Consecration
The call to follow Christ in the Order of the Holy Cross is a gift of God.

A Crosier’s religious profession, originating in baptism which began God’s call in holiness to him, is a personal act of dedicating himself, empowered by the Spirit, to follow Christ in his total and free devotedness to the Father This profession he understands as coming out of a deep personal relationship with God.

He is conscious of and convinced that Crosier life is Christ-centered and prophetic. Therefore, he is drawn to the Cross of Christ as source of truth and life. He also knows the Cross as a place of compassion and pain. He knows both the emptiness and fullness of the Paschal Mystery. He perseveres faithfully in seeking the transfigured and disfigured face of Christ.

He knows the role of religious life as promoting and supporting the holiness of all the members of the Church. He deepens his sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit through prayer and other spiritual exercises. He obeys the Spirit’s call to actualize, ever-new with his brothers, the historic mission of the Order in today’s church and world. He courageously embraces the provocative and radical character of consecrated life.

He deeply appreciates the unique Crosier profession of obedience to God as embracing and enliven his entire religious consecration, lived out according the Rule of Augustine and the Constitutions of the Order of the Holy Cross.

He takes time daily to hear the voice and will of God for himself and also for his community and others.

He contributes to communal dialogue respectful of his own and other’s convictions, ideas, discernments, and values.

He has a good relationship with and is open to the spiritual leadership of his superior. He readily and willingly abides by communal decisions and directives of his superior.

He lives out his obedience, retaining an adult personal freedom in expressing himself, as well as assumes an adult personal responsibility within the community.

He accepts fraternal correction from all his confreres as a sign of his brothers’ concern.

Cultivating an undivided heart, he lives out his celibate chastity as a positive and joyful choice of life in response to God’s generous love.

He knows the key means to guarantee a happy celibate life which are a solid deep relationship with God as well as healthy relationships with his confreres and others.

He understands and accepts with peace his sexual identity and is transparent in his continuous efforts to live a healthy sexual life.

He makes total renunciation of all personal possessions as an essential sign of his fraternal love and effort at building community.

He strives to not be self-seeking but places the common good before his own.

He is concerned about the material well-being of the community and lives frugally, while being transparent about his life.

He willingly shares his time, energy, spiritual gifts, and talents.

He is able to distinguish what he needs from what he wants and readily accepts the Augustinian principle of receiving from the community according to his true needs.

He shows deep concern for the needs of others.

He is free of inordinate attachments.

The Crosier delights in actually living together with his confreres as brothers and friends through whom he discovers his path to God. He freely engages his whole personality in building and serving this Crosier community. As a man who manifestly lives for the brotherhood, he is concerned about the happiness and the well-being of his brothers. He has the capacity to listen and to be empathic and compassionate.

The Crosier participates with candor and mutual trust in the community chapter as a sign that he feels at home and that he is concerned about all that is said in the chapter. He builds community by speaking and acting in a constructive way and creates peace where conflict arises. He experiences himself as a member of the same body with his confreres as Christians are members of the same Body of Christ.

He recognizes when he has hurt a confrere and asks for forgiveness. He forgives the confrere who has hurt him and does not hold a grudge. He experiences the forgiveness of God through regular participation in the sacrament of reconciliation.

The confrere continues to cultivate a loving and mutually supportive relationship with his family of origin. He has educated them about his belonging to the Crosier Order. Together they have reconciled their expectations of him with his new commitment to fraternity with the Crosiers.

The Crosier lives a liturgical spirituality, contemplating the texts, gestures, rites, symbols, and liturgical seasons, especially the Paschal Triduum. Celebrating the liturgy is a source of joy and delight for him, and he gives priority to it. He is devoted to the sacramental life and the liturgy of the Church which shapes, sustains, and expresses his spiritual growth into the image of Christ.

The Crosier celebrates the liturgy of the Church as part of the apostolic activity of the community. He promotes inculturation of the community’s liturgical prayer. He dedicates time and energy to preparing the liturgy well as a sign of his love for the liturgy. He exhibits good liturgical judgment and contributes to the full, conscious, and active participation of the worshipping community. In this way, he fosters the liturgy of the Church. He remembers others in his prayer, showing compassion for them.

He has an ever truer knowledge of himself at his depth and heart. He values change of heart as a fundamental formative dynamic in Crosier life. He recognizes his dark side, his negative life experiences, fears, and mediocrity. He acknowledges the impact of these on his personality and relationships.

In his search for the living God, he is courageous in transparency and authentic self-revelation. Through the wisdom and mystery of the Cross, he works at re-reading and re-writing his life, enlightening the dark side of his self, letting go of his ego’s projects, in order to be transformed anew into Jesus Christ. He is actively engaged in purifying his inner motivations so that he responds to God from the heart. He knows and names moments of grace and signs of favor. He dares to act and speak, even when recognizing his own fears and hesitance to do so.

He gives natural evidence of a passion and energy towards the Crosier Religious Life to which he is called. His presence among the confreres brings them energy and hope and joy because of his obvious intrigue and joyful discovery of that which God has in mind for him on the Crosier path.

He participates in formative activities and maintains a personal focus on self-reflection and evaluation regarding his own on-going development and growth.

He describes accurately his history, characteristics, talents, desires, concerns, and thoughts. He manages and articulates his feelings in a healthy way. The Crosier appreciates the beauty and art of God’s creative work in him. He is moved in his soul.

The Crosier accepts his sexuality and its dynamics and has healthy relationships with other people. He accepts his sexuality as a gift from God and willingly offers it to God and the community. He recognizes the strong power and passion of sexuality and channels it ever more appropriately.

By an authentic and engaging life with God, self, and others he attracts others toward the dynamism of his intentional living and toward the charism of Religious Life itself.

He anticipates contributing to the maturing of those in initial formation. He is aware of this service and responsibility and regularly evaluates his role in this responsibility.

He has developed a critical judgment, based on the Gospel, regarding the positive and negative values of his own culture.

He cares for his health as an embodied person.

Lastly, he is a man of the Crosier Constitutions. He studies, embodies, and appropriates their spirit. He continues to seek and articulate the Crosier identity through this treasure. He has knowledge of and on going interest in Crosier history, traditions, and charism of the Order. He witnesses with strong confidence and in a resolute way these Crosier values. He grows in fidelity to what he promises in his profession.