The Beginnings
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On May 21 1926, Rev. Jaime Bonet, the founder of the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity was born in the small island of Mallorca just off main land Spain. Who would have imagined that through this new life a new community of consecrated life would be born in the mid 20th century and would quickly reach all corners of the earth?
Jaime was 13 years old when the Spanish civil war came to an end. Even though he lived on an island, away from the worst of the fighting, he saw the warships passing by, he knew that the war was raging on the small neighboring island of Menorca and listened day after day about the stories of death. In Spain, practically every family lost members in the war. In remembering the war, he said once: “they killed everybody.” The country was divided and hurting. The Church had lost 20% of its clergy, roughly 40% of its religious and almost half of its Bishops in the war. The Church was hated by many and seen as out of touch with the growing masses of the poor.
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If you exist make me happy
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Bring my love to all people
It is in this atmosphere, that Jaime as a 14-year-old teenager had an experience of the Love of God, with the crucified Christ and Jesus in the Eucharist. He attended a minor seminary as most young boys did at that time and one day during chapel time he said to God, “If you exist, make me happy.” Jaime experienced intense joy, as well as deeply touching the suffering of Jesus still in the lives of so many people all over the world. He asked Jesus in the Eucharist, “What are you doing there? Why are you so helpless?” In response, Jaime experienced Jesus asking him, “Will you take me to people, will you give me to all people, will you take my love to others?”
For this reason, Jaime joined the seminary in 1940 with the desire to share the love of God with the poorest of the world. While in the seminary he would often leave to go and preach to those on the margins of society. During the evenings and weekends, he would organize groups and retreats for people estranged by the Church, or who were bored or tired by the Church as well as for parishioners with a more traditional piety. His intention was the same: to empower each person through an encounter with a living God, full of love for the least and the lost. In 1952, Jaime was ordained a priest by Pope Pius XII.
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Women with a Mission
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As a young newly ordained diocesan priest, Jaime was creating an apostolic dynamism on the entire island through his preaching and retreats. Jaime, ever sensitive to the signs of the times, perceived the missing voice of women and so started to preach and give retreats focused especially for women. These women left the retreat on fire with the experience of God, and were empowered to preach and share the love of God.
The growth in the number of groups that wanted to be prepared for preaching led Jaime to set up “apostolic schools” or “schools of evangelization” among the young adults. As they began to receive this formation on preaching, they started to become a driving force in many other parishes. A vibrant movement was forming among the young women of Mallorca, who were inspired by Jaime and his vision for a mission that empowered all people, foremost the ones on the margins. For Jaime, it was important that women become retreat givers for men and women and that women would provide spiritual direction. This was the beginnings of the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity.
Approval
On January 17, 1963, the first group of consecrated women of Verbum Dei was approved as a lay association with the name Misioneras diocesanas de la Palabra de Dios, (Diocesan Missionaries of the Word of God) by Bishop Enciso Viana. The motto of their dedication was already “orationi et ministerio verbi instantes erimus.” (Acts 6:4 – “We shall dedicate ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word”).
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We shall dedicate ourselves to prayer
and ministry of the Word
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A New Form of Consecrated Life
One Community, Three Branches
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Later, diocesan priests and married couples also felt drawn to this new and growing community. And so it was that 37 years later, on April 15, 2000, the Holy See approved all the three branches (celibate female missionaries, celibate male missionaries and married couples) with the structure of one sole institute, thereby safeguarding the vision of Jaime for a unity in difference that maximizes the potential to reach out apostolically to the diverse realities in our world in the 21st century.
Verbum Dei was pontifically approved with its three branches as one Fraternity of Consecrated Life. The innovative category of New Forms of Consecrated Life at the Institute for Consecrated Life at the Holy Sees was applied to the VDMF.
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