The spirituality of Bethlehem is, above all, a spirituality of the Gospel: it is born in the manger, rooted in the Word, and unfolds in a life offered to the world.
Fr. Georges Conus, one of the veterans of the Missionaries of Bethlehem (SMB), opens for us here a living path to understand this spirituality. Originally from Switzerland and formed at the SMB minor seminary in Torry, Fribourg, he spent many years in mission in Haiti. Today he resides in Torry, where he serves as a living witness to the community’s tradition for young brothers and student-priests. He also continues his pastoral ministry in the Diocese of Fribourg. In this series of articles, he shares with depth and simplicity the essence of SMB spirituality — a biblical, incarnate, and real-life rooted spirituality.
We call ourselves the “Missionaries of Bethlehem” (SMB). People often ask whether our Mother House is in Bethlehem. It is not: our community is currently composed of priests and brothers from Switzerland and surrounding regions. For us, Bethlehem is not primarily a geographic place in the Holy Land, but a symbolic one. We gladly refer to it as the place of the Lord’s nativity — a place that holds deep meaning for missionaries spread across the world. I will try to develop its essential characteristics here.
The joy of the Word of God urges us to live with an undivided heart:
I thank you, Lord, with all my heart,
I proclaim all your wonders.
I rejoice and exult in you;
I sing praise to your name, O Most High.
(Psalm 9:2–3)
Sometimes, absorbed in our pastoral work, we lose sight of this pastoral essence. It’s good, then, to remember that Christ began his ministry as the little child in the manger, in Bethlehem.
The world thirsts for God, even if it often doesn’t realize it. When we do not feel accepted as we are, the spirituality that leads us into the fullness of God arises along the way — as it did for the disciples on the road to Emmaus!
This testimony will make God visible to many in the world who are searching for Him. In truth, there is no other mission, no other service, than to lead people to God and God to people.
Spirituality, in fact, forms a whole — multicolored, yet unified.
“So many Western Christians suffer from the separation between the secular world and the religious world.”
– Bishop Proaño
Wherever we break this unity, we tear ourselves apart, locking ourselves in polarization. Missionary commitment is about reuniting what has been divided — otherwise, we risk falling into a kind of spiritual schizophrenia that erases the universal dimension of religion. We must learn to see beyond borders, which encourages us to live among people in situations of poverty.
Let us not forget that authentic, fully lived spirituality helps us discover that God is on the side of the poor (preferential option for the poor, Latin America).
We are therefore necessarily called to commit ourselves to justice and structural transformation:
“The mission of reconciliation is too often confused with an ideology of neutrality. The strict separation between faith and politics may simply be a modern version of the old division between soul and body. Yet the Incarnation clearly means God’s entry into the very flesh of human reality.”
– Cardinal Koch
Thus, God is passionately drawn toward humankind, especially the poor. We will acquire the availability needed to weave God’s thread through this world and let go of a spirituality of possessions and duty — one that seeks to weigh and measure everything…
If we truly want to follow Christ, we must unite faith and social engagement — in other words, we need an integral spirituality.
To be continued…
Fr. Georges Conus, SMB
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