Thaddean Fathers Rule of Life

Thaddean Fathers Rule of Life

St. Jude Thaddeus, an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He is known as the Helper of the Hopeless and Impossible of cases... Likewise are many other of our patron saints.

Therefore Our Rule of Life must reflect a new and different way that incorporates an understanding of being helpers and companions to many.

Permission has been given for the following information to be presented in this web page which are derived from the Thaddean Compendium Breviary Volumes I, II, and IV compiled and authored by His Eminence +Joseph Thaddeus (Stanford), SSJt., Ph.D. - Archabbot). To obtain a copy of these and other volumes, contact the Thaddean Fathers at (505) 544-8279 or by clicking on the e-mail icon at the end of this web page.

Rule & Constitution

of the Holy Order and the Society of

St. Jude Thaddeus

(Brotherhood of St. Jude Thaddeus)

(Thaddean Companions) and (Thaddean Fathers)

As a result of a lack by most mainline churches today, to teach historical facts, religious understandings and viable integrity in the Orthodox, Old Catholic and Orthodox Catholic Churches (East and West (in some instances); far to many have become ignorant concerning Christian history and growth. The Truth of Jesus Christ versus man-made understandings is a syllabus of errors against the very fabric of Christianity itself.

"Catholic" does not mean that one is a "Roman Catholic" even though centuries of psychological manipulation has inculcated this idea into the minds of ignorant sheep. In most European countries the very term and word “Catholic” is not always presumed as being “Roman” but considered and understood to mean “Orthodox” and/or “Roman”. There are many branches (denominations) of Christianity that are very "Catholic" although not a part of, or controlled by, the Roman Catholic Church. The sun and moon does not rise or set upon the dictums of the Roman Catholic Church which separated from true Christianity in 1054 A.D. because of a syllabus of errors that began even centuries before her final departure from the roots of Christian Truth which is founded in Orthodoxy as established by Jesus Christ and the Holy Apostles. The Spiritual is not subordinate to the material-physical world, but the word must be subordinate to the Spiritual as surely as the Church did not come about as a result of the Holy Bible but what the Holy Bible came about as a result of the Church which came first.

Every Protestant denomination of Christendom may trace its historical beginnings back to and through the Roman Catholic Church, the first to schism (break away) from that which was prior-wise known and called Catholic Christianity. That which was Catholic Christendom is known today as "Orthodox" (Eastern Orthodox, for the most part) known as "Greek Orthodox," "Russian Orthodox," Syro-Chaldean, Antiochian, North American Orthodox (American Orthodox), etc.

While these things are issues of one's church doctrines versus that of another… the real truth is that those issues are easily relegated to the arena of political subdivisions by denominational factions of Christendom! The Faith of the people is the real important issue here. Such an issue of "Faith" must be met on the basis of one's heart and soul which is rooted in Orthodoxy if one is a struggler out of pain of heart for the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ!

It matters not to us what denominational branch of Christendom you may have come from, so much as where you are going today. The true Church is "Orthodox" not Roman Catholic or Protestant for both are far removed from the Orthodox Church (East and West). Therefore the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism may be akin to "denominationalism" in part, if not in whole.

Yet, what is important is not the denominational branch one may have come from, but whether you are able to maintain enough of an open mind so as to sweep aside the errors of the past you have been raised to falsely believe in so that you can learn the true faith, and historical fact? True Christianity is a suffering religion of the heart which does not accept many of the present day "redemptive" doctrinal errors of ecumenism, a tool that is rushing in the era of the Anti-Christ, the man-made One World Church idea!

For that, and many other reasons, we maintain an attitude and belief:

Not Christianity of the Churches

But Jesus Christ's Christianity

Where unity in diversity

Will set you Free!

P R E A M B L E

Brothers and Sisters, If we are to submit to a common Rule, we can do so only for the sake of Jesus Christ and His Gospel message. Our understanding of the Good News would become NARROW if, from fear or compromise, we were to spare ourselves.

There are two ways in which this may be accomplished: The way of the world or the way of the Holy Spirit. One is the way of death to the soul in the hereafter; the other is the Way Life for the Soul.

The way of the world surrounds us with a false sense of values: hatred, quests for riches and power; all of which bring about alienation, oppression, numerous forms of violence within the Church and outside of it; all of which causes one to miss the mark of life itself which is truly 'sin'. The way of the Holy Spirit of God is simplicity, community, sharing and caring, peace and faithfulness to Jesus Christ, His teachings and more particularly, The Sermon on the Mount (Matt: 5 to Chapter 7); an example of a suffering heart:

"We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is

Love and that Love comes with community."

[Dorothy Day]

Although we live and work in the world, our worship and our very service should take place in a community of faithful companions which will be for us, the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the blessed company of all the faithful. From such associations, common impulse stimulates the inward discipline which is so essential to our way of life. In a community setting, we can then hope to see ourselves open outward to the life of Christ within, through humble action.

Through the teachings of, belief and practice in, Jesus Christ, we are assured of our salvation. We must not Impose disciplines for their own sake. Free from groaning under the burden of excessive Rule (the outside world), we can rejoice! For it is in community living, following the teachings of Jesus Christ, that we are able to renounce all thought of looking back and are then able to go forward with the Holy Spirit. As a result, we are able to daily throw ourselves anew toward Jesus Christ in the transforming service of ministry to humanity and the earth.

Let there be no useless asceticism - holy only to the work of God and that which He commands! To carry the burdens of others, To accept the petty injuries of each day so as to share concretely in the sufferings of Jesus Christ; this is our first discipline of life in community.

The purpose of a common Rule is not to stifle creativity or, individuality, but to free us from useless shackles so that we may better bear the responsibility of ministry which is the ministry of Jesus Christ, and make use of its boldness. The Rule has no other aim than to make us more accessible to the life of Grace and Love as provided by it's author, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit.

We must never stand still! Rather, as Companions in a community setting of Thaddeans, sharing and caring we are all called to run towards the goal in the footprints o Jesus Christ, whose path is the Way of Light, of Love, and of liberation. In order for the Brightness of Jesus Christ Himself we must zealously commit ourselves to the service of humanity and the earth so that we may be the receptacle for the Incarnation of a Spirit of Love which is the dwelling of the truths of God as taught by Jesus Christ Himself.

More than mere discontent with the world's way of alienation, violence and broken-ness, the response of the disciples is an act of obedience as well as a confession of Faith in Jesus Christ (Mark 2:14). Companions in the Holy Order of St. Jude Thaddeus and it's Third Order Secular (Society of St. Jude Thaddeus & Friends = SSJt.) are not called to love the world less, but Love God all the more. We have committed ourselves to an exclusive attachment in Jesus Christ, the grace of whose calling bursts all bonds.

Scripture reveals to us, "Where there is no vision. the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18). It really does not matter, at this point, whether one be a black, red, yellow, or a white skinned person. Neither does it matter whether one be Roman Catholic, Orthodox Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Straight or Gay, Republican, Democrat, or even libertarian! What matters most is if one is a professed Christian; are we ministering from within the community of faithful to the spiritual needs of all our brothers and sisters of humanity who are, all to often, despised and rejected, and a people of many sorrows?

Our visions is that of the Holy Spirit of God through Jesus Christ knocking against church doors today, to see whether any of the Love of God as taught by Jesus is alive and moving behind those doors, not allowing the stone of theology to be rolled to the door of the sepulcher where Christ's Light of Love and understanding would be bared from all people.

We are challenged by God to spread Love and truth as Jesus Christ did and continues to do today. Spread Love freely, unreservedly, non-judgmentally!!! Dare we say "promiscuously'?" The works of this Love from God through the continual manifestations of the Spirit of Christ in our lives require that we bring the Bread of Life (the Body of Christ), and the love of truth through the Cup of truth (the Blood of Christ)... the love and truth of God through Holy Spirit, by following Matthew 25; through Word, the mysteries and Works of Love, both corporal and spiritual, to all who been offered nothing but the stones of rejection, suppression and neglect. This is indeed Discipleship in Jesus Christ!

We enter upon this Way of Discipleship because there is no true refuge from ourselves. Until a person confronts his or her own-self in the mirror of the eyes of one's own heart and the heart of our brothers and sisters, that person will surely keep running! Until one shares one's secrets, 'there is no safety, Unless you know yourself fully, you cannot know anyone else; but will remain solitary, repeating always the same patterns of sin or error and finally death of the very soul will encompass you. Where, but in our common ground in Jesus Christ, can we find such a mirror?

Only in the mirror of Jesus Christ through a community of Companion Brothers and Sisters can a person at least appear clearly to him or her own self ... not as a giant of one's dreams, nor as a master of one's fears; but as a whole person, part of the whole, yet an individual ... undivided ….. with a sharing in the purpose of the whole which is a form of the "Communion of Saints" and the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the Thaddean Companions must always choose the way of serving the poor, the lonely, the outcast, the miserable, the "untouchables" of any caste-ridden society, as well as those to oppressed to even struggle against their oppression. The mission of the Thaddean Companion is to prove to the unloved, the despised and rejected of the world that they are not abandoned, not finally left alone without someone here on earth who share and care through not only the teachings of Jesus Christ, but the practices of those teachings in daily life, unfettered by politicalisms and proselytizing fanatics whose concerns are for, super-correct "church-i-anity", gold and silver, not Christ-ianity!

We are called by Christ to be a sign of Joy and Love-Divine, not as mankind calls Joy and love in a secularistic society governed by nihilism or nuclearistic secularism, but as Jesus calls it. Therefore we must cast off all gloom, doom and doubt, even though are surrounded by doubts and difficulties oft times based on heretical understandings never before sanctioned by the Church of ancient times. We take delight in the Community of God's Love; rejoicing within, In God's world, its beauty and its living creatures; calling nothing common or unclean, except what mankind makes of themselves as common or unclean. Through our living in community with other Thaddean Companions, we soon realize that nothing is really unclean unless we make it so within our very hearts when we forget our God and our duty to His children on earth which opens us to all the inflammatory passions of the Evil One..

Opening ourselves to all that is human, we see then how vain our desires to flee from the world quickly vanishes from the heart. As a result, we must be aware of the times in which we live; adapting ourselves to the needs we encounter daily in those around us without allowing ourselves to be the carrier of the infections of the Evil One’s machinations through other human or man-made idealisms.

"Oh God, I pray you not to take them out of the world, but to keep then from the evil One."

[John 17-151

Those who so readily profess Love for their neighbor, yet remain divided while at the same time calling themselves 'Christians' are a real scandal in society today. We therefore must never resign our subconscious mind, which affect our outward movements and actions, to take part in those kind of scandals which have been and continue to be cause for the separation of Christians the world over. Such scandals that we have been witness to are exampled by the "Jim Jones" suicide pact, Tammy & Jim Baker, Oral Roberts, Benny Hinn Jerry Sweigart, Pat Robertson, Jesse Jackson's political antics with governments as a purported 'minister of God' and so very many more.

We seek to be consumed with burning zeal for the unity of the Body of Christ which each one of us is a part:

"…that they may all be one"' [John 17:21]

While we may, as individuals, fall from time to time due to our not having overcome our human condition, faults and frailties or passions… We must, when we become aware of those errors, take inward action toward correction by also taking outward action to truly seek forgiveness through repentance. We must love our neighbor. By this love we must help our neighbor toward recognizing the absolute imperative: To Love the dispossessed and oppressed, all those who hunger and thirst after justice and righteousness. Jesus Christ has had, and continues to have, special concern for them. We must have no fear of being disturbed by them, for they are God's very own.

At the 1920 Anglo-Catholic Congress, The Rt. Rev. Frank Weston, Anglican Bishop of Zanzibar said, "As you have worshiped God in Christ In the blessed Sacrament, now go out and seek Christ In the poor of the world."

We must recognize the fact that since God created the Heavens and the Earth, resting on the seventh day, beholding it as "Good, Good" then we must acknowledge the fact also that God's handiwork is the temple wherein we worship him by our day to day actions. Thus, like the money changers in the temple that Jesus Christ chased out for their disfigurement of true worship, scandalizing the man-made temple of God; how much more so we must come to the aide of those who are truly worshiping God out in His Temple, the good earth, but who are constantly oppressed and unable to fight against their oppressions? We, ourselves, must constantly take a stand for those who are unable to stand up against their oppressors. We must be the example and walk in the way of Jesus Christ without discrimination or indifference.

The "Money Changers" in our version of the Temple of God are those who claim to be "self-righteous". They errantly proclaim themselves as "saved" or "born again" … They appropriate from God what is His only to give. We will know when we are truly saved or born again when we have literally come before the Throne of God on Judgment Day.

These "Money Changers" are those whose wealth is misused in a manner to cause for political power, weigh down and oppress others in a degrading, dehumanizing manner, to elevate and raise up one's brother and sister, one's very neighbor is the least of their desires and actions. They do not want to know who their brother or sister is, for they would convict themselves in the sight of God for their acts of omission and commission. They seek to heap up more material wealth to the detriment of their own soul.

"Love is the Spirit of this Community and Service is its works …

and this is our Way:

To Live together in Peace!

To Seek the Truth in Love!

To help each other in Joy!

St. Basil, Abbot

THE COVENANT

"Love is the Spirit of this Community and Service is its works …

and this is our Way:

To Live together in Peace!

To Seek the Truth in Love!

To help each other in Joy!

St. Basil, Abbot

GOD Is ONE!

Faith and Charity are joined eternally! Called by the One Eternal God through Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, our participation in humanity's struggles for life, for peace and for freedom is at once action in Faith, the primary occasion for personal spiritual growth and a true vocation of the people of' God. To sustain such participation in our common life, we must continually examine the past and present to discern the signs of God's future for us. As a result, we then make the 'following affirmations:

+ CREATION: God brings into being all resources, all life, all genuine meanings which have been for all time.

When we choose rightly, we are able to take part in God's creative force. God creates Order, not chaos! God redeems personal identity and sanctifies us when we choose life in an ever more inclusive community that takes responsibility for, by engaging in, the struggle for liberation in a non-violent manner.

+ FALL: Humanity is estranged from God, the Source of all life

Humanity has attempted to ignore or transcend the Source and Goal of life; or else has attempted to place God in a transcendent realm divorced from life as we know life. When we follow that path, we give license to domination, indulgence, pretense, triviality and evasion: endangering creative order, destroying personal integrity and corrupting spirited communities or societies.

Individually and collectively, we must admit our complicity in allowing tyranny, violence, oppression, death and thus the domination of God's gift Of life and FREE WILL.

+ EXODUS AND COVENANT: God delivers from oppression, alienation chaos. God chooses strangers and outcasts to be witnesses and to become a community of righteousness in Faith, Mercy and Life.

God hears the cry of the oppressed and works vindication for all. God forms outcasts into a Pilgrim People who struggle and makes known the laws of life and living. The liberation experience calls for a celebrating response and thereby demands responsibility in a community which opens individuals and peoples for a common global history.

+ PROPHECY: God speaks with compassion to the human community, through messengers, prophets, Saints and those whom some call "Holy Ones" or Masters.

Those who authentically represent God have interpreted the activity of God in history. God does not leave humanity without guides or messengers at those times in history when mankind goes astray which require a guide. Those messengers or prophets announce the presence of God in the midst of human life. They foretell the judgment and hope that are implicit in the loyalties and practices of common life, and they set forth the vision for renewal.

These messengers that come, at times unbeknown to humanity, bring new hope when the common activities of mankind become bogged down in mundane doctrines which have little or no bearing on humanity's need to progress spiritually and psychically God-ward. These messengers have been known as prophets and Apostles, but may not necessarily be persons whose activities are seen as specifically of a religious bearing as mankind interprets such.

They appear (and have appeared) at times when the human race had reached a level of progression in which mankind would have utterly destroyed itself. Some have become renown as Great ones, Masters, Saints, Watchers or Holy Ones to give an example of the various Titles even though other titles and attributes exist. They have appeared in many places during the human evolution on earth and in many religions both past and present; not just to those of Christendom in its present configuration, who hold no particular special favor in God's eyes than do other religions who also believe in God equally although the attributes, titles, phrases and verbal expressions may change or be different. These messengers maintained a faith and practice which, today, is known and called “Orthodox Catholic”. All are God's messengers.

+ WISDOM: The cultural insights and memories of people and ages illuminate the human condition.

The experience and lore of all cultures and peoples bear within them the values that are of wider meaning; showing us that racism, nationalism, sexism, class-ism, ageism, genocide and imperialism are contrary to God's purpose and impoverish all of US. All wisdom must, however, be tested for its capacity to reveal human dependence upon the One Eternal God, the Source and Goal of all life; to liberate, to evoke prophecy and to form a genuine covenant.

+ THE NEW COVENANT: God is known to us in the person of Jesus Christ through Holy Spirit.

Jesus of Nazareth came to us as the Suffering Servant of all mankind. The Source and Goal of life is disclosed in the Incarnate Word of God through Jesus Christ as the suffering Love which breaks the power of sin and spiritual death; rendering hope in the action of God to reconcile and transform humanity and the earth, which shatters the barriers of racial, national, gender, sexual orientation, class and caste restrictions. In Jesus Christ through Holy Spirit, the Divine Love; its meaning -and activity are incarnate in both history and humanity who accept His truths.

+ SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS: God calls those who trust the Power of His Love as taught through His Only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to form communities of celebration, care and involvement.

The teachings, types and symbols of all world religions find their more perfect fulfillment and consummation in the Person of Jesus Christ and the Church - One, Holy, Orthodox-Catholic and Apostolic - even St. Augustine said, "That which is called the Christian religion existed among the ancients, and never did not exist, from the beginning of the human race until Christ came in the flesh, at which time the true religion, which already existed, began to be called 'Christian."

It should be noted that while, in truth, many of the world religions may have been considered or were: by our terms "pagan", they held within them a seed of God's truth. The problem with many pagan religions is that what started out as a true worship, or seeking to worship the Divine Plan of God and God Himself, ended up with the machinations of men perverting the 'good' into the 'bad' for selfish-political purposes of holding power over the minds, hearts and bodies of humanity; seeking to make themselves appear as “holy” when they are “unholy,” to make themselves appear to be Chaste, when they are most unchaste, to make themselves appear as being filled with divine knowledge and humbleness when they are filled with man’s knowledge and only a superficial humility that hides an ego for respect to sit in the highest places of the minds and hearts of people through their using deceit and lies to perpetrate not just themselves, but unknowingly, the plans of the Evil One.

Those called together by God through Holy Spirit, enact renewing forms of community and movement to the ends of the earth, responding by word and deed to the implications of Faith for each age. The Apostolic Church celebrated the dependence of creation upon Jesus Christ, demanding a Sacramental attitude towards the whole of creation and, thereby, set forth the meaning of faith and, in the liberty of the Spirit, gave new direction to the faithful. The Creedal formulators established the guidelines which, in accord with the Bible as the primary rule of Faith and Practice, serve as the basis for the community (Koinonia) of people 'called out' (Ecclesia) to proclaim and show forth the One Eternal God in Jesus Christ through the Spirit of Holiness. This witness has continued in many forms through the ages.

+ OUR PRESENT WITNESS: Today there are many who are reaching out for a wider fellowship with those who Love God, and Love to serve the neighbor in Jesus Christ through Holy Spirit which sanctifies, liberates and unites.

Within this context, the Thaddean Companions become an ecumenical Order gathered together from the Church universal. Gathered we are, but as the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the blessed company of all the faithful people. We constitute no new Church or Sect, but a living part of the One, Holy, Orthodox-Catholic and Apostolic Church established of old by Jesus Christ, our Savior. Through our own Church community, we seek to develop the untapped communities around us without regard for their cultural life-styles or segregated leanings. To celebrate the movement of Holy Spirit in our time as the power of transformation for humanity and the world in Christian renewal is a continuous goal.

Following in the footsteps of a cloud of witnesses over the centuries who have prophetically exemplified and discerned the activity of God, we are called by Holy Spirit to spread the Teachings of Divine Love, as taught by Jesus Christ, in the way of Eucharistic Discipleship which shall be truly universal, truly evangelical and truly free. We are conservative, yet we are radical; by our combining authority with ordered freedom, and traditional with relationship to the radical teachings of Jesus Christ, the Prophets and Apostles. Jesus and the Apostles were seen by contemporary society of 2,000 or more years ago as radical or revolutionary, in a non-violent way. The Word of God through Jesus Christ is a two-edged sword!

Scripture tells as, "Where there is no vision the people perish" [Proverbs 29:183. Whether It be ethnic Greek, American, Russian, Polish, etc, or class identification such as Gay, Straight, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, American Orthodox, Democrat or Republican... as Christians, we must minister from within those various communities to the spiritual needs of all our brothers and sisters who are, all to often, despised and rejected for what appears and sometimes is, a difference in lifestyles… but a people of many sorrows and sins. Our vision then is that of Holy Spirit knocking against church doors today, to see whether any of the Love of God through Christ is alive and moving behind them. There cannot be, in truth, a division as a result of life-styles, class, ethnic, political, material or wealth distinctions that are non-violent. One must look at the individual, not a class distinction. The Church is the spiritual hospital for sinners, especially those who have been so brow-beaten as to turn away from the Church to something false and misleading. They must be brought back by their own free will and that can only be accomplished through using the compassion and love of Jesus Christ in order to bring them to living waters of Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Light.

The transforming reality of God's Presence among us is found when we recognize that we are called to transformation in Love; to put apathy behind and to fully participate in the Covenant of the pilgrim people of God'. This "Transformation" literally means to change. That "change" or "transformation" must come first within one's self. That-does not include Just come to "Love" Jesus Christ, It means that we must "Love" each and every other human being as if he or she were Jesus Christ! This also means that we must change our mental thinking whereby we do not limit ourselves. Much the same as, "Let not your light be hidden under a basket" may also mean that we, if we love God, Jesus Christ, we should not hide that Love we have, but let it be manifested to all without discrimination. If we have "Love", then we have the urge to understand God's forces in the universe ... and, of how we may come to use those forces (spiritual forces) for the betterment of others, not ourselves! But ... by so doing, God's grace (power) will be given to us so that we are not left without some help of those very same. forces. When we understand some of those forces, we come into the unique period of being "transformed" or "changed". Our FREE WILL then becomes exercised.

+ To take up Jesus Christ's rare and humble service and gentle love in ministry and community which is to resist the temptation to abusive power.

+ To work for ending racism, sexism, classism, ageism oppression based on political, racial, and all other divisive systems that set person against person, group against group. By this work, in a loving non-violent action, the Church universal may be moved to effectively contribute to the healing of the world's sins.

+ To prophetically proclaim the need for an end to all wars and for a just distribution of natural resources, equitable power among the nations of the world and an ever increased spirit of charitable giving in love, material and physical help as well as money to the most needy of the world.

+ To accept the Cross, and the Joy and pain of discipline, journeying from darkness to Light in the covenant of truth, non-violence, love and freedom brought to us by Jesus Christ: against the hatred, violence, oppression, inequality and other ungodliness in the world; and in this Community of Discipleship to proclaim by our lives the Reign of God in all phases of life, witnessing to Christ's Living Presence with us through a Holy Spirit NOW!

+ To serve the risen and living Jesus Christ, not me-rely the Christ of history nor merely the One Who is looked for yet to come, but "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever" [Heb. 13,9]. We serve not merely the Christ of the cloistered sanctuary, but our Sovereign Savior, Jesus Christ, who is at work in all creation and alive in all humanity through Holy Spirit of God.

Work of the Thaddeans

Society of St. Jude Thaddeus and Friends – Holy Order of St. Jude Thaddeus

The work of Jesus Christ is our mission! The life of Jesus Christ in humanity requires our being involved in the lives of all people - - - in service to others! If Christ has redeemed all, then all human life must express this redemption in order to be authentically human. Jesus' service to humanity therefore commits us to the same service. The Deed of Calvary calls us to be responsible to the suffering of humanity, so that we see the Face of Christ in the faces of men and women in every kind of need. We are called to Love: to the reciprocal maintenance of all life in the Spirit.

'We are dedicated to the transformation (changing) of Society through the giving of aide and comfort... the transformation of the individuals therein. By the work of Grace which changes us in accord with the readings of Holy Spirit, each person can, in a small though significant way, begin to change the world of planet earth. Our common-unity enables us to better search for truly Christ-like ways to deal with the ills of society, which is the way of non-violence.

"I will make a covenant on behalf of my people with the wild animals,

with the birds of heaven and the creeping things of the earth."

(Hosea 2:18)

We recognize the Holy Spirit of God in the actions of our brothers and sisters for the restoration and preservation of the ecological balance of our Planet Earth. We believe that uncontrolled production and consumption constitute violence against ecological order and balance. Therefore, we dedicate ourselves to work toward lifestyles that hold a viable ecological order as a sacred priority in Jesus Christ.

"I will break bow, sword and battles in the country, and make them sleep secure."

(Hosea 2-18)

"I will make a covenant of peace with them;

I will break their yoke and liberate them from their oppressors"

[Ezekiel 34:25-27]

We recognize that the Holy Spirit of God is at work in the movement for peace and freedom through out the world. As members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, we know that an injury to one is an injury to all. Knowing that the highest form of service to the One, Eternal God is to serve humanity and the whole suffering creation, we dedicate ourselves to serve the victims of force and oppression, of rejection and neglect. Thus we join the non-violent struggle for a transformed society with structures which will be just, humane and participatory.

"I will betroth you to myself forever, betroth you with Integrity and justice, with tenderness and Love"

We recognize that the Holy Spirit of God is at work in the various social movements of our time towards vocational creativity, sexual integrity and interpersonal sensitivity. Therefore, we seek to develop attitudes and life-styles that are personally and communally liberating and non-exploitive. Through celebration we are freed in Jesus Christ through Holy Spirit, that we may do this work of God in transforming Love.

"For I was hungry and you gave me food,

I was thirsty and you gave me drink;

I was homeless and you gave me shelter;

naked and you clothed me,

sick and you visited me,

in prison and you came unto me...

In so far as you did this to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me."

[Matt. 25:35-36, 40]

Through the performance of the Works of Divine Love, and the administration of the Mysteries (Sacraments), we teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Call to make us Free. The aim of this work is to demonstrate in our own lives and in our society of today, that the Divine Love, when accepted in faith and truly lived, leads to spiritual regeneration, or shall we say spiritual increase or psychic increase which is a gift of the Holy Spirit God. As we have long adored the Christ, Jesus, in the Mysteries or Sacraments of the Altar in Worship to God, we must now go out and seek Him in our and sisters of all humankind.

We acknowledge our need for a continuing awareness that any written statement such as this can be of spiritual value only if its meaning and its indicated emphasis is supported by our hearts and reflected in our lives of dedicated Christian Service, not just through our standing aside or from a distance and giving lip-service, or a nod of the head in agreement; but by daily doing Works of Christian Service, not just pious do-goodism of praise and piety, but action and participation out in society without proselytizing for that which is called denominationalism... but true Christian service.

In this joyous service, this Holy Order cones together to enable us to more fully achieve one-ness and perfection in Jesus Christ; not with the constraint of law, but with the liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We encourage the fullest possible development and use of every member's spiritual gifts, intellectual and physical talents and ministries; thereby initiating the work that free men and women may do, in accord with the promptings of a Holy Spirit in every person through common-unity and community, to act effectively to interpret the Gospel of Jesus Christ which leads us to tend to the importance of spiritual growth through applying the same in practical affairs and common concerns "That God may be ALL in all" [1 Cor. 15:28].

ACTS OF A COMMON LIFE

WORSHIP

As Thaddean Companions we offer ourselves to Jesus Christ: for the realization of spiritual communion among sincere Christians who know they are not perfect in the eyes of God, and among all persons in the human family. Our brothers and sisters are our life in Christ: which expresses the service of active prayer which the Thaddean Companions share, each in his or her own vocation. Our commitment is an intensification and affirmation of the offering of the person to Christ which began at baptism. With openness and a spirit of availability to Christ through all persons, the Thaddean Companions either in contemplative solitude or physical immersion, shall be in the world through the active outpouring of prayer. Thus, we realize the unity of prayer as a "lived-out" sharing in praise, penitence, and petition, and this shall be the chief source of communion among Thaddean Companions.

The teach us to make every action in our lives holy in Jesus Christ, expressing love and Joy. We must be attentive to enter into the meaning of the liturgical action: to perceive' under signs accessible to our fleshly being, the spiritual reality of Jesus' Community of Love, the Mystical Body of Christ in the Church corporate. We must also take care not to multiply those signs but to keep them simple. The praise of God expressed in our liturgical worship is effective only insofar as it graces our daily lives in joyous service to others, whether by upbraiding another to fight them for their better self or by tasks of providing an extended hand of help in obtaining freedom from oppression of a neighbor, a city, state or any other government, or even just a piece of bread.

In the regularity of worship, we participate in the Divine Love. The whole love of the Passion and Resurrection burns in every Eucharist: and since we have been given grace (power) to bring about the universal Community of Truth, Light, Love and Liberation, even as the Apostle says, "I will show you faith by my works," [James 2:18]. We must surrender ourselves to the Living Word and Holy Spirit of God. We must let Christ reach the deepest recesses of our being to transform our mind, heart, soul and strength. Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, comes wholly (holistically) to us in the Holy Mysteries. We nourish ourselves with the Meal of Thanksgiving, in true, sincere, thanksgiving, never forgetting that it is offered for the whole of creation, the people of God.

The center of community life for Thaddean Companions is the Eucharist, the Holy symbol of Divine Love, the result of our giving the perfect gift: our bodies and minds to do God's Will, The Thaddean Companion shall be united in a special bond of prayer for the most excellent gift of Love of God in Jesus Christ: and a daily effort to cultivate the spirit of Love, to express the same in certain definite acts on a day-to-day basis. In this Ground of Love, God incarnates in the Living Word, Jesus Christ among us!

This creative life of Christ is made known mysteriously in the descent of a Spirit of Holiness in the Eucharist, Though we remain sojourners and a pilgrim people of the world to witness in community and common-unity the Good News of the Reign of God through Jesus Christ (which is the true meaning of Ek-Klesia = Called Out, and Koinonia = Community, both of which we translate today as Church), we can take root and grow in our own spirit: not alone anymore, not alienated and broken, but reanimated - - - by the Deed of Calvary and the Life of the Risen Christ! We cannot out-love God! Love is the very grain of the universe - and this is the Resurrection of the Body to which we are called, the garment of the feast which we must each put on.

The core of all our work, the balm that provides us refuge at the center of the cyclone of daily life and gives us strength for struggle - both inwardly, in personal transformation, and outwardly, in seeking for God's Reign on earth - - is the sacra- mental life. Therefore, Thaddean Companions pledge themselves to take part in the celebration of the Eucharist daily, or as often as their duties permit - - - and at least weekly - - - and to devote a certain amount of time to silent prayer and meditation on a regular, consistent basis.

Saint Edmund Rich wrote in 'The Mirror of Holy Church',

"Every hour in which you have not thought of God has been an hour lost."

Common prayer does not dispense us from private prayer and meditation. The one sustains the other. We must take time each day to renew our individual intimacy with the Holy Spirit of God. We must come to the Presence of God, Who is with each of us and with all people, as promised by Jesus Christ through Holy Spirit, even when we feel no tangible response.

Thaddean Companions pledge to devote a quarter of an hour each day to reading and meditating on the Holy Scriptures, following a lectionary in accord with the Christian year. We should approach this reading devotionally, seeking the guidance of Holy Spirit, with a patient mind, constantly renewed by faith, to discover the true countenance of Jesus Christ; and with a persevering determination to conform both bur inward attitudes and our out- ward actions to the spirit of the Gospels.

Thaddean Companions must arrange for, at least, a short period of time each day devoted to intercession for others, especially for this Holy Order and its work, as well as other religious communities; individuals, for circumstances and situations, for openness to the guidance of Holy Spirit.

All Thaddean Companions are expected to devote several consecutive days each year for a Great Retreat, generally a weekend during the Sunday of Mother’s Day. The Thaddeans actual beginning or birth date is not known because it was a gradual growth which led to its formation over a span of years, culminating on May 10^th 1981, which is now marked as the birthday of this Holy Order.

Attendance at the annual Great Retreat is indispensable for Thaddean Companions as a means for keeping one’s faith truly alive and for making one’s charity more and more universal and Catholic in a secularized and materialistic world.

Mysticism and spirituality by themselves are not enough.

Social action and therapeutic caring by themselves are not enough.

Nor, is it enough merely to reach for both at the same time.

The lost element in our lives is the force within myself that can attend to other movements of human nature with my being and can then guide the arising of this force within my neighbor in a manner suited to his (or her) understanding.

(Jack Needleman: Lost Christianity – New York, 1980)

During the Great Retreat and the ensuing Great Chapter of all Thaddean Companions, the shape of the Order comes out in its completeness. In principle, no one can be admitted to the full Companionate before having taken part in one of these Great Retreats or, failing this for valid reason, in several shorter retreats. From such a retreat we can “return” to the Church in the world with renewed strength for struggle, sensitivity to human needs, and dedication to the Will of God in the spirit that Christ would have of us.

AGAPE AND ACTION

"Christ is our peace..." [Eph. 2:14]

Without Christ there is discord between God and humanity, between person and person, and within each person him or herself), Christ says:

"By this shall all know that you are disciples, If you have love one another"

[John 1335]

And Saint Francis of Assisi wrote in his Rule:

"Love Is the distinguishing feature

of all true disciples of Christ.

It must be especially outstanding in the lives of

those who wish to consecrate themselves

to Christ and to Christ's people."

Even a simple meal should be an Agape Feast in which our love of God is manifest in Joyfulness and simplicity of heart. The occasional moments of silence at meal-time bring us refreshment when we are weary, or communion in prayer for the Thaddean Companion who partakes of the same bread, Let the brother or sister whose task it may be to wait on the table facilitate the peace of the meal by watchfulness

We must become filled with the Holy Spirit of coming to know Jesus Christ in ourselves. But we cannot first just save ourselves and then go out and save our brothers and sisters. The process of becoming the new person family of humanity, of coming:

"...to the stature of the fullness of Christ,"

[Eph. 4:13]

is the process of giving our lives for our brothers and sisters. It is not by happenstance that for centuries a Crucifix has been the symbol of our Faith, for only as we participate in Jesus' Deed of Calvary do we come to a more full Resurrection of Love and Joy. People in need, people that we can stand with in their struggle for liberation, people that we can stand with in their falling and bondage, or as they lay upon their sick-beds, are all Christ come to see us.

"There is always the danger that we may become only social workers, or Just do the work for the sake of the work. It is a danger if we forget to Whom we are doing it. Our works are only an expression of our Love for Christ, Jesus. Our hearts need to be full of love for Christ, and since we have to express that love in action, naturally then the poorest of the poor are the means of expressing our love for God."

[Mother Teresa of Calcutta]

We are the Presence of Christ in the world when listening, finding ways to be of help, being there, place to stand, together being strength for struggle, St. Teresa of Avila says:

"Christ has no body now on earth but yours;

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours;

yours are the eyes through which Christ is to see

while going about doing good,

and yours are the hands with which Christ Is to bless us now."

Thaddean Companions will seek to be conformed to the image of Christ, Whom they would serve by the ways of prayer, study and active work for the Reign of God in a spirit of holiness.

Prayer has, of course, already been discussed under the section of Worship.

STUDY

"And this is life eternal, that they might Know you, the One True God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent."

[John 17.3]

In these words, Holy Scripture sets before us the goal of our study: true knowledge is knowledge of God through Jesus Christ!

Thaddean Companions will, therefore, give first place to the devotional study of the Scriptures and to the pursuit of Christian reading. All Thaddean Companions are encouraged to assume particular areas of study as a matter of Spiritual discipline, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the application of the Good News to all questions that pertain to human liberation and the Imitation of Christ according to one's nature and degree of ability to understand and implement such in their lives. We must, however, be aware that the pursuit of merely idle questionings may become an excuse for living a poor and careless life.

ACTIVE WORK

"Not to minister to, but to minister."

(Matt. 20:28)

Christ, the Sovereign Savior of all took on the form of a servant.

Thaddean Companions of every degree and office or status will, therefore, endeavor to serve others by active work directed towards the aims of the Order. They will also, in so far as time and circumstances allow, render active-participatory help to others doing similar work. The lives of the Thaddean Companions will be marked through out by a reflection of the One Who came among us as the Suffering Servant of all. Let Holy Spirit take hold of our simplified lives, so that our daily life may resonate the Gospel according to each one's own nature and degree of ability, with an understanding.

"The only Christian work, is good work well done."

[Dorothy Sayers]

Pride in personal skill is a dangerous matter for a Thaddean Companion. All work and skill should be offered to God through Jesus Christ, from Whom our strength to do it comes. We should always work towards discovering our new togetherness in unanimity of pluralism, combining a fearless acceptance of the demands of our age with

"... an earnest contending for the faith once for all delivered to the Saints."

[Jude 3]

and with all that is best in the past. Thaddean Companions must provide a sanctuary for the simple and the learned alike.

Our lives must proclaim the fullness of the Gospel: and we must realize that this means renouncing all evil and adhering to all good. Our life-styles will be totally transformed in following Jesus Christ - - and we willingly take up this cross as we follow on the Way.

We must love our neighbor as ourselves. We must grasp the hand of the poor, the needy, the outcast, the stranger, despised and even the rejected; all non-violent persuasions.

We must in all of our pursuits practice truth - - walking in righteousness, humility, Justice and love insofar as we can, according to our nature and degree of understanding - - with none walking in the stubbornness of his or her own heart nor going astray after fallible human judgment.

Ye must reverence and respect all life, strive sincerely to remove all pride and hardness of heart, call no one "Master", and take no oaths even as we have been taught by Jesus.

We must establish in society a solid base of Truth and Love, making common cause with all who participate in Jesus' non- violent revolution of reconciling and transforming Love in the struggle for liberation, even as we forge a bond of unity indissoluble forever.

It is to these aims and goals that we live not only within our order, but purposely live in the world and participate fully in it, We should affirm our solidarity with all others who struggle and work for the transformation of humanity and the world in reciprocal maintenance, for our work is not ours alone, but it is the work of Christ: and we share this Work with all who struggle for liberation, justice, and peace, by whatsoever name they call themselves.

This is the Way of the Thaddean Companion's Life for all those who seek after the inward vision in a Holy Spirit of God: to the end that we may perform at all times the Word which has been made known to us in Christ. We must always accommodate abstract theory to concrete circumstances: for the Incarnation is not a truth for the future, but the future is the Truth of the Incarnation where, in the most unexpected ways, Christ waits for us around every corner, blooms for us in every distant star. Thus we are to listen ever for the Call of Christ in the spirit of Holiness, and in everything we bless the One God, Sovereign and Eternal, Who Creates, Redeems, and Sustains all.

HOLY SCRIPTURE

God has given revelation of the Divine Love and Will for humanity in the Bible: and supremely and uniquely in the Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ. God's manifest purpose in this revelation is the calling of people to freedom. Although God's power is revealed through out the creation, this knowledge cannot make that freedom known and experienced by people, for it cannot make Christ known of and by itself. Thus became revealed in saving word and deed to Israel, as recorded in the Old Testament; and God fulfilled this revelation in Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament.

The one sufficient revelation of God is Jesus Christ, Whom we must, hear and Whom we must trust and obey in life and in death. Christ alone is the infallible and inerrant Word of God, to Whom the Holy Scriptures attest; and by which they become our only source and rule of doctrine, our primary source and rule of practice in the Way of Discipleship. The Bible, therefore, is the word of God because in it we find that One Who is the Word of God made flesh. God's liberating Christ-Event is the touchstone of all Scriptural, authority.

It is from the Person and Lifestyle of Jesus Christ that humanity's true calling comes into our hearts. The Word which Jesus brings is Love; and this is the true faith, implanted in our hearts.

To understand the Bible rightly, a person must become the new person in the free grace of God: seeking the Will of God in Christ and filled with the same Holy Spirit Who inspired the Bible. When the Scriptures are thus read and studied under the inner guidance of Hob/ Spirit and in Christian community, then Christ will continue to speak through the Bible and Hob/ Spirit to a changing world and to every situation in which the Thaddean Companion find themselves.

"All things,

by desiring proper perfections,

desire God,"

(Thomas Aquinas)

and;

"all things,

insofar as they are at all,

tend into likeness of God, Who is Being itself."

[Thomas Aquinas] and;

"and therefore we may with reverence

ask from our Lover all that we will,

for our natural will is to have God,

and God's Will is to have us,

and we can never stop willing or loving

until we possess God in the fullness of Joy,"

[Dame Julian of Norwich]

"Life is a pilgrimage into God with God."

[St. Benedict, Abbott]

The Harvest

Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into His harvest.

(John the Theologian 4:35; Luke 10:2)

UNIVERSAL CITIZ ENSHIP

Christ reigns forever in Love! In Christ alone our citizenship resides - - and in the New Covenant requires us to refuse to take part in the governing over, judging or arming against our brothers and sisters. To do so is contrary to the Good News and that freedom in which Christ has set us free (GaL 5:11. Our solemn loyalty and duty is to the Reign of God in Jesus Christ through Holy Spirit: and to all humanity as our fellow citizens with the saints in the household of God.

We proclaim the complete equality of all people as children of the One Eternal God, Who creates, redeems and sanctifies all. Nationalism, racism and sexism in any form are blasphemy against God, Who creates all humanity in the Divine image and Who offers redemption to all. People must come to God freely and it is not the function of any person or institution to force the faith on anyone. Oppression and persecution of, and discrimination against, any person or group of non-violent people is a serious sin in the eyes of God to Whom we are all equal and equally loved.

God is acting in this day of deepening crisis for humanity and for the earth: raising up new Communities by Holy Spirit, a movement for Agape and Action, a movement for reconciliation and loving service. As a sign of faithfulness, God is making a Covenant of Peace with those Communities (Ezekiel 34:34) ... whereby the weapons of war are broken (Hosea 2:181, the straps of the yoke are cut (Isaiah 58-6], the reign of the people is established [Daniel 7:27] and the garden of the earth is restored [Isaiah 11:6]. Yet, let us not forget that in Joel 3:10, the "Lord" as regards the Last Days.

In the Divine Love for humanity and the whole creation, God, through Holy Spirit, as sent by Jesus Christ to those of us who are faithful in our belief and action of non-violence, raises up a separate people in all countries - - - a pilgrim people called to

"Come out among them and be separate,"

(2 Cor. 6:17)

called to be disciples of Jesus Christ To seek out these children of Light and encourage them, regardless of denominational affiliations or lack thereof, to promote better understanding amongst humanity ... is the Thaddean Companion's obligation in cooperating with God's Plan for redeeming the world.

Since Jesus Christ is the full realization of humanity in God, all societies must have institutions of Christ's excellence which manifests Christ's redeeming values and aspects in specific ways understandable to humanity. The individual may not be able to assimilate all the nature, and qualities, of Christ, but the community, as a whole, can collectively affect an aspect of His redeeming features and aspects only insofar as the nature and degree of ability will allow for an individual to understand and do in this common-unity of action as a result of one's faith and belief. Thus, each member's own quality of understanding and ability is uplifted in degrees.

Thus, it is truly said that the Divine Word has been revealed in teaching, type and symbol even from the beginning of humanity. Those types and symbols which went before us, to find their perfect fulfillment and consummation in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Orthodox and Catholic Church has always taught:

The true religion was known among the ancients and existed from the beginning of the human race

until the coming of Christ in the flesh,

from which time on the same true religion

which already existed was called Christian."

[St. Augustine of Hippo]

"That which has been believed everywhere,

always, and by all: that is what is truly and properly

Catholic."

[Vincent of Lerins]

"All that which Is true,

by whomsoever it has been spoken,

is of the Holy Spirit."

[St. Ambrose of Milan]

"The Holy Spirit is the Author of all Truth."

[John Wesley]

Party politics is certainly not something for a Thaddean Companion to be involved in. Thaddean Companions have to be present in solidarity with those who suffer poverty, persecution, and even death itself. But the specific contribution of a Thaddean Companion in such situations must be made in discernment with the Community!

"Whatever the country,

the creed or social position of the person I approach,

so long as the same joy and fire of expectancy glows in that person as it does in me, then a fundamental, final and total contact is immediately established."

[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]

Today as in the days of Galilee,

what we most need if we are to recognize the convergence of the universe is not so much new facts as a joyful new way of looking at, and handling facts. A new way of seeing, combined with a new way of acting: that is what we need."

[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]

As Thaddean Companions, we do not consider ourselves merely citizens of any one country. Citizenship in the governments of the world is limited and is part of the world broken by sin: but our true Citizenship is universal and eternal in the New Jerusalem, and it is this which draws the world together in the Love of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, alone, is our peace! As brothers and sisters of one family in the Love of Christ, members of the Mystical Body of Christ, and citizens of the Universal Community of Liberation; we object to any recourse to force and violence as being both corrupt and corrupting. The transformation, which we seek in our own lives, and in society, must be non-violent! The crucible of transformation being the Word of God!

Jesus Christ clearly taught, all life as essential to the Way of Discipleship. Violence is blasphemy against the One Eternal God, Who created human life in the Divine image and likeness; Who offers reconciliation to all people through Jesus Christ; and Who manifests as Sovereign of all life by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell with us who do His Will, according to our individual nature and degree of understanding and ability to formulate that understanding into positive action.

The saints of Christ do not go to war!