20 the ultimate norm of the religious life is the following of Christ set forth in the Gospels, let this be held by all institutes as the highest rule”.22 Becoming like Christ—chaste, poor, and obedient —is the communal foundation for imitating [Christ] for all people in the consecrated life. However, each founder, guided by the Holy Spirit, goes further, discovering in the Gospels his own treasure: a treasure especially precious and important, which later infl uences the spirituality, community, and mission “which accentuate and represent one or another aspect of the one mystery of Christ”.23 The 1994 World Synod of Bishops also emphasized it in the document “The Consecrated Life and its Role in the Church and in the World—Instrumentum laboris”: “Discipleship, which seeks to imitate Christ and to live out in a particular fashion some of his words, appeared gradually under the infl uence of the Holy Spirit like a Gospel manifested in time and space” (43). Striving untiringly toward holiness is the great dynamic gift that enables the founder to maximize his life plan: to do more, or more precisely, to do better, to go further and deeper. The departing point for such an attitude is the abandonment of everything to Christ, placing Him above everything else in order to imitate Him more closely. Striving for holiness goes along with an internal process of continuous conversion. It is the process of turning away from all sin and creating ever-expanding room in one’s heart for God in total submission to His will. Generally, ongoing conversion is a result of spiritual experiences and a consequence of gradually understanding one’s mission. It occurs in stages of different intensity and is usually preceded by one great conversion based on an individual encounter with Christ and a deep experience of God’s love. This is the reason why each founder possesses an acute sense of his own sinfulness and egotism, while he always feels a deep need for God’s mercy and its importance. Therefore, continuously striving for renewal and growth of the spirit, he also strives to give himself fully to God, to trust in Him, to love Him above all, and to serve Him unreservedly, faithfully fulfi lling His mission. The Power to Attract Disciples The existence of the founding charism is further confi rmed by an unusually strong power of attraction emanating from the founder. This particular grace endows him with some mysterious magnetism and it causes potential candidates for the founding generation to adhere to him. They are “sent” by the Holy Spirit 22 PC, 2a. 23 VC, 93.
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