BECOME A LAY MSC
Internation Meeting of the Chevalier Family – Brazil, 2017
The Laity of the Chevalier Family are a very large group of men and women from every walk of life, living in many countries and cultures spread around the globe. At its most basic level, to be a member of the Laity of the Chevalier Family requires a commitment to live a life of love, as best we can, wherever we find ourselves in our family, professional and community lives.
To deepen and live more fully that life of love, we draw on a particular focus on Jesus we call Spirituality of the Heart. We believe, and have experienced for ourselves, that Jesus’ compassionate heart reveals God’s unconditional love for every human being, especially those who are poor, excluded or treated unjustly. This love extends to all of creation, and the Holy Spirit has poured out this love in our hearts, empowering us to follow the way of Jesus. We know that it is this love that has made a difference in our own lives, adding deeper meaning and purpose, and can potentially make a difference to the pain and suffering of the rest of the world.
And so, we live our lives undertaking our obligations, while at the same time, looking for every opportunity to go beyond those commitments to be a source of kindness, understanding, compassion, forgiveness, gentleness, humility and simplicity to those we encounter. In other words, the mark of our lives is to try to live our whole life in a spirit of family.
These are very lofty ideas to which we can only aspire. But, we do believe that the healing of the world and hope for a better future can begin to come from the commitment of thousands of people who do their best to follow the way of Jesus and be God’s Heart on Earth. We look to Mary, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, to show us the way.
From the very beginning, Jules Chevalier had a vision of professed members and lay people working together to undertake our shared mission of offering the Sacred Heart of Jesus to others. The Chevalier Family is comprised of professed members of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Daughters of our Lady of the Sacred Heart and the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart and many thousands of lay people. Together we form one family and as such we are interdependent.
The Laity of the Chevalier Family are developing a system of national and international structures to support local groups and to create an international network of people who have learned to believe in God’s love for them and have allowed that love to transform their lives and we invite those who are interested to join us.
