the project of a Missionary Family according to the heart of God.

As many of you know, in October 2008, Benedict XVI has convoked a Synod of Bishops with the motto: “The Word of God in the life and the mission of the Church”. This news is an incentive for the journey of Verbum Dei as a community dedicated to the Word. If, on the one hand, we can be enriched by this reflection of the Church, surely -- on the other hand -- we will be able to contribute to the Church the experience and reflection of a Family in whose heart there is the treasure of the Word of God, shaped in multiple forms and enriching the mission of the Church in many complementary ways.

Among the fruits desired by creating a committee for the Verbum Dei Family and the convocation of a symposium on the Verbum Dei Family are: to encourage the mission and apostolic dynamism of the Verbum De Family and to project its expansion; to listen to the different realities and experiences of the Family; to study, to reflect and to unify criteria referring to the definition of what the Verbum Dei Family is and the different forms of belonging and apostolic performance; to gather, and to offer documents that could give light in order to regulate juridically and to configure the universal Verbum Dei Family.

Later on we will share suggestions to prepare the symposium on the Verbum Dei Family. For now we wanted to start with a simple initiative that can be a first step. On the Webpage of the Fraternity ( www.fmverbumdei.com ) we will open up a space for the Verbum Dei Family. With the desire to know each other a bit better and to become more aware of all those who make up this family we invite you to send some photos, either a personal one, a family one or ones of different groups. We would encourage you to add some information (the community you participate in, place, who you are). And if you want to write some small greeting, brief testimony, graffitti…. Feel free to do so! In this way we take a first important step, to get to know each other… to know something about each other… to be able to pray for each other having in our hearts and memories concrete faces with names. The material can be send to the email address: famvd@fmverbumdei.com

Greetings to all the members of the Verbum Dei missionary Family with the desire that the universal bonds that unite us in missionary communion may be strengthened and grow.

Loeches ( Madrid ), 22th of March of 2007,

Antonio Velasco ,

President of the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity

“Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching, then use it for teaching. Let the preachers deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent, and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully.“ (Rm 12:6-8)