Our Rule of Life

The rule and spirituality of Los Compañeros is taken directly from the founding documents of Voluntas Dei and is adapted to the consecrated life. (cf. Voluntas Dei Institute. (n.d.). Spirituality. Voluntas Dei USA. Retrieved July 31, 2025, from https://voluntasdeiusa.org/spirituality).

The spirituality of Los Compañeros is none other than that of the baptized in the Church: a life of communion with the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Los Compañeros places a special emphasis on seeking and living God's will or desire for us, speaking our "Yes" each day as Mary did to bring Christ's love into the world. The scriptures are our road map for doing this, especially Jesus' teachings about being compassionate and passionate in bringing about God's kingdom of peace, love, and justice in our everyday lives.

The ideal of life which Los Compañeros proposes to its members is to do in all things the will of the Father, like Christ and the Virgin Mary.

To achieve this ideal of life, Los Compañeros proposes the Spirituality of the Three Fives which integrate prayer, attitude, and acts of charity.

The First Five: members of Los Compañeros develop a life of intimacy with the

Lord through daily prayer, and especially through the following spiritual exercises.

Prayer, Meditation, Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary, Jesus Prayer
Lection Divina
Eucharist
Visits to the Blessed Sacrament
Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Second Five: members develop in a special way a spirit of recollection, humility, and fraternal charity through acquiring the following attitudes.

Presence of God
“To live in the presence of God is to be recollected, to pay heed to the Lord living within me. It is to listen to him speaking in me through my conscience, my aspirations, through persons and events. It is to recognize that we participate in the very life of God, that we belong to him.” [In the Footsteps of Jesus by Fr. Parent]
Absence of Destructive Criticism
“Absence of criticism fortifies the presence of God, educates us to patience, augments the spiritual forces within us, permits us to welcome our neighbor with simplicity, stimulates our heart, weans our imagination, pacifies our passions, calms our emotions, suffocates our instincts for revenge, liberates us from selfishness and pettiness and preserves intimacy with God.” [In the Footsteps of Jesus by Fr. Parent]
Absence of Destructive Complaint
“Absence of complaint manifests the spiritual maturity of a person, it expresses the basic quality of a personality which tends toward self-control. Absence of complaint indicates a beautiful personality, one who has taken charge of his life, who has a sense of responsibility.” [In the Footsteps of Jesus by Fr. Parent]
Being of Service
“Being of service reveals the distinctive quality that characterizes the members of Los Compañeros as people who have attained a certain maturity, who have a sense of responsibility, the desire to seek the will of God and the assurance that, as servants of the Church and respectful collaborators of legitimate ecclesiastical and civil authority, they stand with God.” [In the Footsteps of Jesus by Fr. Parent]
Peacemaking
“Peace is the most tangible manifestation of the active presence of God, of submission to a Supreme Being, of the heart’s being possessed by the one whom we consider a marvelous, attentive and gracious Father. We witness to this peace by developing our capacity to love, to be attentive, to show our magnanimity, and to have confidence in others.” [In the Footsteps of Jesus by Fr. Parent]

The Third Five: Exercise five occasions of charity each day to develop positive contacts with others in the manner of Christ.

Daily Life and Practical Matters

1. Our Communal Hermitage

We belong wholly to the Diocese and vow stability in this place unless obedience calls us elsewhere.

2. Daily Horarium and Prayer

Our days are shaped by the Rule of St. Benedict and enriched by Byzantine and Franciscan rhythms and forms of prayer.

Matins (Orthros) before dawn

Lauds at or after after sunrise

Vespers at or after sunset

Compline before rest

Each day includes silent lectio divina, private recitation of the Jesus Prayer or the Rosary, and devotion to the Mother of God through the Akathist or Marian antiphons.

The Divine Liturgy or Holy Mass is celebrated at least weekly. On Sundays and Solemnities, we gather at the altar together.

3. Poverty and Manual Labor

Following Franciscan simplicity and Benedictine stability, we vow evangelical poverty: we live without luxury or excess. We work for our daily bread. Our labor is humble and honest—spiritual direction, pastoral clinical psychotherapy, immigrant advocacy, as well as gardening, cleaning, writing, woodworking—and is offered in silence, when possible as prayer.

“Idleness is the enemy of the soul,” wrote St. Benedict. Thus, our work is ordered not for gain, but for grounding, balance, and charity.

4. Silence, Fasting, and Penitence

Silence protects our solitude. Each day includes strict periods of grand silence from after Compline until after Lauds. Speech is used sparingly, deliberately, and always in charity.

We fast regularly in the spirit of the early hermits and Eastern ascetics. Wednesdays and Fridays are days of abstinence. Major fasts follow both the Latin and Byzantine liturgical calendars: Great Lent, Advent, and the Dormition Fast.

Voluntary penances—cold water ablutions, reduced food, or extra vigils—may be undertaken with discretion and spiritual counsel.

5. Study and Formation

Each day includes sacred reading. We immerse ourselves in:

Scripture (especially Psalms, Gospels, and Wisdom books)

Patristic writings and monastic fathers

The Rule of St. Benedict and Camaldolese constitutions

Franciscan sources: the Admonitions, Fioretti, Testament

We cultivate familiarity with Eastern Christian mysticism, especially the Philokalia, St. Isaac the Syrian, and the Desert Fathers, to honor the Church’s ecumenical fullness.

6. Devotion to the Mother of God, especially Our Lady of Guadalupe

As the name of our community and the name of our house suggests, Casa Gratia Plena is a Marian house.

Daily we recite the Rosary, the Akathist Hymn, or the Canon of the Mother of God. Her icons grace our oratories and remind us that the Theotokos is both our protector and pattern of contemplative surrender.

She is our abbess, and we live beneath her mantle.

7. Fraternal Support and Ecclesial Communion

Though each brother is accountable for his solitude, we meet weekly to review our fidelity to the Rule and support one another’s journey. Our dialogue is grounded in humility, charity, and mutual correction.

Each year we submit a written reflection to our bishop, recounting our fidelity, struggles, and discernment. We remain entirely under his authority.

We remain open to brief, anonymous spiritual accompaniment for those who seek counsel or solitude, always within the limits of our contemplative life.

8. Ongoing Conversion

The Rule is not a cage but a compass. It does not bind but blesses. As Benedict taught, “Always we begin again.”

At quarterly retreats, we evaluate this Rule in light of our lived experience. Amendments may be made only with spiritual counsel and episcopal approval.

Our life is hidden with Christ in God. It is joyfully ordinary and profoundly radical. It is a witness of hope in an age of noise.

The Habit of the Community

The habit of the community shall consist of a simple hooded tunic in black or gray, with or without scapular and with our without capuce and with our without skufia and cape (for inclement weather). Los Compañeros are permitted to wear an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on their habits, over their hearts, a wooden pectoral cross, rosary and long black belt. Either shoes or sandals are permitted for the brothers’ use. In Eastern Church settings, the brothers are permitted the use of: the inner rason, exorason, mandyas (Mantle) koukoulion, and skufia.