Article 3: His Exit from this World

a. Passion
134 According to the plan of the most Holy Trinity it was necessary that Jesus Christ suffer to save all men: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (Jn 3:14-15). Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? (Lk 24:26). And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer... and be killed, and after three days rise again. (Mk 8:31). If in the actual salvific economy Christ’s Passion was necessary, then it will also be necessary for us to suffer. If there were another way to Heaven, Jesus Christ would have followed it, and moreover, he would have taught it. However, He did not. Christ went by means of the royal road of the Holy Cross and He taught us to go by it: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk 9:23). Saint Cyril of Jerusalem teaches: “Jesus, the Sinless, was crucified for you; and will not you be crucified for Him who was crucified for you?”[168]

The Cross in our life
135 Therefore, we need to love the living cross of toils, humiliations, insults, tortures, pains, persecutions, misunderstandings, annoyances, disgraces, scorn, shame, slanders, death... and be able to say with Saint Paul: I die every day (1 Cor 15:31), in order to nail in our heart the One who was nailed to the cross for us.[169]

136 We must have an intense desire for the cross: “Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love of our love.”[170] It is necessary to pray for this grace: For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should …suffer for his sake (Phil 1:29); and, especially, to ask for the grace of the science of the cross and of the joy of the cross that are only achieved in the school of Jesus Christ.

Love of the Cross
137 Therefore, we need a great devotion to the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ: “Everything is in the Passion. It is there where one learns the knowledge of the saints.”[171] The love that is not born from the cross of Christ is weak, “for any part that we look at, either on the part of the person that suffers, or of the things that one suffers, or for the end one suffers them, the cross is the event which is the highest, the most divine and secret that has happened in the world since God created it, neither will it happen until the end of the world.”[172] The Cross “was the pulpit of the Preacher, the altar of the Sacrificing Priest, the arena of the Combatant, the workshop of the Wonder-worker.”[173] This devotion is fleshed-out:

- with the knowledge and love of the gospel stories of the Passion (Mt 26:27; Mk 14:15; Lk 22:23; Jn 18:19),

- in the theology of the Passion and Redemption,

- in the contemplation of the Holy Places of Jerusalem, the crucifixes, the Way of the Cross, the beautiful texts of the “Imitation of Christ” which speak about it,[174] the Eucharistic perpetuation of the Passion and Cross – second act of the one drama of the Redemption, the cross in our life that is so well explained in the “Letter to the Friends of the Cross” by Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort

- in the fervor to bring the grace of Redemption to all reality: to man, to the whole man and to all men, to married couples and family, to the culture, to the political, economic and social life, to the international life of the peoples – especially to the problem of peace; in summary, to all the great contemporary problems analyzed in the second part of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes.[175]

138 In the Sacred Scriptures we are taught that many men live as enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18). It is because they reject the cross: and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Mt 10:38); they reduce[176] and diminish it: let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him (Mt 27:42); they avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ (Gal 6:12); they do not preach the entire message: But if I, brethren, still preach circumcision… In that case the stumbling block of the cross has been removed! (Gal 5:11).

139 The incarnate Word teaches us to love the Cross: And he said to all…let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Lk 9:23). We have examples of this from the saints who always carried the sufferings of Jesus in their own bodies,[177] completing in themselves what is lacking in the Passion of Christ.[178]

140 We should not want to know anything except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). This doctrine of the Cross[179] must be what we preach: the folly of what we preach... Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles (1 Cor 1:21-23). In this cross we must boast, in imitation of the Apostle: But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14).

141 This Cross prepares for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2Cor 4:17), because the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Rom 8:18). That is why the Lord himself encourages us: Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mt 5:11-12)

142 There is no school greater than the Cross, in which Jesus Christ teaches his disciples how they should be: the cross is “for us the supreme Pulpit of the truth of God and of man.”[180] That is why “in the school brought forth from the Incarnate Word we understand that it is divine wisdom to accept his Cross with love: the cross of humility of the reason in face of the mystery; the cross of the will in the faithful fulfillment of all moral, natural, and revealed law; the cross of one’s own duty, arduous and not so gratifying at times; the cross of patience in illness and in every day difficulties; the cross of the tireless zeal to respond to our own vocation; and the cross of the struggle against the passions and the attacks of evil.”[181] The cross is the Pulpit because in “it the glory of the Love disposed to all has been revealed.”[182] The Cross is the only way of life, the sign of the predestined, the scepter of the kingdom of holiness, “the fountain of all blessings, it is the cause of all graces; through it, those who believe receive strength instead of weakness, glory instead of shame, life instead of death.”[183]

143 The saints of all time, true words of God,[184] show us the necessity of the cross in our lives: “those who suffer for Christ are justly glorified along with Christ as long as they suffer with Him”[185] “Whoever wishes to lead a perfect life needs only to despise what Christ despised on the Cross and to desire what He desired”[186] “Jesus is loved and served on the Cross and crucified with Him, not by any other way.”[187]

144 Those same saints burned with desire for the Cross: “If the Head is crowned with thorns, can the members expect to be crowned with roses? If the Head is jeered at and covered with dust on the road to Calvary, can the members expect to be sprinkled with perfumes on a throne?”[188] “Those who truly love the cross of Christ our Lord find rest when they encounter these trials, and that they die when they flee from them or are without them.”[189] “To die, Lord, or to suffer.”[190] “I want and choose poverty with Christ poor rather than riches, opprobrium with Christ replete with it rather than honors; and to desire to be rated as worthless and a fool for Christ, Who first was held as such, rather than wise or prudent in this world.”[191] “[This] is for my benefit… Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let breakings, tearings, and separations of bones; let cutting off of members; let bruising to pieces of the whole body; and let the very torment of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ.”[192] “Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God.”[193] In a word, “Never the Cross without Jesus, nor Jesus without the Cross.”[194]

145 The saints remind us of the joy that is the fruit of this cross: “I have not been able to suffer but to me all suffering is sweet.”[195] Our hope should be such that all pain would give us comfort. Pain “is the fulcrum, on which one becomes a lever in order to serve man, as well as to transmit to many others the immense joy of being a Christian.”[196]

146 The Cross of Christ claims a generous response from us: “[the Passion and the Cross] are a persevering and inflexible aspiration and a cry: an immense cry from the heart.”[197] “Jesus, who had never sinned, was crucified for you; and you, won’t you crucify yourself for Him who was nailed to the cross for the love of you?”[198] That is why the cross is also “a crown, not an ignominy”[199] – because it implies an imitation of Christ. This is the resounding idea: to sacrifice oneself. This is the way history is directed, yet silently and hiddenly.

Benefits
147 From the many benefits that Christ’s Redemption has brought us by his Passion, we should discover:

148 a) how much God loves us and, therefore, how much we should love him: God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8); I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).

149 b) the example of the many virtues needed for the salvation of humanity: such as obedience, humility, perseverance, justice, scorn of worldly things. Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Pt 2:21).

150 c) not only how he redeemed us from sin, but the magnitude of sanctifying grace and of eternal glory that he won for us.

151 d) the great need to be immune from sin: you were bought with a price! (1Cor 6:20)

152 e) the great dignity of man; though man was conquered by the devil, the devil was conquered by man: thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:57).

153 Briefly, we find a thousand mysteries within the Passion of the Lord, in such a way that its abundance is inexhaustible.

154 We should also attentively consider that Christ wanted to freely suffer all the scathing pains of his Passion and Death; he did not impede them although he could have: I lay down my life… no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again (Jn 10:17-18); manifesting all his bodily vigor that he had conserved until the last moment, he cried out with a loud voice, and said, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last (Lk 23:46).

155 He freely subjected himself in obedience to fulfill his Father’s command: so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:19). It is certain that obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Sm 15:22), but sacrifice carried out by obedience is supreme perfection. From this we should learn how to freely live the vow of obedience and to never fall into the destructive dialectic of opposing freedom to obedience, or freedom to authority, or vice versa.

156 Therefore, everything properly considered, there are two things that are manifested in the Passion: the severity of God who refused to forgive without appropriate satisfaction: he who did not spare his own Son; and his infinite goodness: he handed him over for us all. From this must spring a limitless trust in the overflowing generosity of the Father: will he not also give us all things with him? (Rom 8:32).

Example
157 Jesus’ Passion is his second great humiliation: the kenosis of the Passion. In the Passion his humility shines forth. We must imitate it: but in humility count others better than yourselves (Phil 2:3). About this Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that there can be two things considered about man: that which is God’s (what pertains to his salvation and perfection), and that which is man’s (his defects). Now, humility properly regards the reverence whereby man is subject to God. Wherefore every man, in respect to that which is his own, ought to subject himself to every neighbor in respect to what his neighbor has of God: in this subjection humility shines brightly.[200]

Ways
158 Contemplating the different ways in which the Passion of the Lord achieves its end – the salvation of all people – leads us to admire his infinite wisdom which has done all things well (Mk 7:37), the exquisiteness of his love: he loved them to the end (Jn 13:1), and the magnanimity and generosity of his work: where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Rom 5:20). This masterpiece is the Savior’s most marvelous and exuberant work. It causes an absolute certainty in the salvation carried out by Him, by way of merit, satisfaction, sacrifice, redemption, and effectiveness. These five ways of causality of the redemptive work, far from dismembering it, make us see this work with more strength and unity, like fingers that perfect the hand.

Merit
159 Christ merited all graces – present and future, without exception – for all people of all ages. His merit is universal: He is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 Jn 2:2). His merit is superabundant, infinite and of strict justice.

Satisfaction
160 Christ satisfied for the sins of all men, offering to the Father universal reparation, superabundant and in strict justice. He bore the sin of man (Is 53:12); God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21); having become a curse for us (Gal 3:13); paying for all: Christ Jesus... who gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Tm 2:6).

Sacrifice
161 Christ saved us by the sacrifice of the Cross, a unique oblation: we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb10:10); a definitive sacrifice: instituted... by the power of an indestructible life (Heb 7:16); an eternal sacrifice, since he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever (Heb 7:24). The Victim is perfect: Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him (Heb 7:25). He was simultaneously a sin offering, a peace offering and a holocaust: Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph 5:2). Should we not recall here that religious are those who consecrate themselves totally to the service of God offering themselves to Christ in holocaust?[201]

Redemption
162 Christ redeems us from all slavery, since he came to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:28), as a ransom for all (1 Tm 2:6), who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity (Ti 2:14), freeing us from all slaveries of sin, from the punishment due to sin, from death, from the power of the devil, and from the mosaic law.

Effectiveness
163 Christ is the efficient cause of the objective redemption carried out at Calvary, and of the application of the fruit of the redemption for us (subjective redemption) by faith and the sacraments. He is the most efficient cause of our salvation because he is God, the Word of God, and because his humanity is an instrument united with the divinity. Therefore all the actions and sufferings of Christ instrumentally cause the salvation of mankind.

Effects
164 The effects of his Passion are unfathomable:

1. it frees us from sin: has freed us from our sins by his blood (Rv 1:5);

2. it frees us from the power of the devil: now shall the ruler of this world be cast out (Jn 12:31);

3. it frees us from the grief of sin: has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (Is 53:4);

4. it reconciles us with God: we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son (Rom 5:10);

5. it opens the doors of Heaven for us: …we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus (Heb 10:19);

6. it exalts Christ: God has highly exalted him (Phil 2:9).

165 We now consider explicitly an aspect already hinted at. Saint Paul teaches: …in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions (Col 1:24). Certainly we do not add anything substantial to the sacrifice of Christ, but in the order of operation we somehow complete it. In his sacrifice, Christ-the-Head offered to the Father his own pains and those of all the members of his mystical body; He took upon himself not only the sins of all men, but also all their pains, which were the sufferings that his members would suffer for his love; these members would be persecuted because they served him.[202] Christ “suffered as our head, and he continues to suffer in his members, that is to say, in us.”[203] Therefore, “Christ will be in agony until the end of the world” since “the total measure of all the sufferings of men will not be filled until the end of the world”.[204]

Pain
166 Pain is something precious and of incalculable value since it is chosen by God to redeem us when endured with patience, accepted as coming from God, and sanctified by uniting it to the pain of Christ. Here is the deepest reason of our ministry to the sick, which is a constant verification of our Christian authenticity. The sick should always be our favored ones!

167 All our sufferings had entered into the heart of Christ on Calvary. Those sufferings were offered by Christ, Priest and Victim, before the fact. They need to be completed in our flesh. Christ’s sacrifice, prophetically completed in Him, will be completely fulfilled in fact when the number of the elect is completed. We are co-redeemers!

168 The co-redemptive efficacy of our sufferings depends on their union with the Cross, and in the measure and degree of that union. We live from Christ’s sacrifice: no act of virtue is worthy if it was not offered by our Head on the Cross; no sin is forgiven if Christ on Golgotha had not begged mercy for it; no pain is redeeming if it is not united to Christ’s Passion. If we do not learn how to be victims with the Victim, all our sufferings are useless.

169 We must learn how to complete what is missing in the Passion of Christ[205] with an

- affective reparation – by prayer and love;

- effective reparation – fulfilling one’s own duties, apostolate, etc.;

- afflictive reparation – by sanctified suffering;

for our own spiritual welfare and for the Mystical Body’s.

170 Thus, our Institutes benefit the most from their sick members whom we should consider privileged members and for whom we should be willing to sell “the chalices”[206] for their good if it were necessary.

b. Death on the Cross and Burial
171 Christ kills death with his death; Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? (1Cor 15:54-55), Therefore his death gives life, is a step to his resurrection and our resurrection – both spiritual and corporal.

172 True Christians consider that if we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him (2 Tm 2:11). In baptism we die, and that death ensures our resurrection, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (Rom 6:5); offering daily sufferings with Him: sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death (Phil 3:10); to be able to exclaim for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil 1:21).

173 We “must lead a dying life,”[207] or as the poet chants:

The one who does not know how to die while he is living

is vain and fool

to die a little every hour

is the way to live

…from death I receive

new life and if I live,

I live of so much dying.

This is the secret of all supernatural fecundity! Everything is in knowing how to die! This is the great science! Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (Jn 12:24-25).

174 The cross offers us another magnificent lesson. As we all had sinned and perished solidarily in Adam, since sin came into the world through one man… because all men sinned (Rom 5:12), so now in Christ – the new Adam – by the principle of koinonia, we all find salvation and life: those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17).

175 Jesus Christ in himself assumes the representation of all men: “he suffered for me, he paid for me and he died for me.”[208] In Him we are recapitulated and “concentrated”. Because of this intimate, mysterious identification of Christ with each one of us, He assumes and makes our sins his own: he became sin.[209]

176 Not only did Jesus die on our behalf. We also have died, and are represented and contained in Him. Christ and us, us and Christ, form a unique oneness, a compact whole: you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28). By this mystical identification of persons we also die on the Cross. Because of this mysterious solidarity or ineffable communion of men with Christ we have died in radice in Christ.

177 Because Christ truly died representing all men, it was necessary that we all, somehow, die in Him and with Him: one has died for all; therefore all have died (2Cor 5:14). Everyone has died in Him. That everyone-dies-because-One-dies supposes that everyone is in that One, and that the One and everyone are the same: we all are one... We should carry out in deed which was carried out in root on the Cross: we have to die to the old man, to sin, to sinful affections and even more, to the very appearance of evil.

178 We must die totally to ourselves. There are three stages for perfect self-denial: external mortification, spirit of sacrifice, and total death to oneself. Reaching this third stage is very difficult. It is achieved by means of perennial work. It is to die to live: for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). The life of Christ was a continuous death whose last act and consummation was the Cross. The mystical life of Christ establishes itself in us by diverse degrees of death:

1. death to sins, even to the slightest and the smallest imperfections;

2. death to the world and all external things;

3. death to the senses and the immoderate care of one’s own body;

4. death to one’s character and natural defects: by not speaking or working according to one’s own mood or caprice, by always remaining in peace and in possession of oneself;

5. death to one’s own will and spirit: subjecting the will to reason, not being led by one’s own desires or fantasies; not becoming obstinate in one’s own judgment; knowing how to listen; being always cheerful with what God gives us;

6. death to esteem and love of ourselves: to self-love;

7. death to spiritual consolations: one day God will withdraw them completely, and then everything will bother the soul, sicken it and tire it, until one’s nature screams, complains, and becomes furious;

8. death to everything that give support to our soul and to any assurance about the state of our soul: to experience the abandonment of God;

9. death to all property concerning holiness: whole nakedness. Neither gifts nor virtues are seen, only sins, one’s own nothingness.

179 We should learn how to discover ourselves and others in the Heart and the wounds of Christ. Then we will understand what we pray for when we say: “within your wounds, hide us”[210], since “we are made Christ”.[211]

Folly of the Cross
180 In addition we should keep in mind another reality: the folly of the Cross, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men. (1Cor 1:23.25). This folly consists in living the “more” and the “above”: where all equilibrium, all calculation, all tit-for-tat ceases. This folly begins when there is no longer counting, calculating, weighing, nor measuring. Do you only love the one who loves you? Do you only give to the one who can return it to you? Do you only do favors to those who thank you? How great is all that? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (Mt 5:47).

181 The folly of the Cross consists in living the beatitudes. Blessed be the fools for Christ! They will be pushed around, laughed at, and considered awkward, slow, and even mentally weak. Theirs is the Kingdom of God. Blessed be the fools for Christ! Because they have stripped themselves and stand before God in their nakedness. Blessed be these fools for Christ! No wisdom of the world will ever be able to deceive them. It is the folly of love without limit nor measure. It is to bless those that curse us,[212] it is to repay no one evil for evil (Rom 12:17). When the world says to us: “Look at the fools! They are stoned and they kiss the hands of those who stone them. They are laughed at and made fun of, and they laugh like senseless children. They are beaten, persecuted, and martyred, but they give thanks to God who found them worthy. When the world says all of this, it is a sign that we are doing well. The folly of love! “But the folly of the Cross makes wiser than the wisdom of all men.”

c. The descent to hell
182 Saint Peter teaches that Christ went to preach to the spirits in prison (1 Pt 3:19), and the gospel was preached even to the dead (1 Pt 4:6).

183 The kenosis of the Incarnation of the Word is extended through his Passion and Death, and reaches its fullness when he descends into hell, in such a way that if we stopped considering this truth of our faith we would somehow be diminishing the reality of the Incarnation.

184 In this mystery Christ showed the fruit of his Passion to the saints of the Old Testament, the Patriarchs and Prophets, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist, the Holy Innocent Martyrs, the good thief... and communicated the glorious blessedness to them.

185 He also consoled the souls in Purgatory, taking those that were sufficiently purified. In our preferential option for the poor we ought to always have these blessed souls in mind to atone for them.

[168] Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis, 13.

[169] Cf. Saint Augustine, De Sancta Virginitate, 54-55.

[170] Saint Francis of Assisi, The “Absorbeat” Prayer.

[171] Saint Paul of the Cross, Letters, 52.

[172] Fr. Luis de la Palma, Historia de la Pasión, Preamble.

[173] Saint Robert Bellarmine, Book of the Seven Words, Preamble.

[174] Cf. especially 3, 11: “Few love the cross of Jesus”, and 12: “The Royal Road of the Holy Cross”.

[175] Cf. GS 11-90.

[176] Cf. 1 Cor 1:17.

[177] Cf. 2 Cor 4:10.

[178] Cf. Col 1:24.

[179] Cf. 1 Cor 1:18.

[180] John Paul II, Meeting with Youth, April 6, 1979.

[181] John Paul II, Homily in Saint Thomas Parish, at Castel Gandolfo, September 15, 1991.

[182] John Paul II, Homily during the Eucharistic Concelebration in the Basilica of Saint Francis, Assisi, December 3, 1982.

[183] Saint Leo the Great, Sermon on the Passion of the Lord, 6, 8.

[184] Cf. Rev 22:6.

[185] Saint Ambrose, Letters, 35, 4-6.

[186] Saint Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Creed, 4.

[187] Blessed Luigi Orione, Letter of June 24, 1937.

[188] Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross, 27.

[189] Saint Francis Xavier, Letter of September 20, 1542.

[190] Saint Teresa of Avila, Book of Life, 40, 20.

[191] Saint Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 167.

[192] Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans, 5, 3.

[193] Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans, 5, 3.

[194] Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 14, 1.

[195] Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Story of a Soul, 12, 21.

[196] John Paul II, Meeting with Youth, April 2, 1979.

[197] John Paul II, Celebration of the Passion of the Lord in the Basilica of Saint Peter and the Way of the Cross in the Coliseum, April 4, 1980.

[198] Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis, 13, 23.

[199] Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis, 13, 22.

[200] Cf. ST II-II, 161, 3.

[201] Cf. ST II-II, 186, 7.

[202] Cf. Jn 15:20.

[203] Saint Augustine, Exposition on the Book of Psalms, 61, 4.

[204] Saint Augustine, Exposition on the Book of Psalms, 61, 4.

[205] Cf. Col 1: 24.

[206] SRS 31.

[207] Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, 2, 12.

[208] Saint John of Avila, Sermons of Third Sunday after Pente­cost.

[209] Cf. 2 Cor 5:21.

[210] Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Anima Christi.

[211] Saint Augustine, On the Gospel of Saint John, 21, 8.

[212] Cf. Rom 12:14.

Note: This English translation of the Constitutions of Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Directory of Spirituality is a draft version and is subject to further revision and improvement.