Winter 2008 Volume 5, Issue 1

Our Founder: Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela

Born on April 4, 1941 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Father Carlos Miguel Buela was ordained to the priesthood on October 7, 1971. During his years as a seminarian and young priest, Fr. Buela was influenced through his reading and contact with some of Argentina’s great Catholic intellectuals, notably Fr. Julio Meinvielle and Fr. Leonardo Castellani. After ten years as a diocesan priest working in youth ministry and parish work, he received the foundational grace in 1981, inspiring him to found a religious order of missionaries.

Three years later, on March 25, 1984, Fr. Buela founded the Institute of the Incarnate Word, the priests, in the diocese of San Rafael, Mendoza. He founded the sisters, the Institute Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, on March 19, 1988. The two institutes share twin constitutions and both have monasteries dedicated to contemplative life.

Fr. Buela’s writings include the prize-winning Jóvenes en el Tercer Milenio (Youth in the Third Millennium); Catecismo de los Jóvenes (Catechism for Youth); Modernos ataques contra la familia (Modern Attacks on the Family); Sacerdotes para siempre (Priests Forever), and Pan de Vida Eterna y Cáliz de Eterna Salvación (Bread of Eternal Life and Chalice of Eternal Salvation).

Fr. Buela currently serves as the Superior General of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and resides in the General House in Segni, Italy.

A Brief History of the Institute

The Religious Family is Born In 1984, Fr. Carlos Buela together with the first young men who wished to become missionary priests moved from Buenos Aires to San Rafael in the province of Mendoza. There His Excellency León Kruk, bishop of San Rafael, had given permission to Fr. Buela to found this new religious order of priests and also requested that he begin a diocesan seminary. Soon many vocations came to join the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE). Beginnings of Our Institute In September of 1987, Fr. Buela met with three other priests about the possibility of founding a women’s institute. Some young women had already expressed the desire to consecrate their lives to God in the same spirit of sacrifice and missionary zeal they saw in the Institute of the Incarnate Word. In October a group of young women began a series of meetings with Fr. Buela at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church, the first parish given to the IVE in San Rafael. In order to begin the foundation we needed a house where the candidates could live. To obtain a house, the future sisters began a thirty day prayer to St Joseph, and in January of 1988 a family in San Rafael donated a farmhouse so that the new order could begin. This first convent was put under the patronage of St. Joseph. On the Feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 1988, the Institute Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará officially began with a Holy Mass presided over by Bishop Kruk and concelebrated by Father Buela, IVE priests, and diocesan clergy. The Mass was held in the olive groves of the newly donated farm in order to accommodate all who had come to witness the beginnings of our order. In the Foundational Act, Father Buela set forth the following goal: “Our only desire is to give to Jesus Christ Spouses after his Heart; women who, consecrating themselves totally to God, know and live the reality expressed by Saint John of Avila: ‘They only desire to be concerned with the love for Jesus Christ,’ in such a way that they give testimony that apart from love for Jesus Christ, a civilization of love cannot be built and an authentic evangelization of the culture is impossible.”

Why the name “Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará” (SSVM)? The name “Servants” (Servidoras) is a reference to (a) the faithful women who stood at the foot of the cross (Luke 8: 1-3) and (b) the term used by St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort in his True Devotion, 56. The second part of the name, “of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará” (del Señor y la Virgen de Matará) refers to the Crucified Christ and His Blessed Mother as found on the Cross of Matará worn by the sisters, since Jesus on His Cross and the Virgin Mary must be the foundations of our spirituality.

continued on the next page

U.S. and Argentinean Sisters with Fr. Buela

Las Servidoras Special Edition

20th Anniversary 1988-2008

Perpetual Vows, 1994 Fr. Buela crowning M. Itati as a new Spouse of Christ

continued from front page

Designing the Religious Habit

Towards the end of May 1988, the sisters began to design their habits. The first habit consisted of a grey tunic with a blue tau on the chest. The colors were chosen to represent the mystery of the Incarnation: the blue for the Divinity of Christ and the grey for His Humanity. They first wore the white veil of novices, which would be changed to blue at the time of first profession. The mother of one of the sisters helped them make their habit, and the first investiture of habits took place on September 17, 1988 in the Cathedral of San Rafael. When Bishop Kruk visited the convent on September 28, he gave each sister a Cross of Matará, replicas of a cross carved in 1594 by a native of the tribe of Matará in Argentina as a

tool for catechism and for spreading the Gospel. The Cross became part of the habit because it illustrates our charism, the evangelization of the culture, and it depicts all the mysteries of Christ. The habit was redesigned in December of 1990. The tunic was simplified and a blue scapular was added in place of the tau.

When our mission in Ukraine opened in 1998, our General Superior recognized the importance of the black habit to conform to the culture, whose liturgy is that of the Greek-Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church. Religious sisters of this rite traditionally wear black habits. Today in Ukraine and Siberia, our Eastern Rite sisters wear the black habit, which is identical to the blue and grey habit, including the Cross of Matará, except for the color.

Vocations and Missions

In the beginning our sisters had very little and quickly learned to depend on Divine Providence as we began to receive many vocations. Our apostolate was carried out in four parishes in the diocese of San Rafael, making home visits and teaching catechism. Later we founded there the Divina Providencia Home for Elderly and Disabled Women (April 1991), the Isabel La Católica School (March 1992), and the St. Gianna Berretta Molla Home for Abandoned Children (April 1994). In 1991 a contemplative branch was established within the Institute whose members live in cloistered monasteries. The first monastery was placed under the patronage of St. Teresa of the Andes. Today there are six monasteries throughout the world, including one in Brooklyn, NY under the patronage of St. Edith Stein.

Between 1991 and 1996, we began foreign missions outside of Argentina for the first time: Peru in 1991; Italy and the United States of America in 1994; Holy Land (Beit Jala) and Brazil in 1995; Taiwan and Russia in 1996. From that point on, expansion into new mission countries has continued steadily. Currently we have 10 convents in the United States: 2 in Harlem (NY), 3 in Brooklyn (NY), Bridgeport (CT), Avondale (PA), Santa Clara (CA), and Formation Houses in Washington, DC and in Southern Maryland.

Diocesan Approval

On March 24, 2004 His Excellency Andrea Maria Erba, bishop of Velletri-Segni, Italy bestowed diocesan approval upon our new religious institute during a Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica. This ecclesial act confirmed the inspiration of a new charism in the Church and recognized the way of life contained in our Constitutions as an authentic means to holiness.

In our first twenty years God has never ceased to send us His many graces. Day by day He allows us to be witnesses of His love and mercy.

Second General Chapter, Rome 2004

Sr. Angeles, Sr. Victoria, and Sr. Fatima wearing the first habit

Fr. Buela with Ukrainian Sisters on the occasion of their Profession of Vows, 2007

Papua New Guinea

“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us…”

At the heart of our spirituality and charism is the Incarnation—the fact that God became Man, uniting both natures in His one, unique, divine person.

Our Constitutions describe our specific goal in this way: “we commit all our strength to inculturate the Gospel, that is to say, to extend the Incarnation ‘to all men, in the whole man, and in all of the manifestations of man,’ in accordance with the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church” (Constitutions, 5).

We desire to bring the Gospel to all peoples by evangelizing culture and giving the means to evaluate all aspects of culture through the lens of the

Gospel. In this way, the message of the Incarnation will permeate and elevate what is good and valuable in society while transforming what is sinful and in need of redemption. “It is the gift to make each man “like a new Incarnation of the Word,” by being essentially missionary and Marian” (Constitutions, 31).

In order to do this, we rely upon God and seek to grow in love for the three greatest gifts He has given us: the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Father, the Pope. Through daily prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, by means of our fourth vow of Marian slavery and in fidelity to the Vicar of Christ and the teachings of the Church, we strive to bring the message of Christ, the Incarnate Word, to all peoples. Since “only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light” (Gaudium et Spes, 22), the work of our Institute is to show man his nature, dignity, vocation, freedom and eternal destiny as one redeemed by Christ.

These ideals manifest themselves practically by our work in the key areas of culture: with families, in education, through the mass media and among intellectuals who shape societies—though nothing is foreign to our work since all things which are truly human have been redeemed by Christ.

Egypt

General Superior Mother Anima Christi with Pope Benedict XVI

Santa Clara, CA Santa Clara, CA

Vanimo, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

RUSSIA

Kazan Omsk Ulyanovsk

Dushanbe, TAJIKISTAN

Chimkent, KAZAKHSTAN

Bethlehem, PALESTINE

Anjara, JORDAN

Alexandria, and Cairo,

EGYPT

ALBANIA

Toronto

Avondale, PA

USA

CANADA

Charity, GUYANA

BRAZIL

Sao Paulo

PERU Cuzco

Arequipa

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Santiago, CHILE

San Rafael and General Alvear

Tenerife Canary Islands,

SPAIN

SSVM Around the World “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Mt 28:19)

Harlem; Brooklyn, NY Washington, DC; Upper Marlboro, MD

Bridgeport, CT

ARGENTINA

Campo de Mayo, and La Plata, Bs As

Hafnarfjörður, ICELAND

Heiloo, Brunssum, Valkenburg, HOLLAND

Kalivaç, Rrëshen,

Caloocan, PHILIPPINES

Chungli, Tayuan, TAIWAN

Guayaquil

Venado Tuerto, Sta Fe

SPAIN

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FRANCE

Hong Kong

LITHUANIA

Zakarpattja and Ivano Frankivsk, UKRAINE

Tunis, TUNISIA

ITALY

Rome, Segni, Ravenna, Asti, Prato, Pontinia, Velletri, Artena, Sezze Romano

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APOSTOLATE God wants all men to be a part of His Kingdom. He has called us to go to every part of the world to preach the Gospel and bring all people to Him. He has promised He will be with us: “I am with you always, until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20), and so we do not hesitate to take on especially the most difficult, impoverished, and isolated mis-sions.

Our work includes:

Popular Missions, intensive two-week parish evangelization according to the method of St. Alphonsus of Liguori: “In response to the Bishops' requests, the In-stitute can accept to help in parishes, preferably in missionary areas or those in most need” (cf. Const., 173).

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, assisting our priests in the work of offering this retreat as a spiritual apostolate to the laity. The principal goal is to teach how to overcome oneself and direct one's life according to God’s will. For more information on spiritual exercises visit www.ivespiritualexercises.org.

Parish work and sacristy work with the intention of promoting the solemnity of the celebration of the Sunday Liturgy.

Teaching in elementary schools, secondary schools, and catechism programs.

Assisting in Theological and Philosophical Publications, including English and Spanish texts of IVE Press (www.ivepress.org), and through participation in the Fr. Cornelio Fabro Cultural Project (www.corneliofabro.org).

Working in Youth Ministry: pilgrimages, Annual IVE Youth Day, campus ministry, lay volunteer opportunities and World Youth Day.

Works of Mercy: orphanages, homes for disabled children and youth, homes for the elderly, work in hospitals and nursing homes, and pro-life counseling and education.

Ukraine

Guyana