A) The Plan of Life for BM Lay Dehonians

Baptismal Vocation - We, who are the Lay Dehonians (LD), are Christians who live our baptismal vocation in the family, school, professional, political and ecclesial environment in which we find ourselves inserted. We also propose to follow the call to live according to a specific charism: the charism. We live this plan starting from a commitment which we publicly take on. Every year this commitment is renewed during the community celebration of the Holy Mass held on August 12th, the day we remember the death of Fr. Dehon and celebrate the “Day of the Dehonian Family”. The mission of the LD is that of making the Church present in the heart of the world, and the world present in the heart of the Church.

Origin - Our origin goes back to the spiritual aspirations and apostolic anxiety of Fr. Leo John Dehon. He was born in La Capelle, in the north of France, on March 14, 1843 and he died in Brussels, in Belgium, on August 12, 1925. Guided by the Holy Spirit, he nurtured an intense love for the Heart of Jesus.

Our Spirituality - In the open side and pierced heart of the Savior, Fr. Dehon saw the accomplishment of the highest expression of the love of God the Father for humanity. He understood that the cause of the great ills which society was suffering, was the rejection of this love. Strongly drawn to give a response, he wished to make the whole of his life an expression of love and oblation.

The Foundation - In 1878 Fr. Dehon founded the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart (Dehonians). But the Dehonian charism was diffused also among the local lay people, and this was the origin of groups of lay people who felt themselves called by God to live their baptism under the inspiration of the Dehonian charism. It was thus that in 1889 Fr. Dehon founded an association of lay faithful which had a diocesan character: the Reparatory Association. Subsequently Fr. Dehon founded yet another association of lay people; this one had a pontifical character: Adveniat Regnum Tuum, approved by the Pope on March 14, 1923. We, as LD, consider ourselves to be heirs of these initiatives of the Founder.

In BM - When Fr. Dehon founded the Reparatory Association it provided incentives for its being constituted also in several cities in Brazil: Santa Catarina, San Paolo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro. In the course of the 60s and 70s, as was the case with other traditional associations, these too entered a critical period. But the seed did not die. It started growing again, starting from 1987, with the meetings of the ex-seminarians of Santa Catarina. Ever since 1988 the laity who were doing ministry work in the parishes, together with the S.C.J. religious, were presented with a proposal. It started in Taubaté; and then on to Rio de Janeiro, San Paolo, Minas Gerais, Paranà and Rio Grande do Sul; they formed small parish groups of study, prayer and reflection (more information can be found in DEHONIAN 79 - 1991/1).

The Dehonian Family - In 1990, at the first meeting of the LD, in Rome, the leaders of the various groups - who recognize Leo Dehon as “father” of their spiritual life and consider each other, since they participate in the same spirituality and mission, as brothers and sisters - agreed to get together under a common name: THE DEHONIAN FAMILY. There are various ways of belonging to this family: consecrated to the religious life (the S.C.J. Congregation, the Women Religious of the Marians of the Sacred Heart); consecrated with vows but being secular (The Missionary Company of the Sacred Heart, in Italy, and the Missionaries of the Merciful Love of Jesus, in Portugal); consecrated by means of a promise; and then there are the new foundations, even if they are not yet well defined, such as Betania, San Giovanni Battista, Sacred Heart, etc. There are also various groups of lay people who are recognized as belonging to the Dehonian Family: in Brazil there is the MDJ (Mission for Dehonian Youth), and there is also our group, the Dehonian Laity, whose belonging to the Family is based on a specific “commitment” (cf. n.22). We want to live with the other members of the Dehonian Family bearing witness to a love similar to that which we live in our own families.

The Dehonian Charism - The identity of all the members of the Dehonian Family takes its definition from our “charism”. To put it very briefly we can say that the Dehonian charism can be described as “union with the Heart of Christ in His reparatory oblation to the Father in favor of humanity”. It involves three central and inseparable elements:

1. Union with the Heart of Christ... - Communion with God and with one’s brethren is the principle and the foundation of Dehonian charism. It is a communion so intense that it makes each one of us “another Christ”, as St. Paul so wonderfully expresses it when he writes “insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). We have been shaped by the love of God, that is why we propose to have within ourselves the same feelings and attitudes of the Heart of Jesus. He had attitudes of listening, availability, respect, service, dialogue, tenderness, welcome, warmth. We express our union with Jesus through a great love for the Word of God and for the Eucharist; through frequent adoration of the Eucharist and solidarity with our brethren, especially the poor and the marginalized, in whom we see the suffering face of Christ (cf. Mt 25:35-45 and Puebla 31-39). We also live communion through our commitment in the community, in harmony with the parish’s and/or the dioceses’s total parochial ministry, participating in the group of LD and living the ecumenical dimension of the Christian faith. In a particular way we feel ourselves called to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances in which it could not be the salt of the earth except through the faithful Christian laity (cf. LG 33). Fr. Dehon expressed this first dimension of his charism with the biblical heading: Sint Unum (cf. Jn 17:22), that is, that all may be one!

2 ...in His oblation to the Father... - Oblation means readiness to do the will of the Father in favor of humanity. It is the generous giving of oneself into the hands of the Father. It is abandonment. It is sacrifice. It is obedience. It is readiness to give even one’s life for one’s brethren. It is the immediate consequence of love. The life of availability and oblation represents the Master’s first attitude. The expression of Jesus and of Mary, ECCE VENIO, is a manifestation of total availability and marks the moment of the incarnation, the first step of all redemption. Together with the apostle John and with Mary His mother, at the foot of the cross, we contemplate, in the open side and the pierced Heart of Christ, the most evocative expression of a love which gives itself until the last drop. (cf. Jn 19:31 ff). Oblation is an essential dimension of the Dehonian charism. It defines our identity... We reaffirm our dedication by renewing our “act of oblation every day”. Fr. Dehon communicated this dimension of his charism with the two well known expressions: Ecce venio (Heb 10:7) and Ecce ancilla (Lk 1:38): “Here I am”.

3 ...as a reparation in favor of humanity - Union with the Heart of Christ in His oblation to the Father makes us collaborators with God in His work of redemption. As our Founder used to say: we want to establish the kingdom of the Heart of Jesus in souls and in society. Reparation defines our mission. It means “welcoming the Spirit” which renews all things (cf. Rom 5:5, 2 Cor 3:6). It is giving a new heart for a new world. It is launching “the civilization of love”. Our reparation today must consist of restoring the face of Christ in so many “faces disfigured by hunger, the consequence of inflation, of the international debt, of social injustices; the disappointed faces which are the fault of the politicians who make promises but never keep them; the faces that are humiliated because their culture is not respected or is indeed despised; the faces that are terrified by daily and indiscriminate violence; the anxious faces of abandoned children who wander through our streets and sleep under the bridges; the suffering faces of women who are humiliated and despised; the tired faces of immigrants who are not received with respect; the faces aged by time and fatigue of those who do not have even the minimum necessary to survive with dignity” (Santo Domingo 178). In such a context speaking of consolation and reparation once more becomes topical. We make reparation with our commitment to works for the promotion of humanity and the transformation of society. We follow in the footsteps of Fr. Dehon in his intense social apostolate. In Latin America we could translate the word “reparation” and place it alongside others which are closer to our sensitive points: ‘liberation’ and ‘reconciliation’. Our Founder summed up his reparatory concern with the expression Adveniat regnum tuum: “Thy kingdom come” (Mt 6:10).

B) The Dehonian Lay Group of Cameroun

A group of Dehonian Laity has existed at Mélomg/Bafoussan, Cameroon, since 1994. It is made up of men and women who are all married. It is still a small group of six members. Their relationships with the Congregation are very good on the spiritual, social and cultural plane. It is to be hoped that similar groups will be constituted in all the S.C.J. parishes in the country. From the point of view of organization this small group meets every first Friday of the month, to pray together and to exchange information coming from the Province. To augment the communion between the various realities of the Dehonian Family we hope that the day we remember Fr. Dehon (March 14) and the Feast of the Sacred Heart will again represent, for one and all, true days of prayer, of reconciliation and of mutual help within the Dehonian Community.

A Point by point outline of the Lay Dehonian Group

1. We call ourselves lay people because we have received all the sacraments except that of ordination, which is reserved for priests, and the vows of male and female religious.

2. Christian lay people are characterized by the way they live their baptismal vocation within their family and within the professional and ecclesial environment in which they are inserted.

3. In order to call ourselves “Dehonian Laity”:

a) Not only is it necessary to belong to a specific group, but one must recognize Father DEHON as the father of our spiritual life and recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters who share the same spirituality and the same mission.

b) Above all it is necessary to belong to a group which has had a baptismal vocation.

c) We must be aware of the fact that a stable choice permits spiritual stability.

d) In addition to having worked with, known and studied with the Dehonians, it is absolutely necessary to recognize Father Dehon as father of our own spiritual life and to diffuse this spirituality in a manner which respects his mission.

e) We must acknowledge that since spirituality and mission are both fundamental points of Father Dehon’s charism, it is necessary that we accept them both and do not try to choose between them.

4. A group can be qualified as Dehonian by the following elements:

- Baptismal vocation;

- Charismatic communion;

- Dehonian spirituality;

- Mission;

- The Path of formation.

a) In speaking of typical interests: we have adhesion to the Dehonian charism, we have an appropriate path of formation, and we have received recognition on the part of the competent authorities of the Church.

b) Groups follow a course of formation for the Christian life and for Dehonian spirituality. This can be collective or individual.

c) We must concentrate most of our energies on formation and spirituality and in that way attract other people who could be together with us, sharing our life and our apostolate, and finally joining our Dehonian Family.

5. In the Group:

a) On the subject of the “spirituality” of Father DEHON’S “mission”, the reference point we use is that of his action in the Church and in the world.

b) The Dehonian values which can characterize a lay person’s style of life are:

- Living the Dehonian charism in its ecclesial and social context;

- Becoming a prophet of love in the world;

- Becoming a servant of reconciliation.

c) Today’s Dehonian lay person can tell the Church and the world that they are called to live a life:

- Where material goods are of little importance;

- Which rises above the hubbub of the commercial world and of consumerism.

d) We are still at the beginning and we think that in the future we will become part of the local Church by promoting our Dehonian identity and our style of life.

6. In Our Group:

a) We are still at the beginning and it is our intention to organize ourselves.

b) Once the group has been structured we will define its functions.

c) We will draft statutes.

7. The Dehonian Laity and the S.C.J.

a) It is not only a spiritual accompaniment but also a preparation to live more actively on the social, cultural and ecclesial plane.

b) We have just started and we are on very good terms with the S.C.J., we hope that everything will continue in this manner.

8. The lay Dehonians are Christians:

- who live their baptismal vocation within their family and within the professional and ecclesial environment;

- whose charism is characterized by the values of Dehonian spirituality;

- who recognize Father DEHON as the father of their own spiritual life.