The Brother’s vocation evokes the supreme value of FRATERNITY. It is the pearl that the Brothers cultivate with special care. The Brother is called to be a brother of Christ, a brother with his community and a brother to all people. It is, therefore, a vocation which is closely related to the current calls of the Church to universal brotherhood.
The vocation and identity of the religious Brother takes on meaning in this dynamic of integration and complementarity of ministries, but in need of prophetic signs of Christ’s love.
The vocation of the Brother is not only a recipient of God’s love, but also a witness and mediator of that same gift. It seeks to establish a horizontal relationship between God and humanity. Filial relationship is simultaneously transformed into a relationship of brotherhood.
It makes visible in the Church the face of Christ the brother, the firstborn among many brothers (Rm 8, 29), the architect of the new fraternity which he establishes by his life and his teaching.
In his writings, and especially in the various editions of the Rule of Life, Brother Gabriel knew how to give a well-defined profile to the identity of the Brother as a lay religious, with his own mission of service to the Church and to society; a mission which is carried out through the exercise of various lay ministries and a series of specific activities, among which Christian education, catechesis and parish liturgical service stand out.
The Brother of the Holy Family is, above all, a consecrated person, a man of God, an animator of the Christian community; an educator in values, who strives for a more just and fraternal society. This is what a Brother brings to the Church by his being and his action; that is why it is said that the presence of a Brother is a gift of God for the Church.
