ADDRESSES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES

ADDRESS ON THE CONSECRATED LIFE, 11/20/08


Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address to participants in the plenary session of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life:





Eminent Cardinals,
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters!

It is with joy that I meet you on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, which celebrates 200 years of existence and activity.

A century has passed since on June 29, 1908, my venerated predecessor, St. Pius X, with the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti Consilio, made your dicastery autonomous as the Congregatio negotiis religiosorum sodalium praeposita, a name that was subsequently modified many times.

To recall this event you have planned a Congress this November 22nd with the significant theme of "A hundred years of service to the consecrated life", and I wish you complete success in this initiative.

Today's encounter is for me a very propitious occasion to greet and thank all of those who work in the dicastery. First of all, I greet your Prefect, Cardinal Franc Rode, who I also thank for the words he expressed in your behalf.

Together with him, I greet the members of the dicastery, the secretary, the under-secretaries and the other officials who, with different functions, render daily service with competence and wisdom, to 'promote and regulate' the practice of the evangelical councils in the various forms of consecrated life, as well as the activities of the societies of apostolic life (cfr Apostolic Const. Pastor bonus, n. 105).

Consecrated persons constitute an elected part of the People of God: to sustain and protect faithfulness to the divine call, dearest brothers and sisters, is the fundamental task that you carry our according to modalities that have been well tested, thanks to the experience of these hundred years of activity.

This service of the Congregation has been even more assiduous in the decades after the Second Vatican Council which has seen the effort of renewal, both in the life as well as in the legislation, of all the religious and secular institutes, and of the societies of apostolic life.

That is why, as I join you in rendering thanks to God, giver of every good, for the good fruits produced in these years by your dicastery, I remember with acknowledgment all those who, during this century of activity, have given their s=energies for the benefit of consecrated persons.

The plenary of your Congregation has focused its attention this year on a subject which is particularly dear to me: monasticism, forma vitae which has always been inspired by the early Church, generated by the Pentecost (cfr Acts 2,42-47; 4,32-35).

The conclusions of your work, especially focused on female monastic life, may give rise to indications useful to all those monks and nuns who are 'searching for God'. realizing their vocation for the good of all the Church.

Even recently (Address to the world of culture, Paris, Sept. 12, 2008), I wished to show the exemplariness of the monastic life in history, underscoring that its purpose is simple as well as essential: quaerere Deum, to look for God and find him through Jesus Christ who revealed him (cfr Jn 1,18), to look for him while looking at the invisible realities that are eternal (cfr 2 Cor 4,18), and awaiting the glorious manifestation of the Savior (cfr Titus 2,13).

Christo omnino nihil praeponere (cfr RB 72,11; Agostino, Enarr. in Ps. 29,9; Cipriano, Ad Fort 4) - Place nothing ahead of Christ - this expression, which the Rule of St. Benedict took up from preceding tradition, expresses well the precious treasure of monastic life practised till now both in the Christian West as in the East.

It is a pressing message that shapes monastic life in order to make it the evangelical memorial of the Church, and when it is authentically lived, "exemplary of baptismal life' (cfr John Paul II, Orientale lumen 9).

By virtue of the absolute primacy reserved for Christ, the monasteries are places in which room is made to celebrate the glory of God, in which one adores and sings the mysterious but real divine presence in the world, in which one seeks to live the new commandment of love and reciprocal service, thus preparing the final "manifestation of the children of God" (Rom 8,19).

When monks and nuns live the Gospel in a radical way, when those who are dedicated to an integrally contemplative life cultivate profoundly their spousal union with Christ - which the instruction Verbi Sponsa (13.V.199) of this Congregation amply dwelt upon - monasticism can constitute for all the forms of religious life and consecration a memorial of that which is essential and which has the primacy in every baptismal life: to look for Christ and to place nothing ahead of his love.

The way indicated by God for this search and for this love is his own Word, which in the books of Sacred Scriptures, is offered abundantly for man's reflection.

Desire for God and love for his Word are thus nourished reciprocally and generate in the monastic life the irrepressible demand of opus Dei (the work of God), of studium orationis (study in prayer), and of lectio divina, which is listening to the Word of God accompanied by the great traditional voices of the Fathers and of the saints, and finally, of prayer that is oriented and sustained by this Word.

The recent general assembly of the Bishops' Synod, celebrated in Rome last month on the the theme 'The Word of God in the life and mission of the Church", renewing the appeal to all Christians to root their existence in listening to the Word of God contained in Sacred Scriptures, specially invited the religious communities and every consecrated man and woman to make the Word of God their daily food, particularly through the practice of lectio divina (cfr Elenchus praepositionum n. 4).

Dear brothers and sisters, whoever enters a monastery looks for a spiritual oasis in which to learn how to live as true disciples of Jesus in serene and persevering fraternal communion, welcoming even eventual guests as Christ himself (cfr RB 53,1). This is the testimony that the Church asks of monasticism even in our time.

Let us invoke Mary, the Mother of our Lord, 'the 'woman who listens', who placed nothing ahead of the love of the Son of God born of her, so that she may help the communities of consecrated life, especially the monastic ones, to be faithful to their vocation and mission.

May the monasteries always be oases of ascetic life, where the allure of the spousal union with Christ is always felt, and where the choice of God's Absolute is enclosed in a constant climate of silence and contemplation.

While I assure you of my prayers for this end, I impart from my heart the Apostolic Blessing on all of you who are taking part in the Plenary, to all who work in the dicastery and to the members of the various institutes of consecrated life, especially those that are integrally contemplative.

May the Lord pour on you the abundance of his comforts.