Claret had a dream

Claret had a dream: a great army of evangelizers, followers of the Word, sent to proclaim the freedom message of Jesus. The saint, wise and creative, knew how to read the signs of the times that he lived with precision and with a great intuition, feed by the Holy Spirit, aimed to empower the seculars to participate in the universal mission of the Church. He didn’t write much, but made a lot for the seculars. He created several institutions: Brothers of Maria’s Heart (1847), Brothers of the Christian Doctrine (1849), Saint Michel Academy (1856) and the popular Libraries (1864), with the already existing Brotherhood of Maria’s Heart …, spaces to develop the shy participation of the laics evangelizing.
After Claret death, the tragic facts of Spain extinct the fire that the seculars had through him.

But those ashes were feed by the Spirit, so any difficulty could erase them definitely.

The fire came little by little to warm the heart of the seculars. First joining them in the Claretian Colaborators, playing as third guild of the brotherhood, focused on the Gospel to convert afterwards in the Associated Claretians. It was still an add-on of the missioner action of the Claretian missioners and part of the congregation ( claretian seculars), but “not just like collaborators, but co-responsible in the same missioner action” . There was a log way to walk, but the international network of claretian seculars and the fraternity climate was beginning.
The fire of the II Vatican Council had to burn definitely in the seculars. The Claretian missioners opened our eyes with the message “Message of the XIX chapter to the Lay Claretians all over the world”, where we were cheered up to “walk in front of the history with our own strength”. The identity of the Claretian Secular was being created, in which we still have to go deeper.

In the II Congress of Lay Claretians of Villa de Leyva (Colombia) from 3 to 10 of July 1983, later considered as fundation and so, I General Assembly of the Lay Claretians. Previously, the work that was done was essential, the Principles, made by P. Antonio Vidales , and later on, studied and revised in several meetings of seculars. After a few days of work, “the Thursday 7 they worked in 3 blocks the parts of the Principles. The work was quite hard, but interesting. The time was not enough and we had to delay a meeting” for the next day.”Also that was hard, at 3.08 p.m. of 8 of July the firs Principles and Organization of the Lay Claretians was approved, decision that was celebrated with joy and applauses”.

Four years later, in the II General Assembly of Florencio Varela (Argentina) the definitive Principle was approved, separating there the organization (that became to the Status of the movement) and 20 april 1988 the movement was approved for the Movement for the Pontificious Council of Laics.