Fraternity

The multitude of those who had become believers were of one heart and soul

Acts of the Apostles 4:32

Of the earliest Christians, with a very simple but meaningful expression, the Acts of the Apostles tell us that they “stood together.” The Magnificat Community precisely experienced this spontaneously from the very beginning: if Jesus is the center of everyone’s attention, approaching him inevitably brings us closer to one another, we share the same space and life becomes common; the breath of the Spirit then forms and animates the Community.

The form that community life has taken is embodied in Fraternities of people, living in a space that is not too wide territorially. The breadth may correspond to a parish or a city, or a municipality; especially in the early days when a Fraternity is being formed the area from which people come may even be larger.

For a fraternity to exist, there must be at least three allies who concretely have the opportunity to attend each other assiduously and communicate the experience of God to each other.

The community experience in a Fraternity has some indispensable elements that characterize it:

the weekly charismatic community prayer meeting.;
the path of growth;
The common participation in Holy Mass and Eucharistic Adoration.;
community days and retreats;
evangelization;
the service.

Weekly charismatic community prayer meeting

This is the center of it all: to spend a communal time in the presence of God to praise Him, adore Him, listen to His Word, respond chorally to His invitations.
This is a meeting open to all where, in the style of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the Holy Spirit is asked to be the “director”: therefore, there is no set pattern, letting the Lord act as He wishes in the body of the gathered brothers and sisters and in each of them.

This meeting is inspired by what the apostle Paul describes in chapters 12-14 of his first letter to the Corinthians.

The Word of God that characterizes the meeting, received in simplicity and read sequentially over the course of the weeks, not infrequently forms a true “God talk” given to the fraternity, indicating the point of community conversion or priority to focus on.

The experience showed the Community how in such meetings the Lord allows Himself to be encountered, especially by those who participate for the first time feeling the living presence of God in that assembly, speaking and acting.

The path of growth

The path of growth is an annual journey, marked by catechesis prepared by the General Leaders, concerning the deepening of the Word of God and aimed at growth in personal and community life. The path of growth is articulated in periodic meetings lived either in the whole Fraternity gathered or in smaller groups, called Cenacles, made up of a maximum of eight brothers and sisters.

In the walk meetings, the annual theme is deepened through the exchange of reflections on God’s word and life review, encouraging each other on the path of conversion.

In such meetings, especially in the more restricted ones, one grows in mutual knowledge and enters into confidence, opening oneself – in the confidentiality one promises to observe regarding what is confided there – to becoming progressively better and better known, until one really becomes one heart and one soul, putting everything in common.

In addition to the organized meetings, the members of the Community, according to what is possible, look for other opportunities in their daily lives to fraternize and make community life joyful, to learn to welcome each person as a living stone and dwelling place of Christ.

Joint participation in Holy Mass and Eucharistic Adoration

Allies who form a Fraternity know that they can build their personal and community life with Jesus and on Jesus, so they participate daily in the Eucharist and, at least once a week, in Eucharistic adoration.

When this is made possible by the place where they live they try to live these two moments not as personal “devotions,” but with the awareness that they are part of a larger body, that of the Fraternity. Therefore they prefer to participate in the same Mass attended by most of their Community brothers and sisters.

The fraternity itself tries to have its own time of weekly Eucharistic adoration, organizing and animating it properly, open to all.

Community days and retreats

To foster fraternal life and welcome, each fraternity frequently organizes community days and, at least once a year, multi-day retreats that are also open to non-members.

On these occasions we pray together, hear the Word of God, celebrate the Eucharist, share and eat together, imitating the early Christian community that was persevering “in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers“(Acts 2:42).

Evangelization

“The Community has arisen for the new evangelization,” says the Preamble to the Community Statute, so where the Community lives, in the Fraternities, is where it evangelizes: with the witness of fraternal life, with targeted activities, with person-to-person proclamation.

Evangelization-rather than being an “activity” of the Fraternity-is constituted by the… Fraternity itself!

Service

Jesus stood in the midst of his own “as one who serves” (Luke 22:27). Following his example, every ally and every fraternity wants to be in the midst of the world serving everyone for the building of the Kingdom of God.

The first area of service of course is the Church, to whose pastors the Fraternity generously offers availability, according to the charisms received, for what it needs.

Then there is the whole internal sphere of the Community, particularly with the care of people who come to it to receive evangelization, pastoral care, care, love. Each ally, according to the commitment made in the Covenant commits to at least one stable service assignment entrusted to him or her.