Mother Ignacia Del Espiritu Santo Has A Special Reverence For The Son Of God

June is the month dedicated to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To bring to the fore this particular aspect of the Son of God, namely:

His Sacred heart, is to make us rediscover and realize the infinite greatness of this human heart of a God who is the model of how to love. As the Son of God, His love for the heavenly Father is perfect. Likewise this calls for us to approach the Father in imitation of the love of His beloved Son.

Holy people and the saints have caught up with these sentiments as they journey towards the heavenly Father with an intensity of love that their hearts are capable of giving. This is seen in the life of Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, Foundress of the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary.

In exhorting her beatas, Mother Ignacia's first and foremost reminder was for them to be cautious in their conversation. They should speak only on matters "concerning God, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the most holy Virgin Mary, His precious Mother, and the angels in heaven." (RVM Constitution of 1726: Chapter I, No. 6) For to Mother Ignacia such posture will avert the danger of useless conversation and violations of charity in words.

A replication of this appears in Rule I:33 regarding the attainment of perfection, as follows: "What contributes most to the attainment of perfection is to abhor what the world loves like vain honors, riches and sensual pleasures, and to love what Jesus Christ loved when He lived among men…because the only road to heaven is the one which Jesus Christ took."

Of the many virtues that Mother Ignacia possessed, humility stood out most singularly. Her observance of humility was in accord to what is explicit in the rules. "No one should aspire towards empty self-esteem, of being prudent, wise and eloquent in speech so that others may honor   and praise her . It should be better for her to fix her eyes on Jesus Christ who chose to suffer humiliations and contempt, for us." (Rules I:6) In this connection the rules stipulate that "Each must accept with great humility any penance imposed by the Superior or Mistress, even if she has not committed any fault which deserves such punishment, inasmuch as Jesus Christ, our Lord, being sinless had suffered much ignominy and torture in order to save all men." (Rule I:44) For Mother Ignacia, to be truly humble, one has to look firmly on Christ as the perfect example of humility. In spite of His sinlessness, He subjected Himself to His executioners and tormentors with sheer humility to show us how much He loved us as to be willing to give up His life for our sake.

A humble person is obedient. Obedience is one of the offshoots of humility. Mother Ignacia's reminder to her beatas along this line, is stipulated in Rule I:42 as follows: "Whenever they obey their Superiors, they should convince themselves that they truly obey God, complying with all their commands in all matters except what is sinful. They would profit more if they accustom themselves to obey any person for the love of Jesus Christ who obeyed His enemies as well as sinners." Indeed Mother Ignacia was truly convinced that obedience to authority has its loftiness anchored on Jesus Christ Himself. Like Jesus Christ, the beatas had to exercise obedience regardless of who was the person giving the injunction or order. If this is done it becomes a second nature to a humble person .

Mother Ignacia regarded the Superior with deep respect as to compare her to the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary as stressed in this rule: "Because the Superior is the living image of the Mother of God, all should obey her as they would obey the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, for this is the will of Jesus who says that whoever obeys he Superior obeys God, and whoever despises her, despises Him." (Rule I:11) How amazing it was for Mother Ignacia to subscribe to this statement and yet she relinquished her leadership as Superior of the institution she founded about 16 years before she died. She knew the privileges of one in such a position particularly in terms of respect from the subordinates. Mother Ignacia's respect for those in authority through obedience was rooted on Jesus Christ Himself.

Obedience is the bulwark of community life. Without it community living will be chaotic. Fittingly did Mother Ignacia emphasized in these words: "How great a deception it is to wish to serve God without mortifying such degrading passions and vices as disunity, envy, impatience, aimless chatter, immodesty and the like; contradictions such as light and darkness, flesh and spirit, following Christ and rejecting Him, love of God and worldliness." (Rule II:4) Indeed obedience cannot be overestimated for the preservation of unity in any institution. This appears in the RVM Constitutions of 1726, thus: "In order to preserve unity and charity, everyone should obey the Superior in Christ in spite of her failings, bearing with the same love of the Master who had humbled Himself on earth for our instruction. Those with perpetual vows should show alacrity in obedience as well as in all that pertains to this life of perfection. 'Learn of Me for I am meek and humble of heart--JESUS'." (Rule II:13)

 In admonishing the beatas further, Mother Ignacia referred to the Poor Christ as their model in the observance of the vow of poverty. "In this House of God, no one should have her private property or wealth, and anyone who would desire to possess anything for her own does not deserve to be called a disciple of Christ." (Rules I:23) Mother Ignacia was of the conviction that it was incumbent upon every beata to be a true disciple of Christ--the Christ who loves the poor and the oppressed. Hence earthly possessions have no place in the institution she founded. So important is this rule of divesting one's self of material goods so that the sense of power and control on the part of the beata may be relegated aside.

From the foregoing paragraphs, Mother Ignacia's special reverence for the Son of God, appears clearly in the numbers lifted up from the RVM Rule Book of 1726 to serve the purpose for pointing out this particular aspect in her life. #