MARIAN COMMUNITY OF RECONCILIATION IS SOCIETY OF APOSTOLIC LIFE

In a climate of profound joy and immense gratitude to God, having received the Nihil obstat of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Fraternas as we are known, received our approval as a lay Society of Apostolic Life of Diocesan Right.

During the afternoon of Friday January 21, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, the Archbishop of Lima and Primate of Peru, received in his home our General Superior, Alejandra Keen von Wuthenau, and some members of the Superior Council of the Marian Community of Reconciliation; on that occasion he gave them the Decree of Erection by way of which the Marian Community of Reconciliation is declared and ordered to be recognized by all as a Society of Apostolic Life. At the same time the Archbishop approved the Constitutions of the MCR, which, in keeping with Canon 731 of the Code of Canon Law, are the path by which the members of a Society of Apostolic Life “strive for the perfection of charity.”

The Prelate encouraged us, the Fraternas, to “live your lives as a constant donation, because that is why we consecrate our lives in the Church, to give ourselves to others, to serve others and to bring them the faith.”

Our General Superior expressed her gratitude to God for this great blessing for the entire Sodalit Spiritual Family and especially for us, Fraternas: “The Holy Mother Church has recognized us as a Society of Apostolic Life, thus granting us our definitive canonical figure. This is a day, together with Holy Mary, to rise up songs of thanksgiving from the depths of our hearts, and to celebrate in all humility, as we renew our efforts to be the Holy Fraternas that Our Lord wants us to be.”

Immensely grateful for the approval, on Sunday 23 the Fraternas from Lima and Callao participated in Holy Mass celebrated by our Chaplain, Most Reverend José Antonio Eguren, S.C.V., Archbishop of Piura, who exhorted us to bear witness with our lives to the Sodalit Spirituality, to which we have been called as a valid path for the Church. “I ask you all to recognize that it is a blessing what the Lord is asking you, and that demands of you a greater donation,” Archbishop Eguren said.

The Marian Community of Reconciliation is a lay society of Apostolic Life of Diocesan Right founded by Luis Fernando Figari, March 25, 1991. Its members are women who, in response to God’s call, have consecrated our lives to be fully available for the apostolate. Our state as lay consecrated women means that we can be in the world and there proclaim the Lord Jesus with our whole lives.

The Fraternas strive to live our vocation by cooperating actively with God’s grace, making our whole lives be a daily liturgy. Like Holy Mary we try to respond with a free and generous “Yes” to God’s Plan in all concrete circumstances of our lives, so that we can be conformed ever more with the Lord Jesus, the model of full humanity.

Currently there are Fraternas’ communities in nine countries and 19 dioceses in all the Americas, Europe and Oceania.