Reparative
Mission
We received from the Church, through our Foundresses, the mission of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This mission, which springs from the Eucharist, is characteristically expressed through Adoration and Evangelizing Education.
For us Handmaids, Adoration has a deeply apostolic meaning. We know from experience that facilitating people’s encounter with Jesus, whose presence is alive in the Eucharist, is the best way to help them find meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
In the Handmaids’ houses, all around the world, the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for several hours a day, making our chapels and churches - open to the public - a privileged place for encounter with Christ, who is alive and transforms us. It is He who repairs and gives life.
Another expression of our Reparative Mission is Evangelizing Education. To educate, for a Handmaid, is to help people grow and discover all the richness we can put at the service of those around us.
To educate is to promote and accompany, to learn to see the positive in every person in any situation, but also to relieve suffering and heal wounds. It is to love each person in their concrete and unique situation and to help them discover, at all times, their deepest identity as beloved sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of all humanity.
I want the desire to do all the good you can to grow in you every day.
With anyone, anywhere, or in any mission, the Handmaids have their own style of educating: the Pedagogy of the Heart
Reparation runs through the life of each Handmaid, leading us to respond to God’s reparative Love by living “engaged with the interests of the Heart of Jesus.”
We want to speak heart to heart, seeking what each person needs most, combining tenderness and firmness, and looking with special care toward the least and most vulnerable.
The life of Saint Raphaela Mary and Mother Pilar
Rafaela and Dolores began tirelessly dedicating themselves to helping the poorest families, bringing them food, clothing, and caring for the sick. Most of the time, they did so secretly from their older brothers, leaving through the back door of the house so that they would not notice.