The Charism of the Congregation of Jesus Mary Joseph

Charism is a gift of the spirit who grants to a person certain sensitivity for a special aspect of the mystery of God in Christ. The Charism of the Congregation of JMJ bears the zeal of the Founder Fr. Mathias Wolff. It is his personal charism – being always ready to save souls and working like a giant, which he passed on to his foundation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God’s redeeming and liberating message in imitation of Christ.

The Founder gave the charism to his Congregation as its Characteristic feature, “An ever adaptable Apostolic Availability”. We are thus invited to live out this dynamic charism courageously following the footsteps of the Founder in response to the signs of the times emerging in today’s world. This presupposes that we are continually intent on the most Holy Will of God.

The person and the charism of the Founder as seen in his first sisters: He always stirred them up to obedience.

Three instructions accentuated by Fr. Wolff in 1827 are:

Religious Spirit: “My intention is not to make of you Christian daughters, no, I want you to become perfect religious.”

Spirit of Obedience: “You must have a perfect obedience, to go wherever the superior will send you.”

Significance of Meditation: “One should omit oral prayer and reading rather than miss meditation, the divine food.”

Concerning obedience to the guidance of the Spirit, our founder urged the sisters: ‘When you are where God wants you to be, stay there, but when He wants you somewhere else, depart’. This unconditional pliability with respect to the-never-to-be-predicted, never-to-be-comprehended, nowhere-to-be-fixed will of God, always challenging us with new demands; we want to keep this as the most precious heritage of our Congregation. (Const No. 3)