Celebration of the Word with Women Relious an Women Belonging to Secular Institutes (8 November 1982)

On 8 November 1982, the Holy Father celebrated the Liturgy of the Word in Madrid with Women Religious and women belonging to Secular Institutes. In his homily, the Pope spoke first to the Religious, thanking them for their work in hospitals, clinics and homes, welfare work, and teaching in schools and colleges. Then he addressed the women in secular institutes, commenting on the Church's need for their testimony in diverse environments, “to contribute to changing the world from within.” 

Dear sisters,
religious and members of secular institutes.

1. I thank Divine Providence which provides me with this opportunity to meet you, consecrated Spanish women, in your own homeland; and precisely during these celebrations of the IV Centenary of the great Saint Teresa, in which the Church recognizes not only the incomparable religious, but also one of her most eminent doctors.

Although he is speaking to you today for the first time in Spanish territory, it is not the first time that the Pope has met Spanish consecrated women. I have done this frequently in Rome and in my apostolic travels around the world, in many places where you pray and work with generosity and effectiveness. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your missionary commitment and I hope that, being faithful to your faith tradition, Spain continues to be a privileged place of vocations, both in number and quality.

2. I would like first of all to express to you my appreciation and affection for what you mean in your country and in the entire Church. Keep in your heart a vibrant love for your beautiful vocation, the will to respond without hesitation, every day, to this vocation, and to conform every day more perfectly to your Model and Lord, Jesus Christ. Always keep in mind your responsibility towards the Christian life of your fellow citizens: may your fervor increase the vitality of your Church, since your lukewarmness would immediately cause a process of decay in the Christian people.

3. I would like, first of all, to address the contemplative religious women, whose communities are so numerous and alive in the land of Saint Teresa. Nearly a third of the world's contemplative monasteries are located in your country. It can be stated that the ardor of the holy Reformer of Carmel, her love for God and for the Church, are particularly manifested in her homeland where, more than in other places, contemplative religious women constitute the highest expression of consecrated life.

For other religious women they are truly the star that constantly guides the course; their prayer life, their daily sacrifice are a powerful support for the apostolic work of other religious women, as they are for the visible Church, which knows it can count on their powerful intercession with the Lord.

4. To you, religious women dedicated to the apostolate, I equally express the Church's profound thanks for your activity: the tireless care of the sick and needy in hospitals, clinics and residences or in their homes; the educational activity in schools and colleges, the welfare works that complete the pastoral activity of the priests; catechesis and many other means with which you give real testimony to the charity of Christ. Rest assured that these activities not only retain their relevance, but that, appropriately adapted, they increasingly show themselves to be privileged instruments of evangelization, testimony and authentic human promotion (cf. Religiosos y promoción humana, 5).

Therefore, do not be discouraged when faced with difficulties. Try in your commitment to respond better and better to the needs of the times; that your contribution flows harmoniously from the very purpose of your Institutes and is marked by the distinctive mark of obedience, poverty and religious chastity.

Do not allow your generosity to diminish when it comes to responding to the pressing calls of the countries that are waiting for missionaries; be sure that the Lord will reward you with new vocations.

5. In dedicating yourselves generously to your works, never forget that your first obligation is to remain in Christ. It is necessary that you always know how to find time to approach him in prayer; only in this way can you then bring it to those with whom you meet.

The interior life continues to be the soul of every apostolate. It is the spirit of prayer that leads to the gift of self; it follows that it would be a serious mistake to oppose prayer and apostolate. Those like you who learned at the school of Saint Teresa of Jesus can understand this easily, knowing that any apostolic activity that is not based on prayer is condemned to sterility.

It is therefore necessary that you always know how to reserve sufficiently large daily and weekly spaces for personal and community prayer. May your communities have the Eucharist as their center and that your daily participation in the sacrifice of the Mass, as well as your prayer in the presence of the Sacrament of Jesus, is a clear expression of the fact that you have understood what is the only thing necessary (cf. Luke 10:42).

6. I would also like to remind you of a very important element of your religious and apostolic life: I am referring to fraternal life in community.

In speaking of the first Christians, Holy Scripture highlights that "they all had one heart and one soul"; this same fraternal charity induced them to put their goods in common, renouncing to consider anything as their own (cf. Acts 4, 32). You know well that this and no other is the exact definition of your religious poverty, which constitutes the basis of fraternal life in community.

Your choice for perfect chastity and your religious obedience have come to complete your donation of love, and to convert your community life into a theocentric and cultural reality; thus your whole life remains consecrated and is a living testimony of the Gospel. The Church and the world need to be able to see the Gospel alive in you.

Cultivate, therefore, in your homes a truly fraternal life, built on mutual charity, humility and concern for other sisters. You love your family life and the different encounters in your daily life. You can be sure that this community life, lived in charity and self-sacrifice, is the best help you can give each other and the best antidote against the temptations that undermine your vocation.

In addition to your life in common, your way of behaving and even your way of dressing - which must always distinguish you as religious - are in the midst of the world a constant and intelligent preaching, even without words, of the evangelical message; they convert you not into simple signs of the times, but into signs of eternal life in today's world. Seek, therefore, that when the needs of the apostolate or the nature of certain works require you to form small groups, the reality of fraternal life in common always remains in them, founded on the Gospel, built on the three religious vows and not on changing ideologies. or personal aspirations.

7. Finally, remember that the religious community is part of the Church and has no meaning except in the Church, participating in its saving mission in filial fidelity to its Magisterium. You must understand your charism in the light of the Gospel, of your own history and of the Magisterium of the Church. And when it comes to communicating your message to others, always try to convey the certainties of faith and not passing human ideologies.

8. I mentioned before the multiple tasks you undertake in the service of the Church and out of love for your brothers, men: hospitals, assistance or teaching works, and more. I would like to express a specific word of encouragement and encouragement to you, given that all the services you perform are necessary, and you must continue to do them.

Due to the particular importance it has in Spain at this moment, I now want to address, with special reference, to the many of you who have, as a particular mission, the teaching of youth in schools. A beautiful and demanding task, delicate and exciting at the same time, which entails great responsibility. Continue to use every means to achieve it with great spirit of dedication. You will do something very pleasing in the eyes of God, and you will also make yourselves worthy of the applause of men, although you do not seek this human recognition.

I encourage you wholeheartedly and remind you of the need to urge the men and women of tomorrow to appreciate moral values ​​with an honest conscience, giving them their personal adherence; you must encourage them to know and love God more every day (cf. Gravissimum Educationis , 1). Teach them to observe what the Lord has commanded and, through your words and your irreproachable behavior, bring them to the fullness of Christ (cf. Eph 4, 13).

Impart intact, solid and sure doctrine; use texts that faithfully present the Magisterium of the Church. Young people have the right not to be disturbed by hypotheses or risky positions, since they do not yet have the ability to judge (cf. Paul VI, Allocutio ad sacros Galliae Praesules Conferentiae Episcopalis regionalis centralis et orientalis, occasion visitationis ad Limina coram admissos, habita , die 20 June 1977: Teachings of Paul VI , John Paul II , IV, 1 [1981] 200 ff).

Be sure that if you act in full fidelity to the Church, God will bless your life with a generous flowering of vocations. Strive to be good educators and remember that those who have taught others most, over the centuries, have been the saints. For this reason, your first apostolic duty as teachers, educators and religious is your personal sanctification.

9. Some words of particular greeting and appreciation to you, consecrated members of secular institutes, who have assumed the commitments of the life of consecration recognized by the Church, in a peculiar form, distinct from that which characterizes religious women.

Secular institutes already constitute a very significant reality in Spain. The Church needs it to be able to carry out an apostolate of profound Christian testimony in the most diverse environments, "to contribute to changing the world from within, becoming a life-giving ferment (John Paul II, Allocutio ad eos qui coetui Conferentiae Mundialis Institutorum Saecularium affuere habita , 4, 28 Aug. 1980: Teachings of John Paul II , III, 2 [1980] 473).

I ask the Lord that there may be many who listen to his voice and follow him on this path. I urge you to remain faithful to your specific vocation "characterized and unified by consecration, the apostolate and secular life" ( Ibid . 2: loc. cit., p. 470).

10. From the first moment, the Church placed the Mother of Jesus as its center, around and in whose company the Apostles persevered in prayer, awaited and received the Holy Spirit. May you too know how to persevere in this way, intimately united with Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother; receiving and transmitting the Holy Spirit to his brothers and thus building the Church. May she always accompany you, console you and encourage you with her maternal attention. And may my affectionate blessing spur you on your journey.

So be it.

© Copyright 1982 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Copyright © Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana