Timeline

Foundation of the Order
We responded to the call of Divinity and, in those early years, we fundamentally worked on austerity and discipline to lay the foundations for the congregation and for community life. In this first stage we wore a gray habit, which represented these two attributes.

Beside, a photo taken in June 2020. Some of the pioneer monastics who consecrated in the first group of brothers and sisters in 2009. 
 

Many brothers and sisters approached the congregation confirming their vocations to consecrated life. While they take their first steps in the experience of austerity and discipline, the pioneers renew their vows, impelled by the Divinity. Some take on white vestments to work on purity and healing, and others start wearing brown to work on humility and contemplation.

Beside, a photo of José Trigueirinho Netto and Mother María Shimani de Montserrat, founders of the Grace Mercy Order.

With the third generation of candidates, and always following the precise indications of the Divinity, the congregation opens two new categories: the vocation brothers and sisters and the aspirants. In this way, the postulants can gradually take their steps towards the absolute surrender to God. As from this moment, those who enter the Order, wear a brown tunic without the scapular. Besides that, the female beings wear a beige color veil. 

The congregation grows during these years. The pioneers prepare to take an important step in their consecration. 
They assume their first eternal vows before God, a commitment of great responsibility, to deepen into the experience of the vows, into love for the neighbor and charity. To express this stage of consecration, emerges the white habit with a brown scapular, and the cord with golden ends. 

During the same period, the branch of the devotees emerges, formed of those who have the vocation and task of offering their fervent prayers to protect the congregation and assist their brothers and sisters on the path in the trials they face. They wear a white tunic without a scapular. The devotee sisters also wear a white veil. 

The congregation goes through fast transformations, accompanying the speed with which events unfold in the world, always seeking improvement and sanctity by means of selfless service to God and to the neighbor. The congregation matures and consolidates its charisma. As a confirmation of the act of surrender carried out years before, the second eternal vows are established. Our Lord, Christ Jesus, asks the pioneers to make their alliance with Him, wearing a ring, for it to be the symbol of an irrefutable belonging to His Sacred Heart. 

With this new step, they wear a cord with golden ends and an embroidered ring next to it. The most experienced monks in the Order accept the challenge offered by Christ Jesus and the Master Himself ordains the first priests of the Grace Mercy Order, who are named Sons of the Advent of Christ. The congregation expands its charitable service in the world, and as a deepening, Mothers and Sisters renew their vows, assuming to wear the sari as a symbol of charity and union with the Virgin Mary, to share Her sorrows for the world with Her; in this way, the branch of the Daughters of Christic Charity is born. 

The faithful gather around the congregation and long to expand their giving of self alongside the monks and nuns. During this period, the Divinity requests the creation of the first two civil branches of the Grace Mercy Order: the Adorers of the Eucharistic Body of Christ, who wear a blue scarf around their necks during their moments of adoration, and the Helpers of Divine Mercy of Jesus, who  receive a wooden ring, and wear a blue vest and a white mantle during their participation in the preparation of ceremonies to express their commitment to Christ.

The Sons of the Advent of  Christ renew their vows and start being called Brothers in Christ, as a symbol of their deepening into the vows of humility and poverty. They then start wearing a brown habit and a brown scapular. 

As from November 2021, at the request of the Divine Hierarchy, the male habits were unified in brown color for all degrees of consecration, thus strengthening the adherence of each consecrated being to the essence of humility as a path to be sought and lived through the consecration to Christ.

In the same way,  the male and female consecrated Devotees also assumed the brown habit, creating unity in the expression of the Order towards the world.