My very dear Brothers,

I greet you all with my profound love of Jesus Christ, with my immense confidence in each of you and in all Eudists, Eudist Associates and the Friends of the Eudist Family. May you be assured that I will dedicate my heart, my will, my intelligence and my spirit of service to fulfill this obedience.

I would like to first remember Father Michel Gérard, a good man, a person of class, an admirable human being. God has called him to reside in His kingdom, but Father Gérard continues to be with us, to give us strength, to inspire us courage and to engage us in a search for new roads along which to journey. I invite you to always have a word of gratitude for Father Michel.

You have just elected a General Superior. I hope that the words written by Father Rafaël García in October 1966 to Father Arturo Echeverri when the latter was elected Assistant General residing in Rome will not apply to me: « You do not know how I experienced your nomination … My arms dropped; I lost all illusions. Now you, via dei Querceti, you will accede to the terrace via the marble staircase, you will look at the buildings, probably from a distance, admiring the Coliseum, occasionally visiting the Curia, that is you will do idiotic things. You had a vast domain in which to create, to express yourself, to live your life to the fullest. You have fallen into flattery … this is unbelievable. » I hope that Father Raphaël García Herreros will not be irritated by this statement. From heaven above, where he lives surely, may he accompany me, grant me strength and intercede for me to our Lord.

I must confess my sin and my unworthiness to the Lord and to you as I assume a responsibility which requires such holiness. I read number 128 of our Constitutions attentively; it speaks of the qualities of the General Superior. I must frankly admit that, beyond being a priest and having at least five years of priestly ordination (that is certain given that I am celebrating 25 years of priestly ordination this year), I have only a minimum of the required qualities which are listed therein. I therefore ask forgiveness for my life, for my lack of fidelity, for my indifferences. My brothers, I entrust myself to your goodness, to your mercy, to your understanding and to your prayers so that the Father of all mercy shows compassion to the sinner that I am.

I express my sincere gratitude to each of you for thinking that I am able to assume this obedience which I accept notwithstanding the concerns that such a responsibility entails and with the confidence I have in Jesus to whom we owe everything and with the assurance that our Founder and Father, Saint John Eudes, will continue to support me, give me the share of his spirit which is mine as his successor and the strength needed to give my life for the glory of God and the good of the Church.

Of course, I am grateful to God, to the God of Life who has manifested His Divine will for me. I accept His will with all my heart. I have learned to live in confidence as I bear witness to his constant presence in every detail of my life. 2

I became familiar with Minuto de Dios when I was studying engineering and mathematics; this was in 1973 and I was 18 years of age. Every week I took the bus two or three times to visit the Minuto de Dios neighbourhood. As I returned home by bus, I would sing the following verse to myself: "Without holiness, no one will see the Lord, but I know I will see the Lord and His Spirit will sanctify me." I repeated this song non stop to myself. I felt a lot of emotion as I visited Minuto de Dios because it was and still is today like walking on sacred ground, chosen by God; my heart was beating with emotion and I promised the Lord to be a saint.

With time and through personal development and my life circumstances, I understood that holiness is very serious, that it is a blessing and achieving it is not easy. However, I continued to struggle, I met admirable people who guided my journey, who were witnesses by their life, especially Eudist Fathers Rafaël García Herreros and Diego Jaramillo, who is the Dean of this Assembly, and who, instead of focusing on my sins and on my weaknesses, always encouraged me, as good fathers would, to continue to offer myself to Jesus, my Lord and Saviour.

I can say for sure that the most powerful reality in my life was the presence of the Holy Spirit; without a doubt, today I can say that I owe the Spirit everything, that I experience His presence and that I always want to belong to Him. I learned to love Jesus, to adjust my life and my aspirations to His infinite love, I sought to discover His will and to experience the freedom of detachment; I felt that my life, which was happy amidst the struggles and the mistakes (faux pas) was a perpetual uprooting from everything and everyone, to leave behind my comfort zone, to leave the shore, confident in Divine Providence.

Why am I telling you this? Because I believe my life story is similar to yours; every Eudist has his own life story, each has his own personal journey. If we reflect on this journey, we will discover that it is God who has chosen us, who is searching for us, who wants us to be his very own, that he needs us for his work, not our work but his, not our work but the work of the Congregation. Each of us has a similar story. I am sure that each of your life stories is more provoking, more beautiful, more moving than mine. That makes us Eudists: life stories of people blessed by God, who have have accepted to share these blessings found in the life of each Eudist.

In the complete works of Saint John Eudes we find the following quotes which you are all familiar with :

2. To labour for the salvation of souls through our mission and through other priestly responsibilities, in the footsteps of the Apostles, which is also the wonderful and divine work of Our Lord, so wonderful and so divine it would seem that there is neither more wonderful nor more divine work … divinorum divinissimum. 3

I am certain that we have all read these words which are included in the Introduction to chapter II of our Constitutions. These words are chrystal-clear and firm. Generally we state that our Congregation has two fundamental tasks: collaborate in the process of evangelization and in the formation of people who can proclaim the Gospel. (Cst 10) We are talking about these particular tasks, reflecting and acting in various ways upon them.

However, for Saint John Eudes, the Congregation has three main objectives. The first objective states that the Congregation must provide each Eudist "with the means to achieve perfection and holiness in conformity with their ecclesiastical status". I am repeating myself and I ask you to please excuse me for that. The Congregation has a fundamental duty to help each Eudist to achieve perfection and holiness.

I would like to share what I have been thinking about lately: the real challenge we face as Eudists from all Provinces, all over the world, is to make our Congregation a real « School of Holiness ». From that moment, « new roads » will appear, the true innovation that we are seeking to achieve. Steve Job, who died recently, defined "innovation" as « the art of giving people what they want before they realize they want it ». We could apply this definition to our mission: give Jesus, before people realize that what they want is Jesus!

We are living Christmas time during which we remember the Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Jean Eudes wanted each house in the Congregation, each local community to be a living image of the Holy Family; he wanted all the virtues which reigned to the highest degree in the Holy Family to be practiced in each Community; he wanted each house to be "a school of virtue and of holiness for all who would visit and that each priest of the Congregation be truly the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the wonderful perfume of Jesus-Christ in all places, a visible angel and a vase of honour and of sanctification, useful to the Lord and prepared to do all kinds of good works".

These words lead us to think that it is impossible to successfully mission or to be accountable for seminaries if we do not work steadfastly to achieve the holiness of each Eudist by developing Christian virtues.

Jean Eudes discovered very early what it meant to be a saint and he sought saintliness with all his heart. He was a sincere, authentic, man of audacity with a heroic soul. When John Eudes published "Life and The Kingdom of Jesus in Christian Souls" (La Vie et le royaume de Jésus dans les âmes chrétiennes), he was sure of his thinking. When he suggested bringing Christ into the heart of all the faithful, we can rest assured that he had practiced this himself all this life. The essential components of the thoughts of John Eudes can be found in "Life and Kingdom" (Vie 4

et Royaume). He was thirty six years of age at the time he wrote this work. When he founded the Congregation, he was forty six years of age, that is five years after writing Vie et Royaume. It can therefore not be expected that he would have implemented any major innovations.

It is well known by all that many years past before John Eudes provided the Congregation with written legislative documents. However, around the year 1648, he wrote the documents called Latin Rules: the Rules of Our Lord Jesus and the Most Holy Virgin Mary. It is important to note that these Rules, laced with quotes from scripture to emphasize the important aspects of the message, correspond to the content of Life and Kingdom (Vie et Royaume)..

In Life and Kingdom (Vie et Royaume) John Eudes wonders about how to make Jesus live and reign in us. To this end, he describes four tenets of Christian life: faith, hatred of sin, detachment from the world and prayer. He says once these tenets are established in a Christian’s life, he must work on developing Christian virtues. This means that implanting Jesus-Christ in the believer’s heart requires that his life be solidly founded on the practice of virtues.

Priests who enter the Congregation must follow the same road. John Eudes proposes four tenets for the Congregation: divine grace, the Lord’s cross, Divine Will and a special devotion to Jesus and Mary. Thereafter, in the Rule of Our Lord Jesus, he reminds us that we renounce Satan, his works and his seductions; we must adhere to Christ, be cloaked with His image, stay with Him, live through Him, with Him and in Him, let ourselves be guided by the Spirit of Christ. The aim of the Rule of the Virgin Mary is to initiate all the sons of this Congregation to Christian and priestly virtues, a task which remains very important even today.

The logic is the same: tenets of Christian life, tenets of priestly life: reject evil in all its forms and adhere to the sole good, Jesus-Christ, in order to obtain the gift of the Holy Spirit. The logic is simple, easy and yet confounding; even though it dates from the past, it remains extremely current. It is the same logic which was proposed by the Bishops of Latin America, gathered in Aparecida (Brazil) in 2007, in Chapter IV of their declaration, in which missionary vocations to holiness are discussed.

As I read the Latin Rules and the Spiritual Directory, I encountered a theme which was a very meaningful theme for Saint John Eudes and which we may have neglected. This theme might be a key to the future of the Congregation of the XXIst century. In my opinion, we must not seek to discover new formulae; that which is truly innovative, the "new roads", will be found in the heart and the spirit of each and every Eudist. We are challenged to rethink and to recreate the Congregation for the XXIst century. This implies that we consider and be very attentive to what is happening around us and that we fervently and passionately begin anew to live the spirit of John Eudes just as it was lived in the XVIIth century.

Without a doubt, if we are sincere and humble, the greatest challenge we face is to make the Congregation a School of Holiness by being virtuous. If we attain this objective, I am certain the remainder will follow: new candidates will enter a probationary period, new ministries will evolve to enable us to continue the mission; new Eudists will become available to dedicate their life to the Kingdom of God ; we 5

will resolve our economic challenges. And I believe the key will be to renew the emphasis on Christian and priestly virtues; to rekindle in each member and in the Congregation the meaning of these virtues. By so doing, we will certainly actualize the targeted projects which will make us very proud and which will be left as our legacy.

Saint John Eudes wanted his sons to live a life similar to Jesus’ and to Mary’s life, a life which he described as a crucified life, detached from the goods of the earth, which includes mortification of our senses and our passions; a saintly spiritual life, united to God through continuous adoration, praise and love through frequent heartfelt invocations; an earnest life of labour, fleeing inactivity, engaging in concern about that which is useful for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters; an exemplary and edifying fraternal life through the practice of modesty and humility; a life of submission because Jesus lived in submission to Mary and Mary lived in submission to Joseph. So it is, we must live submission to one another.

Saint John Eudes described in great detail the spirit of this Congregation and he said that he who would not have this spirit or he who would not strive to have this spirit should not be considered among his true sons. He said we should totally renounce to a worldly spirit and commit ourselves to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. John Eudes wanted each of his sons to reach holiness and that the Congregation become a School of Holiness.

To this end, we must develop the following virtues : religion, charity, gratitude, zeel for the salvation of souls, humility, obedience, love of poverty, chastety, sobriety and mortification, modesty, simplicity, truth and fidelity, silence…and, had he had more time at his disposal, he would have expected more from us by developing a more lengthy list of virtues.

However, what did he expect by proposing this journey to achieve virtues? Our Father Eudes, sought without a doubt, that his sons become truly virtuous through concrete exercises. Saint Paul says: « (…) fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable. » (Philippians 4, 8).

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions."(1803).

I am thoroughly convinced that the Congregation is an assembly of virtuous people; because of this, I intend to seek for each of us and for all of us the road of virtue to enable us to give our best. May we seek good as our only treasure.

I do not believe that our only challenge is to solve the problems we are facing : a decrease in our membership, an increase in the average age of members, fragile communities, finances in a state of crisis, a self-centered attitude of many, the departure of a few of our members. We will overcome all these problems if we create the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, for ourselves and for the Church, that is a 6

School of Holiness, a School where each Eudist is a spiritual leader. Our world thirsts for authentic spiritual leaders who can be recognized and who can be available to lead others.

I would suggest to you that we resolve to journey along the road of virtues because holiness attracts, is contagious and can make people happy; the remainder will overflow. We only need to think that we can be better, that we can give the best of ourselves, that we can renew life within the Congregation by renewing the life of each Eudist; this will be achieved by the development of the virtues proposed by John Eudes and which are a gift of the Spirit.

Obviously, this is not only a human effort; we must surrender ourselves totally to Jesus and lift up our heart to him while saying:

We only need to surrender ourselves entirely and to allow ourselves to be filled by the Holy Spirit and to ask God in the words used by John Eudes in Vie et Royaume: "Baptize-me Lord, with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and of the flame announced by the Precursor. Destroy sin in me and burn me in the flames of your love."

If we struggle to achieve holiness as journey along the road of virtues, not as a rhetorical proposition but rather as a life option, the Congregation will become a School of Holiness which will totally accomplish hits mission in the Church and in the contemporary world. Many young people filled with the love of Jesus-Christ, with a heart filled with the Spirit will come forward; our Congregation will become ardently missionary capable of facing the challenges of the new evangelization, with disciples who are capable of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus-Christ; we will show audacity and we will be innovators ready to open new roads for priestly and pastoral formation which will be according to Jesus’ wishes; we will work hand in hand with the laity and with our Associates who will want to participate in the School of Holiness; Divine Providence will provide the necessary financial resources because our works will be God’s work. Finally, I invite you to exercise your right to holiness as a fundamental right of this Congregation, as a gift that God wishes to give us at the end of this Assembly.

In His Apostolic Letter « Porta Fide », Benedict XVI invited us to live a Year of Faith, one of the three theological virtues. This year will begin October 11, 2012, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening the Second Vatican Council and it will end on the Solemnity of the Feast of Christ, King of the Universe, November 24, 2013. I suggest that we all live this year with intensity as it is Faith which will support all our realizations.

We must also remember that in 2043, our Congregation will celebrate its 400th anniversary of foundation. In 2018, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary will celebrate its 375th anniversary. The 400th anniversary is only thirty years away. We barely have sufficient time to renew the spirit of our beloved Congregation for it to be 7

the "lamp that burns and lights its surroundings; burns with the love of God and shines amidst the world because of its ministries".

During 2013, I suggest we organize an International Eudist Congress which will provide a forum for dialogue and for reflection about what we are and what we do ; at the end of this Congress – if it is possible and if the General Council is in agreement – I suggest we call an extraordinary General Assembly which will establish a road map for the next thirty years ; this map will allow us to create new realities and to show audacity in creating new roads for holiness, for mission, for formation and for mercy for the Church and the world of the future.

In conclusion, let us surrender ourselves to the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, full of grace because she is a living example of virtue; may she be an example to each of us in the definite consent she gave to God’s will for her ; she thereby engaged in the one and only School of Holiness which has the Holy Spirit as interior Master who will lead us to being virtuous.

John Eudes, inspired by the ten salutations of Saint Mathilda who honoured the Heart of Mary, composed the Ave Cor Sanctissimum; it contains all the virtues which John Eudes wanted to propose to the sons of this Congregation.

John Eudes qualified the Blessed Heart of Jesus and of Mary with thirteen virtues; it is precisely these virtues which he sought for the sons of this Congregations. Essentially we can say that the heart of each Eudist will be saintly when it it is filled with tenderness, with humility, with purity, with fervour, with happiness, with mercy, in summary when our heart becomes a heart which loves as Jesus’ and Mary’s heart loved. Is this utopia? I do not believe so. Let us be confident as we embark on this journey, let us be filled with confidence and hope.

If it was only a question of our human efforts, I believe our cause would be lost. In the Ave Cor, John Eudes proposes the remainder of the road in this way:

May our journey be to adore, to love, to offer, to sacrifice and we will be purified and enlightened; then Jesus will live and reign in the heart of every Eudist.

As I said at the beginning, I do not claim to be an innovator; I suggest we go back to that which is essential, that which is definitive. If we are faithful to the road proposed 8

by John Eudes, we will fully receive the blessing of our Founders, of our Superiors and of the Fathers of this Congregation, the Lord Jesus and His blessed Mother Mary.

May the Heart of Jesus and of Mary teach us to proclaim, for ourselves and for the world, the Ave Cor which contains and recreates the spirit of virtue which John Eudes dreamed of for this Congregation.

Camilo Bernal Hadad

Fusagasugá, January 6, 2012