IWBS: A contemplative, active congregation

History plays a part in the development of religious communities and that is often through acts of obedience to the Church.

We have looked at a religious community of women in the Diocese of Corpus Christi as one that is totally contemplative—the Sisters of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Most of us think of all other communities in the Diocese of Corpus Christi as being active. 

In the 17th century, the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament were founded as a contemplative community committed to love, adore and proclaim Jesus specifically as Jesus the Incarnate Word. The congregation’s founder, Jeanne Chezard de Matel, urged her sisters to build up their relationship with the Person of the Incarnate Word by spending time with Him in contemplation and prayer.

And this they did but with the addition of one active element – the teaching of little girls.  The children came into the cloister to be taught; as they taught, the sisters continued to live a contemplative life. 

In the 19th century a French bishop, Jean Marie Odin, was appointed to all of Texas. Since he did not have sufficient priests and sisters to work with him, in desperation, he went back to France looking for priests and religious to help him.

His request to the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament to send missionaries to Texas was refused because they could not see how this was in line with their contemplative life. However, through the intervention of the pope, they felt obliged to help, and so the first Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament came to Galveston where they spent some time studying English. 

Eventually the Bishop Odin sent them to make a foundation in Brownsville where, because of the presence of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the bishop hoped the Sisters would always have the help of priests belonging to a religious community.         
                                                      
When, in the early 20th century, the Bishop of Corpus Christi begged the Sisters of the Incarnate Word to do whatever was needed for them to be able to minister in the small towns around Corpus Christi, the sisters prayed and reconsidered.  They then made what for them was a momentous decision – the decision to lift the cloister from their order in the Diocese of Corpus Christi.  

This enabled the sisters to live in small communities in the towns around Corpus Christi in order to bring Catholic education there.  It continued in Corpus Christi itself in different parishes and in the Incarnate Word Motherhouse. 

There is, however, no mention in that decision that the sisters were giving up their contemplative spirit.  Their community spirit strives to attain that same balance of a contemplative/apostolic spirit, which was sought in earlier changes. The contemplative/apostolic thrust of the Order remains. 

Cloister is an external reality, which helps in maintaining the contemplative spirit of an order.  The Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament and many other orders have found that the spirit of contemplation can be continued even without the cloister.  The Incarnate Word Constitution expresses this by saying, “As religious people seek God before all things and only Him, they endeavor to combine contemplation with apostolic love. The living out of this contemplative dimension of religious life results in an attitude of continuous and humble adoration of God’s mysterious presence in people, events, and things.  This ecclesial ideal is reflected in the congregational mission: to adore the Incarnate Word and to proclaim the mystery of the Incarnation.”

The call of the Holy Father in his first address to members of Institutes of Consecrated Life, for “the witness of people who live a life totally dedicated to Christ, and prefer nothing to His love,” can be considered especially relevant to Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament. In her autobiography, Jeanne de Matel writes of Jesus’ words to her in prayer, “With humble gratitude, accept My graces, and allow Me to love you and to pour out the torrents of My goodness upon you.” 

The way of holiness, which the Lord preferred for Jeanne, was the way of love, with the initiative taken by the Incarnate Word.  The present constitution of the order summarizes holiness in the following words: “Sisters of the Incarnate Word in this time of New Evangelization are called to live a spirituality of communion centered in Christ and in charity toward others. They strive to balance community living, prayer and action so that none are neglected. 

“The sisters’ bond of community is intended to make them more clearly a sign of the mystery of the Church. The community formed is centered in the Person of the Incarnate Word.  Striving to live in fidelity to the Church, the sisters commit themselves to assist her in meeting contemporary needs. As their primary means of evangelization, they choose Christian education in the multiple forms found in the contemporary Church. In doing so, they are responding to the words of Christ, “Go, therefore, and teach all nations.”

The Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, then, strive to live a contemplative/apostolic life. The contemplative aspect comes from the first choice for the Order in its 17th century in France.  The apostolic aspect comes from the needs of the Church in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  That the Church accepts this combination is shown in the ecclesial approval of the latest Constitution of the Order, given in Rome and dated July 2, 1986.