The CICM MISSIONARY IDENTITY
Introduction to the entire Course and Chapter I: CFE 4 aims to help the students concretize the
concept of Mission as studied in CFE 3 through an examination of the CICM Missionary Identity. This
Identity (or Charisma?) is rooted in a CICM spirituality as can be culled from the story of the foundation
of the Congregation, the explanation of its name, emblem and motto, the life of the Founder, as well as
those of the hundreds of members past and present where they toil and toiled.
The Course will be followed by CFE 4 and CFE 5, which will attempt to lead the students to
apply the CICM Mission Identity by owning/participating in the CICM Advocacies, namely Disaster and
Risk Reduction Management, Interreligious Dialogue, Indigenous Peoples, and Justice, Peace & Integrity
of Creation.
CHAPTER I. CICM Spirituality
Lesson 1: The Name (in Latin): Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae or the Congregation
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (in Tagalog: Kongregasyon [/Kapisanan?]ng
Kalinislinisang Puso ni Maria)
What’s in a name? The importance of a name: identity and mission
Activity: “Getting to Know You”, a small group sharing on the circumstances behind my
first name (the story of how I got my name: who gave it and his/her/their reason/s for the choice,
my struggles in relation to my name, how my name had somehow “defined” me, etc.), followed
by a sharing to the class by two or three volunteers.
A short discussion on the importance of a name: it gives one “identity” and, in Sacred
Scriptures, mission:
The Birth and Naming of John the Baptist and his Mission
in Zechariah’s Prophecy (Lk. 1:57-80)
The Anunciation: “. . . . and you will name him Jesus . . .”
(Lk. 12:26-38)
- Fr. Theophile Verbist, the founder of CICM, had a great devotion to Mary, which brought him to
establish the first headquarters of the Congregation to Scheut, a village outside of Brussels in
Belgium where a statuette of Our Lady of Grace was venerated. When he and his first
companions/co-founders Frs. Alois van Segvelt, Frans Vranckx, and Remi Verlinden started to
meet regularly to draw up the Statutes of the new Congregation, “ . . . . they unanimously agreed
to consecrate the Mission to the Holy Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Immaculate
Heart of the Very Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom they committed themselves to recommend daily
the interests of the Congregation.” It is thus clear that they were placing the Congregation under
the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
- The current CICM emblem includes in its upper portion the Virgin with a Child inside a trunk,
who is Our Lady of Grace of Scheut.
- It is also worthwhile to note that the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception
by Pope Pius IX in 1854 was causing the rapid spread of the name “Immaculate Heart of Mary”,
and the liturgical feast of and the devotion to her was adopted about everywhere in the world.
- A “congregation” (or “order” e.g. Order of Preachers/Dominicans, or “society” e.g. Society of
Jesus/Jesuits) is a religious institute of consecrated life for men or women which is “of pontifical
right” (which the Holy See/Vatican has approved by formal decree).
People know that I am a student of SLC/Louisian/CICM school/a Catholic school: how do I
live/show even in simple ways my being a “Louisian”? (Or the opposite: what acts make me
betray my identity as a Louisian?
References:
(Nestor Pycke, CICM in p.12 of “CICM Emblem and Spirituality”, Chapter 1 of Christ is Calling Me:
150 Years of Service in God’s Mission (1862-2012) of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary (CICM). Makati City: St. Pauls Philippines, 2012.)
