Organization
The international team has overall responsibility for the movement, and comprises married couples from different countries assisted by a spiritual counselor. [1]
A team is a group of four to seven couples and a spiritual advisor who meet once a month in each other's homes to share a meal, pray together, and discuss a chosen study topic on married life and faith. [2] The daily prayer of the movement is the Magnificat. [4]
Teams of Our Lady proposes that its members undertake a number of specific practices called "endeavors." These include regular reading of the scripture, and daily personal prayer. [5]
Youth Teams of Our Lady is a Catholic youth movement where young people can get together to pray and deepen their faith. It is founded on the spirituality of passage of young people towards vocations of adult life. The group organizes team meetings and retreats. Every team has a leader, a spiritual counsel and a married couple to assist, give input, and share their experiences about the things discussed in the meetings. [6]
The Apostolic Movement of Schoenstatt is a Roman Catholic Marian movement founded in Germany in 1914 by Father Joseph Kentenich, who saw the movement as a means of spiritual renewal for the Catholic Church. The movement is named Schoenstatt after a small village close to the town of Vallendar near Koblenz, in Germany.
The Couples for Christ (CFC) is an international Catholic lay ecclesial movement whose goal is to renew and strengthen Christian values. It is one of 123 International Associations of the Faithful. The organization is affiliated with the Vatican recognition from the Pontifical Council for the Laity. It is led by an International Council, which operates in the Philippines under the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines and acquired direct rapports with the Vatican City. The community consists of family ministries, social arms, and pro-life ministries.
The Legion of Mary is an international association of members of the Roman Catholic Church who serve it on a voluntary basis. It was founded in Dublin, as a Roman Catholic Marian Movement by the layman and civil servant Frank Duff.
The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fátima, now mostly known as the World Apostolate of Fátima, is a public international association of the Christian faithful that has as its general purpose "the promotion of the authentic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and the strict adherence to the tenets of the Gospel; the personal sanctification of adherents through faithful adherence to the Message of Our Lady of Fátima and the promotion of the common good by the spreading of that Message of Fátima".
The Christian Life Movement is a lay ecclesial movement, founded in 1985, in Peru. At that time, a number of initiatives from members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae had already begun. Luis Fernando Figari, the Founder of the Sodalitium, conceived the idea of gathering those people and initiatives together in an ecclesiastic movement. The Christian Life Movement forms part of the Sodalit Family, which shares a common spirituality, called the Sodalit spirituality.
Catholic spirituality includes the various ways in which Catholics live out their Baptismal promise through prayer and action. The primary prayer of all Catholics is the Eucharistic liturgy in which they celebrate and share their faith together, in accord with Jesus' instruction: "Do this in memory of me." The Catholic bishops at the Second Vatican Council decreed that "devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some fashion derived from it, and lead the people to it, since, in fact, the liturgy by its very nature far surpasses any of them." In accord with this, many additional forms of prayer have developed over the centuries as means of animating one's personal Christian life, at times in gatherings with others. Each of the religious orders and congregations of the Catholic church, as well as lay groupings, has specifics to its own spirituality – its way of approaching God in prayer to foster its way of living out the Gospel.
The Directory of International Associations of the Faithful, published by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, lists the international associations of the faithful in the Catholic Church that have been granted official recognition. It gives the official name, acronym, date of establishment, history, identity, organization, membership, works, publications, and website of the communities and movements.
In the Catholic Church, an association of the Christian faithful or simply association of the faithful is a group of baptized persons, clerics or laity or both together, who, according to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, jointly foster a more perfect life or promote public worship or Christian teaching, or who devote themselves to other works of the apostolate.
A Catholic lay association, also referred to as Catholic Congress, is an association of lay Catholics aiming to discuss certain political or social issues from a Catholic perspective.
An apostolate is a Christian organization "directed to serving and evangelizing the world", most often associated with the Anglican Communion or the Catholic Church. In more general usage, an apostolate is an association of persons dedicated to the propagation of a religion or a doctrine. The word apostolate comes from the Greek word apostello, which means to "send forth" or "to dispatch". The Christian origin of the word comes from the twelve apostles who were selected by Christ; they had a "special vocation, a formal appointment of the Lord to a determined office, with connected authority and duties". An apostolate can be a Christian organization made up of the laity or of a specific Christian religious order.
Union of Catholic Apostolate is a Catholic association established by a Roman priest St. Vincent Pallotti in 1835.
Catholic Marian movements and societies have developed from the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary by members of the Catholic Church. These societies form part of the fabric of Mariology in the Catholic Church. Popular membership in Marian organizations grew significantly in the 20th century, as apparitions such as Our Lady of Fátima gave rise to societies with millions of members, and today many Marian societies exist around the world. This article reviews the major Marian movements and organizations.
The Christian Family Movement (CFM) is a national movement of parish small groups of Catholics and their families who meet in one another's homes or in parish centers to reinforce Christian values and encourage other fellow Christian parents through active involvement with others. Its mission is "to promote Christ-centered marriage and family life; to help individuals and their families to live the Christian faith in everyday life; and to improve society through actions of love, service, education and example." CFM action groups contain five to seven families and the adults meet one or two nights each month in each other's houses.
The Apostolate for Family Consecration is a U.S. Roman Catholic lay movement headquartered in Bloomingdale, Ohio. Founded in 1975 by Jerry and Gwen Coniker.
The Fatima Family Apostolate (FFA) is a U.S.-based Roman Catholic Apostolate with headquarters in Hanceville, Alabama, founded in 1986 by Fr. Robert J. Fox and named after Our Lady of Fátima. Mr. John C. Preiss is currently the President.
The Light-Life Movement is one of the movements of renewal in the Catholic Church, according to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. This movement originated in Poland thanks to the efforts of Servant of God Fr. Franciszek Blachnicki.
Jesus Youth(JY) is an International Catholic Movement, approved by the Holy See. The Movement evolved as an outcome of the Charismatic revival that spread across India in the mid-1970s. As of 20 May 2016, it has been granted recognition by the Vatican as an international private association of the faithful with juridical personality. The movement invites its youth to follow a lifestyle considered to be based on the life of Jesus Christ, based on what it calls 'six pillars'.
The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas is a Catholic educational institution providing an international community and formation for lay ecclesial ministers and other lay students at the Pontifical Universities, Athenae, and Institutes in Rome, Italy. It is international in character and composition, and welcomes ecumenical students from other Christian churches and ecclesial communities, as well as those from non-Christian religions.
Catholic laity are the ordinary members of the Catholic Church who are neither clergy nor recipients of Holy Orders or vowed to life in a religious order or congregation. Their mission, according to the Second Vatican Council, is to "sanctify the world".
The Lay Claretian Movement is a lay movement of the Catholic Church especially called to Evangelization through the Word of God in all its forms, the testimony and the transforming action of the realities in which they are embedded. They have San Antonio Maria Claret as inspirational and spiritual father, and together with the institutions founded by him, constitute the Claretian family. It was born in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, on July 8, 1983 during his first General Assembly. It was built as an international association of the faithful of private law by the Pontifical Council for the Laity on April 20, 1988. The decree of erection was signed by the President of the Congregation, Cardinal Bishop Eduardo Pironio.
