Who we are

We are consecrated laywomen belonging to the  Secular Institute  “Gleaners of the Church”.

We are consecrated laywomen.

Being members of a secular institute we live our consecration to God in the common conditions of life, without distinctive signs and by professing the evangelical counsels (poverty, obedience and chastity).

Sharing our everyday life (work, commitments, spaces..) with the people in our environment we commit ourselves to live with competence our work, profession, commitment in the world and in the Church. In solidarity with the poor, in search of justice and attentive to the signs of the times, we try to discern with wisdom the lights and shadows present in the world and in history facilitating God’s plan for it.  Let us work together with so many other brothers and sisters to foster relationships of fraternity and solidarity in our living and working environments and so make it possible for man to open up to God, Together we help each other to foster the ethic of care and responsibility by encouraging every seed of goodness, justice and solidarity present in the human experience.  We strive to be peacemakers similar to the salt that gives flavour and the yeast that ferments the dough. 

 

We are Gleaners of the Church

In the biblical figure of Ruth – a faithful and generous woman, full of love and hope, simple and tireless, who went to the field to glean (gathering  the ears of corn abandoned by the reapers). She actually made a good impression on the reapers and married the master of the harvest – this was what inspired us in our donation to God and our service to the Church.  This service gave rise to an apostolic zeal which drives us to go in search of our brothers, especially those most in need of grace, love and human promotion: ‘the ears of corn abandoned in the furrow’.

A distinctive mark of the Institute is its particular sense of belonging to the Church: a filial affection, through a living participation in its mystery by welcoming the gift of consecration lived in a spirit of reparation.  Because we ourselves have been ‘repaired’ through God’s love we cling to Christ becoming ‘living stones’ within the Church and the world.

In fact we are called to be contemplatives in the world living the Beatitudes among the people, together with others and for others.  Our activity is the ‘the place’ of our contemplation: no area of human commitment is excluded.