By choosing a way of life for the members of his infant Society which centred around the communal living of religious life, Joseph De Piro shaped the Society he founded on the pillar of communion.
In the Original Constitutions, Joseph De Piro writes, “Everyone should be convinced regarding the need for reciprocal love towards each other. In fact, the power and efficacy of our Society’s pastoral work towards the glory of God and the redemption of humankind depend upon how much our Society members are in union with each other.”
Undertaking the task of building community today, remains one of the major challenges to the MSSP during the present age. Not least in the field of missionary outreach, the way of community is the path to true empowerment in the light of the Gospels.
Each missionary, therefore, even if aware of his own limitations, ought never to be discouraged because he can always make available the gifts he has received. No one should consider himself greater or smaller than others because we are all children of the same heavenly Father.
The model of the missionary Apostle, St. Paul, who set up faith communities wherever he went on his missionary journeys is also another model for MSSP members to emulate in founding and nurturing their own communities of faith.
Today, most of MSSP ministry centres around the community. Apart from an increasing emphasis on strengthening the internal bonds of each MSSP religious community, various MSSP centres around the world have developed different but similar models of communities of faith, centred around the Word of God, the celebration of the Eucharist, and service to the poor and needy.
The call to mission, for the MSSP is enfleshed in the communities it creates.