Meeting with the Women Religious (26 February 1981)

On 26 February 1981, the Holy Father met with women religious in Nagasaki, whom he reminded that “even if it is not always possible to proclaim the Good News in words, it is always possible to present it through one's life.”

Beloved sisters in Christ Jesus,

1. Talk about Nagasaki to Japanese Christians and evoke the heroic and glorious beginnings of the foundation of the Church in this country. And especially it is to evoke the memory of many martyrs who, through the grace of Jesus Christ, gave him the supreme testimony of their love in this place. Nagasaki is therefore a very special place, a place that is perfectly appropriate for our meeting today; given that, since the first centuries of Christianity, religious life has often been compared to martyrdom. Like martyrdom, religious life is inspired by a profound love of the Lord above all else, a love manifested by freely and generously abandoning real values ​​- property, family, freedom - in order to make a complete gift to Christ. 

2. It is very true to say that in this great country with its many millions of educated and working people, the Church is like the mustard seed, or the little leaven which a woman puts into several measures of flour until the whole mass is leavened . Your role is less overt and more hidden than in many countries where Catholicism is more widespread; but it is no less important even if the methods of evangelization must be very different. 

In this situation, the testimony of your life takes on a particular importance and value: even if it is not always possible to proclaim the Good News in words, it is always possible to present it through one's life. Furthermore, many ancestral values ​​of the Japanese people constitute a starting point for the Gospel: love for work, openness to others, the high level of humanistic culture and above all the innate sense of concentration and contemplation, which is the distinctive sign of the people of the East. 

3. The contemplative dimension is the true secret of the renewal of all religious life, and it is an element to which your fellow citizens are particularly attentive. Always promote this dimension. Make your homes centers of prayer, of meditation, of personal and community conversation with He who is and must always be the only one to talk to most in your laborious days. Don't let yourself be misled by the temptations of activism and the distractions that modern consumer society brings with it, with all its materialistic suggestions. 

Without prayer, your religious life lacks meaning. It loses contact with its source, is emptied of its substance and cannot reach its goal. It is prayer that keeps you in communication with Christ your husband. The incisive words of the Evangelica Testificatio deserve to be meditated on: “Furthermore, do not forget the testimony of history: fidelity to prayer or its abandonment are proof of the vitality or decadence of religious life” (Paul VI, Evangelica Testificatio , 42 ). 

4. With these words in mind, I extend a special greeting and a word of encouragement to all the nuns who live a cloistered life in this country. You live deeply “in the heart of the Church”. Your incessant and intense prayer based on a rich spiritual and doctrinal heritage is both a gift to the world and a challenge to the world itself. It is also an answer for all those who today anxiously seek methods of contemplative experiences. 

5. The evangelical testimony that you give with your consecration, lived in the practice of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, and with the testimony of the spirit of prayer that animates your communities, finds a lively and fruitful expression in your activities apostolic. I think especially of your work among the poor, the sick, children and their families, in the vast field of teaching and catechesis. Your dedication to the education of young people is always very relevant. These activities of yours constitute a special means of evangelization, of true human progress. The exercise of this apostolate, with the mandate of your Congregations and in full cooperation with the local ecclesial communities, gives you a clear position in the Church, a position which has its specific role. 

6. At the same time, carefully maintain the constant respect and loving docility that you have always shown for the Magisterium of the hierarchy. As you know, religious life has no meaning except within the Church and in fidelity to its directives. Therefore, always be ready to welcome the teachings of the Magisterium, and, in accordance with your particular charism, be ready to collaborate in the apostolic work of the local diocese, under the guidance of your Bishops united with the successor of Peter and in union with Christ. The word of Christ, faithfully proclaimed by the Church with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, will be for you the true source of holiness and freedom. Jesus guarantees you: “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free” ( Jn 8:32). 

7. I also wish to urge you to increase your apostolic collaboration at the service of families, which are a special place for evangelization and the formation of young people. In doing so, you will act in accordance with the conclusions of the recent Synod of Bishops. 

8. Finally. I entrust you to the intercession of all the holy martyrs of Nagasaki, and above all to the protection of Mary, Queen of Martyrs and Mother of the Church. She is truly the Mother of all Christians, especially those who live a religious life, and she is so venerated in Japan as “Edo no Santa Maria” and as “Our Lady of Otometoge”. 

It is She who Paul VI presented as the Virgin who listens. The Virgin who prays, the Virgin who generates Christ and offers him for the salvation of the world. May She be your guide along the sometimes difficult, but always joyful path towards the ideal of complete union with Christ. This is my prayer to Mary on behalf of each of you and your communities and I give you my apostolic blessing, praying that your joy may be full. 

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