A meeting marked by fraternity, prayer and high vision of the religious vocation. So the discourse addressed by Pope Leone XIV to the participants in the General Chapters and the Assemblies of eight religious institutes, gathered in these days to outline the lines of development and discernment of their charisms, took place this Saturday morning. The appointment took place in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace of the Pontifical Villas.
After the liturgical greeting, the pontiff turned warmly to the present: «Welcome all! We sit and reflect a little together ». Simple words, which introduced an articulated and intense speech, in which Leo XIV offered religious and religious to the religious present a key to reading their community and spiritual journey.
A plurality of charisms to build the body of Christ
The Pope expressed “joy” for the meeting and greeted personally superior and superior Generali, members of the advice and all the participants. “You gathered – he said – to pray, compare and reflect together on what the Lord asks for the future”. It is in this perspective that the Pontiff wanted to remember the legacy received from the founders and founders, that “docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, they have left different charisms for the construction of the body of Christ”.
Citing the Perfectae Caritatisthe conciliar decree on religious life, Leone XIV reiterated that “precisely because the latter grows according to the drawings of God, the Church asks you for the service you are carrying out”. Each institute, he explained, “embodies complementary aspects of the life and action of all the people of God”: from the offer of self united to the sacrifice of Christ, to the mission to people; From the education and training of young people, to the love faithful to the Church, to be guarded and transmitted.
A single flame animated by the love of God
Despite the diversity of the roads traveled, the Pope highlighted what unites the paths of the various institutes: “These are different ways with which the only and eternal reality that animates them all: the love of God for humanity is expressed in charismatic form”. This love is the foundation that allows the religious life to regenerate over time, to remain alive and prophetic.
In this perspective, the update and rereading work of its charisma that each congregation is called to do is also inserted: “As it is of use – observed Leone XIV – each of your congregations has identified particular angles, in light of which to reread the legacy received, to update and update its contents”. A work, he underlined, conducted in prayer and in the mutual listening, that “it is a precious gift, as the fruit of the spirit”.
Guidelines inspired by the Holy Spirit
The pontiff then listed some of the themes that guided the discernment of the various general chapters: “renewing an authentic missionary spirit, making their feelings their own” which were of Christ Jesus “, to root hope in God, keep the flame of the Spirit alive in the heart, promote peace, cultivate pastoral co -responsibility in local churches and more”. Recalls that, he specified, help to grasp “the richness of our being in the community”, and which make the adherence to the Christian vocation concrete to “follow Christ more closely”.
In a particularly significant passage, the Pope spurd on the religious and religious present to look beyond his institutional or numerical limits: “thinking big,” he said, “as unique pieces of a design that exceeds you and involves you beyond your same expectations”. That drawing is the salvation project of God, who “wants to lead to himself all humanity, as a single great family”.
A light that does not turn off
Leone XIV recalled that your institutes were born precisely with this spirit, and that every small step taken in loyalty contributes to a wider, universal vision, in which “small lights” contribute to “spreading the light of Christ over the whole earth, which never runs out”. The final quotation of the Easter Preconium – “light that never runs out” – has given the discussion a note of hope, of consolation but also of a mission.
A shared prayer
In conclusion, Leone XIV invited to pray together “to be docile to the voice of his spirit, who teaches everything”. Without the help of the spirit, the Pope said, “in our weakness, we don’t even know what is convenient to ask”. Finally, he expressed gratitude: “Thanks to you for your work and for your faithful presence in many parts of the world”. And he assured: “I bless you and please for you.”
A meeting that has returned to consecrated life its central place in the Church: as a testimony, as fidelity, as an always current vocation to be light in the world.
