Degrees and Levels of Membership
What are the degrees of membership?
1) Those who are members on the basis of unlimited consecration to the Immaculate.2) Those who are members on the basis of the Marian Vow of unlimited consecration to the Immaculate;
3) Those who are missionaries on the basis of the Marian Vow of unlimited consecration to the Immaculate, together with the profession of the form of life proper to the Franciscan Tertiaries of the Immaculate.
Thus, the first two degrees incorporate the members into the MIM solely on the basis of the Marian spirituality of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, while the third degree includes in addition to the Marian spirituality, the Franciscan spirituality and the profession that is proper to a tertiary.
"On every occasion and in every way, Mary comes to the aid of our misery, calms our fears, and perks up our faith." -St. Bernard of Clairvaux
The three degrees represent a belonging to the MIM according to the increasing intensity and commitment, in which each member must discern his personal call.
The consecration to Mary is common to all three degrees, but the Marian Vow professed in both the second and third degrees is a particular grace for the faithful. It is available in the context of an approved lay association of the faithful exclusively through the membership in the MIM. This vow is a unique way of solemnizing one’s personal consecration to the Immaculate, and committing oneself to its discipline in the most intense fashion.
The third degree incorporates into the spirit of the consecration by vow, the Franciscan spirit in the tradition of the great Franciscan saints, beginning with St. Francis himself and ending with St. Maximilian and St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Those members who profess the form of life according to this third degree live the spirit of poverty, chastity and obedience, in a structured life of prayer, mortification and apostolic life in the great tradition of the Third Order of St. Francis.
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