Pope Francis shared a video message with the participants in the fiftieth edition of the National Week for Consecrated Life in Spain. In it he recalls that dialogue with reality is the heartbeat of religious life.
POPE FRANCIS
'Consecrated life is always a dialogue with reality. Some might say 'Yes, now this modern form.' No! Let us think of Saint Teresa. Saint Teresa saw reality and took the opportunity for reform, and went ahead. Then, along the way, there were attempts to transform that reform into a closure: there always are. But reform is always a journey.”
The Pope warned against the danger of moving away from the founding character of religious congregations, and recommended they return to their roots.
POPE FRANCIS
'It is sad to see how some institutes, in search of a certain security, so as to be able to control themselves, give in to all kinds of ideologies, left, right, center. When an institute reformulates its character in terms of an ideology, it loses its identity, it loses its fruitfulness.”
He invited all of the event’s participants to use the National Week of Consecrated Life as an opportunity for spiritual growth.
POPE FRANCIS
'It is not a matter of gathering together to play the guitar and say “how beautiful is consecrated life,” no,–yes, play the guitar from time to time because it is good to sing, it is good, as Saint Augustine says, to “sing and walk”, it is good–but rather, work together not to lose ourselves in formalisms, in ideologies, in fears, in dialogues with ourselves and not with the Holy Spirit.”
The Pope urges consecrated religious to incorporate discernment in prayer and not shy away from their limits to better dialogue with reality.
Daniel Diaz Vizzi
TR: JM
RR
