Point 23. Joy in the Cross.

The Phalangist knows the Father in the Son and he draws his joy from the glory appearing on the Face of Jesus crucified, risen and ascended into Heaven, from whence He will come again to seek out His own and to lead them to their eternal blessedness.

1. The major inspiration of the Phalange may, therefore, be read in the Face of Christ. The Phalange heeds the lessons of His Sacred Heart, and it finds their illustration in the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Heart, in the disciple loved by the Lord, in Saint Mary Magdalene, penitent and mystic, and in many other saints.

These devotions feed the Phalangist’s personal piety but also give the Phalange its spirituality, which is that of Father de Foucauld: the cross in this life to obtain heavenly glory, and the heroic and mystical life open to all… for the combat waged by the Counter-Reformation and the Counter-Revolution, but also for the future Renaissance of the Church and the restoration of Christendom on the day of Christ the King’s world triumph.

2. The Phalangist, therefore, will venerate both the Heart and the Cross of Jesus together, that is to say, suffering and death inspired by love, beauty in grief, joy in pain, honour in service, glory in humiliation, final beatitude in persecution and martyrdom.

The Phalangist, whose standard bears the Heart and the Cross, will ceaselessly remember that the resolute but loveless sacrifice of pride is sterile; that egoistic love, which refuses any sacrifice, is mendacious. He will learn mortification of the flesh and renunciation of the spirit without, however, losing his peace of soul, that exalting feeling derived from the eternal life and glory already commenced.

3. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, whether he takes part in it physically or spiritually, will be for him the daily memorial of the mystery of Jesus, the renewal of His passion and death wrought by Himself in His Church as a constant reminder of its lesson and as a means of communicating its grace and strength to all His brethren.