La Famiglia Ecclesiale

What is an Ecclesial Family?

An “ecclesial family” is a spiritual family within the Catholic Church. Members may be priests or lay, men or women, celibate or married—but together they make up a family within the larger family of Mother Church.

What is the Miles Jesu Ecclesial Family?

An institute of consecrated life composed of lay people and also clerics, with community life as the norm, and professing the evangelical counsels with vows. Our witness is through a lay charism and the lay apostolate, normally through secular occupations, (cf. AA) reaching out to people of all walks of life to bring Christ into the secular world by the witness of our lives, in a spirit of availability. Our structure is that of an Ecclesial Family of Consecrated Life. (This structure also allows for some form of membership for people in other states of life in addition to the consecrated celibate members.) We have members of both Latin and Eastern rites.

We participate in the Church’s mission principally through the new evangelization: led by the spirit of the Gospel for the sanctification of the world from within as leaven (cf. LG 4). Our goal is to provide a specific means for the laity to recognize and live out the call to become saints, not only by work but by family and social commitment, and to help others become saints. This calls for leaders in seeking the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. (cf. LG et al.)

Our spirituality of the mystery of the Epiphany is a unique element.

We also place great importance on:

• devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, especially through Eucharistic adoration;
• devotion to Mary especially under the titles of the Immaculate Heart and of Our Lady of the Epiphany;
• promoting loyalty to the Holy Father and the Church;
• the spiritual and missionary heritage of St. Anthony Mary Claret, according to his definition of a son or daughter of the Immaculate Heart of Mary;
• an authentic spirit of availability, simplicity, sacrifice, and joy.

We look to one of our first members, the Servant of God Paul Murphy, as a special model in living out this charism.