The Brothers of the Beloved Disciple is a new religious community, founded in 1997, whose two-fold charism depends on God the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Beloved Disciple, the Apostle John, embodies both aspects of our charism. At the moment of our Lord Jesus’ death on the cross, John tells us in his Gospel that our Lord gave him his mother and shortly thereafter Jesus “handed over the spirit”(Jn 19:30). This precise moment is the image which best represents who we are: Marian and Charismatic. This seems to be a rare combination, but in reality it is not. From the very moment of our Lord’s Incarnation, the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit unite in an intimate way. Hence, our community, in imitation of Jesus, also feels at home in the womb of our Blessed Mother with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit and Mary form a powerful team against the powers of hell. We seek to become true sons of Mary, in that we, too, desire to be holy dwelling places of the giver of life. Our charism compels us to seek all who are in need of the Blessed Virgin’s maternal love and of the healing power of the finger of God, the Holy Spirit. Our world today needs Jesus, and who better than the Virgin Mary and the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity to make him present to us.

As the newest member of this community, I thank and praise God for leading me to the Brothers of the Beloved Disciple. Even though I am the newest addition to the Brothers, I am also the oldest of the temporary professed at 43 years of age. I had sought to follow the Lord once before in my early twenties, but I did not persevere. In hindsight, I see that I was not yet ready at that time to follow him. Still, through all the years that transpired after I left my first community till now, I can now see how our Blessed Mother kept me safe from the fires of hell. When I lived my novitiate with the BBDs, it was the Holy Spirit who healed me of my former ways of life and made me ready to live for Jesus. Long live the Blessed Virgin Mary and God the Holy Spirit!

Bro. Ruben Garza, BBD