Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Nazareth House Apostolate is the last place in the West and the first place in the East.
As I think back over the years of this Nazareth, I can see God’s hand shaping and bringing us to a fullness. May we be or have nothing unique that can set us apart. May such terms as “new, exciting, dynamic, unmatched, remarkable, rare, unparalleled” be not a part of that which describes us. Aside from the barest organizational needs (I Cor. 14:40) may we have no leader other than Christ; may we have no rule other than the Gospels; may we have no titles, nothing that can distinguish us (Jn.3:30; Gal.2:20). May this Nazareth also be “characterized” by having no beginning other than “Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith.” (Heb.12:2). Even in divesting ourselves of any specialness we run the risk of being unique, hence there must be a watchfulness, again a “looking unto Jesus’ (Heb 12:2; Lk. 12:37; Eph. 6:18). Therefore no one is starting this Nazareth, we are merely stepping into the current of a great unfolding movement that God has already started quietly and inconspicuously in the hearts of men (Ps. 46:4; Ezek. 47:1-9). May we come to realize that out of the sight of the average man, something very powerful has been going on under the surface of things (Jn. 12:24). At this ’level’ we multiply by losing ourselves in God as He has ’lost’ Himself in us. We in hope, must cling to our hiddeness, our ordinariness, as ancient seeds, waiting to be found in the caves and tombs of antiquity to be replanted and watered, to flower with a strange strength.
The Rule of Nazareth can be summed up in the following:
“The Poorer Means” ©
“Go, sell, give and so become poor. Take up your cross and follow Him into the moment…as leaven into the dough of humanity that it may rise to become bread of Eucharist for the hungry…As leaven, invisible that He might be visible…being flung out to the furthest places by His centrifugal love and at the same time being pulled paradoxically into the centre by His centripetal love…as salt, light, leaven and branch to the edges and to the centre of a savorless, dark, flat and barren world… Establish Houses of Nazareth, reveal Jesus, follow Jesus revealed…poor, as Jesus was poor…Pray always.” © 2003 Poorer Means, Nazareth House Apostolate