The Apostolate
Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Nazareth House Apostolate continues the Gospel as expressed in Nazareth. Nazareth is where our Lord spent his hidden life, where “nothing” was coming forth but tables and chairs, where He lived as we must live, where the Son of God was simply the son of Mary and Joseph. The hiddeness and ordinariness of Nazareth is an icon to something beyond self. It is the accepting that people may say of us what others said of him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:46, i.e. can anything good come out of this life of “ordinariness”and “hiddeness”, strategically placed in areas of need, making a difference by entering into the present moment? The formation of this apostolate is our answer and by entering into this answer, we become a residence of mercy for Him.”
Nazareth House Apostolate provides a home for those called to this kind of life: married, single, those living in the market-place and those living in community. Whatever their station, they’re to be a resident of Nazareth (St. Matthew 5:13-16). This is what the Rule teaches as being strategically placed, making a difference. Where there is conflict, members are sent to be this presence. Into the midst of turmoil they bring peace, rendering present the Presence. They confront the darkness by pronouncing the Holy Name of Jesus (2 Chronicles 20:8,9: Zechariah 10:12; Psalms 22:22). We go into the midst of turmoil creating spaces of silence, stillness and solitude that the voice of His Holy Name may be heard, (1Kings 19:12).
Into this spirituality we unite the two vocations of Mary and Martha into an active contemplation, as silence is the activity of solitude and solitude is the activity of stillness. This is to be lived out in the deserts of the day. A desert is a place devoid of support or nourishment relative to life. Today, such a place would not be the physical deserts of remoteness where the first Fathers fled to escape the multiplicity of their lives. The desert today is the modern city, where spiritual support is minimal. Hence, if one were to follow the example of the Fathers, one would most likely take up residency in these cities (deserts) and there confront the darkness (St. John 3: 19)
“Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out.” -Job 24:12
“It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you…men that have hazarded their lives for the Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” -Acts 15:25,26
“I will rise now, and go about the cities in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth.” -Song of Solomon 3:2
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“The Poorer Means”
“Go, sell, give and so become poor. Take up your cross and follow Him into the moment…as leaven into the dough of humanity that it may rise to become bread of Eucharist for the hungry…As leaven, invisible that He might be visible…being flung out to the furthest places by His centrifugal love and at the same time being pulled paradoxically into the centre by His centripetal love…as salt, light, leaven and branch to the edges and to the centre of a savorless, dark, flat and barren world… Establish Houses of Nazareth, reveal Jesus, follow Jesus revealed…poor, as Jesus was poor…Pray always.” – Fr. Seraphim OJN
© 2003 Poorer Means, Nazareth House Apostolate 2003