Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) –
Thousands of men and women religious from Rome – representing the
25 thousand who belong to the Pope's diocese – gathered in the
Vatican's Paul VI Hall this morning to meet with the Holy Father, who
spoke with them for over an hour, answering all their questions on
consecrated life and its difficulties and joys, the relationship
between the bearers of different charisms in the Church, and the
rapport between cloistered monasteries and the outside world.
The first question, asked by a nun,
related to the balance between cloistered life and involvement in
diocesan life, and between silent prayer and proclamation.
“Your vocation is a tension between
enclosure and visibility, between God's call to a hidden life and His
call to make oneself visible in a certain way, to give a sign”,
answered the Pope. “One of the things you must never, ever leave
behind is time to listen to people. … It is important to have a
connection with the world, to know what is happening, as your
vocation is not a refuge: it is about going straight onto the
battlefield, it is about fighting, calling to the heart of the Lord
for your city. … Like Moses who lifted his hands up in prayer as
his people fought. There are also monasteries that set aside half an
hour or an hour a day to give food to those who come to ask for it,
and this does not go against enclosure in God. … It is a service,
it is a smile”.
The second question, again from a
religious sister, concerned the similarities between marriage and
consecrated virginity in the vocation to love, and the help that
consecrated persons can offer Christian spouses and vice versa.
“In female consecration there is a
spousal element”, said Francis. “It is present in male
consecration too: we say that a bishop is the spouse of the Church,
in Jesus' place. But do not forget that the Church is feminine: she
is Jesus' bride. We often forget this, as we forget that the love of
nuns is maternal, since the love of the Church is maternal, and the
love of Our Lady is maternal. Faithfulness, the expression of the
love of the consecrated woman, should – not as a duty but as a
natural characteristic – reflect the faithfulness, love and
tenderness of the Mother Church and the Mother Mary. … It is the
concrete love … that we find in the Beatitudes. … Jesus' plan is
concrete. I often think that the Beatitudes are the Church's first
encyclical”.
The third question, from a monk, was
dedicated to the concrete collaboration between bearers of different
charisms in the local Church, without friction or competition.
“The Church is currently thinking of
offering and restoring an old document on the relations between
consecrated persons and the bishop”, the Holy Father explained.
“The 1994 Synod called for the document 'Mutuae relationes' (14 May
1978). Many years have passed and it has not been done. The
relationship between consecrated persons and the bishop, the diocese
and priests is not an easy one. However it is necessary to face this
task together. In the prefectures, how does one work on the pastoral
plan for this quarter, all together? So it should be in the Church
too. The bishop should not use consecrated persons as substitutes,
and equally the religious should not see the bishop as the head of a
company providing work”.
The last question regarded the
accompaniment and spiritual direction of consecrated persons, over
80% of whom are women.
“The accompaniment of men and women
religious can be a problem”, acknowledged the Pope. “In my former
diocese, I always said to the nuns who came to ask for advice, 'Tell
me, in your community or your congregation, is there not a wise
sister, one who lives the charism well, a good sister with
experience, who might be your spiritual guide?'. 'But she is a woman!
But it is a charism of the laity'. Yes, spiritual direction is not
the exclusive charism of presbyters: it is a charism of the laity. In
primitive monasticism the laity were the great directors. … The
spiritual director is one thing, the confessor is another. I tell the
confessor my sins … but I tell the spiritual director what is
happening in my heart. … Superiors have the responsibility of
finding those in the community, in the congregation, and in the
province, who have this charism, of giving them this mission and of
forming them and helping them in this. … I think that in this
respect, however, we are still immature”.
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