"...they also want to be founded in Jesus Christ, who has come in flesh (1 Jn 4:2) and in only Christ, and Christ always, and Christ in everything and Christ in everyone and All Christ" (Third Order Directory 8)
What is the Third Order?
The Third Order Secular, or the lay order, of the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word is “an association of lay faithful, whose members living in the world, wish to participate in the spirit of our Religious Family in order to seek Christian perfection in a more secure and effective manner in all the wide fields of the lay vocation under the leadership of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and of the Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matará and to realize the sanctification of all men through the works of the apostolate.”
This is why they want and commits themselves to form a single family with the members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matará, united by the same faith, the same ends, the same mission, the same charism, the same nature and the same spirit. It is an essential and constitutive part of the Family of the Incarnate Word, and of which the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word cannot do without, insofar as it is the prolongation of the actions of both Institutes in the spheres of lay life.
Universal End
The Third Order Secular of the Incarnate Word pursues the same end of the Religious Family, which is twofold. First, it seeks the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls, trying to sanctify its members and sanctify the whole world from within the lay condition itself.
econd, as tertiaries of the Family of the Incarnate Word, the Third Order Secular commits all its strength to inculturate the Gospel. That is, to prolong the Incarnation in every man, in all men and in all manifestations of man, in particular, showing that the Church “has an authentic secular dimension, inherent in its intimate nature and its mission, which has its roots in the mystery of the Incarnate Word and is realized in different forms in all its members.” For this reason it seeks to order temporal affairs according to God, establishing all things in Jesus Christ, making Christ manifest before others, primarily through the witness of life, the irradiation of faith, hope and charity and illuminating temporal realities with which they are closely linked, in such a way that, without ceasing, it progresses and is carried out according to Christ and is for the glory of the Creator and of the Redeemer.
Particular End
Devotion to Mary
Together with Christ, the laity of the Incarnate Word want to show their holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, to the world, next to the Cross of Jesus was his Mother (Jn 19:25), knowing that her presence is essential to prolonging the Incarnation in everything created. This is why they should to procure to deepen into her life, to follow her teachings and prolong her mission by accomplishing all their actions by Mary, with Mary, in Mary and for Mary, following the teachings of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort as expressed above all in the Treatise of True Devotion. From now on, this Association places all its enterprises in the hands of its Mother of Heaven, knowing that the work of the Incarnation has been dependent on the Virgin’s yes.
Fidelity to the Holy Spirit
Only in the most absolute fidelity to the Holy Spirit will we achieve our goals. Being aware that our poor breath is only fertile and irresistible if it is in communication with the wind of Pentecost.
In order to achieve this provision of total, unrestricted docility to the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ, the Third Order Secular of the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word needs the Blessed Virgin to be the model, the guide, the manner of all its works, through which, with all the strength of their soul, and of their heart, today and always, we say Totus tuus, Mary!