CONGREGATION FOR INSTITUTES OF CONSECRATED LIFE AND
SOCIETIES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE
FRATERNAL LIFE IN COMMUNITY
"Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor"
INTRODUCTION
"Congregavit
nos in unum Christi amor"
1. The love of Christ has gathered
a great number of disciples to become one, so that, like him and thanks to
him, in the Spirit, they might, throughout the centuries, be able to respond
to the love of the Father, loving him "with all their hearts, with all
their soul, with all their might" (cf. Deut. 6:5) and loving their
neighbours "as themselves" (cf. Mt. 22:39).
Among these
disciples, those gathered together in religious communities, women and men
"from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues" (Rev.
7:9), have been and still are a particularly eloquent expression of this
sublime and boundless love.
Born not
"of the will of the flesh", nor from personal attraction, nor from
human motives, but "from God" (Jn. 1:13), from a divine vocation
and a divine attraction, religious communities are a living sign of the
primacy of the love of God who works wonders, and of the love for God and for
one's brothers and sisters as manifested and practised by Jesus Christ.
In view of
the relevance of religious communities for the life and holiness of the
Church, it is important to examine the lived experience of today's religious
communities, whether monastic and contemplative or dedicated to apostolic
activity, each according to its own specific character. All that is said here
about religious communities applies also to communities in societies of
apostolic life, bearing in mind their specific character and proper
legislation.
a) The
subject of this document is considered in light of this fact: the character
which "fraternal life in common" manifests in numerous countries
reveals many transformations of what was lived in the past. These
transformations, as well as the hopes and disappointments which have
accompanied them, and continue to do so, require reflection in light of the
Second Vatican Council. The transformations have led to positive results, but
also to results which are questionable. They have put into a clearer light not
a few Gospel values, thus giving new vitality to religious community, but
they have also given rise to questions by obscuring some elements
characteristic of this same fraternal life lived in community. In some
places, it seems that religious community has lost its relevance in the eyes
of women and men religious and is, perhaps, no longer an ideal to be pursued.
With the
serenity and urgency characteristic of those who seek the Lord, many
communities have sought to evaluate this transformation, so that they might
better fulfil their proper vocation in the midst of the People of God.
b) There are
many factors which have determined the changes of which we are witnesses:
Religious
life is a vital part of the Church and lives in the world. The values and counter-values
which ferment within an epoch or a cultural setting, and the social
structures which manifest them, impinge on everyone, including the Church and
its religious communities. Religious communities either constitute an
evangelical leaven within society, announce the Good News in the midst of the
world, the here and now proclamation of the heavenly Jerusalem, or else they
succumb by decline quickly or slowly, simply because they have conformed to
the world. For this reason, a reflection and new proposals on "fraternal
life in common" must take this existential framework into account.
--
Developments within the Church have also marked religious communities deeply.
The Second Vatican Council, as an event of grace and the greatest expression
of the Church's pastoral guidance in this century, has had a decisive
influence on religious life; not only by virtue of the Decree Perfectae
Caritatis, which is dedicated to it, but also by virtue of the
Council's ecclesiology, and each of its documents.
For all these
reasons, this document, before addressing its topic directly, begins with an
overview of the changes encountered in the settings which have more
immediately affected the quality of fraternal life and its ways of being
lived in the various religious communities.
Theological
development
2. The Second Vatican Council
contributed greatly to a re-evaluation of "fraternal life in
common" and to a renewed vision of religious community.
More than any
other factor, it is the development of ecclesiology which has
affected the evolution of our understanding of religious community. Vatican
II affirmed that religious life belongs "undeniably" (inconcusse) to
the life and holiness of the Church and placed religious life at the very
heart of the Church's mystery of communion and holiness.(3)
Religious
community thus participates in the renewed and deepened vision of the Church.
From this, several consequences follow:
a) From
Church-Mystery to the mystery dimension of religious community
Religious
community is not simply a collection of Christians in search of personal
perfection. Much more deeply, it is a participation in and qualified witness
of the Church-Mystery, since it is a living expression and privileged
fulfilment of its own particular "communion", of the great
Trinitarian "koinonia", in which the Father has
willed that men and women have part in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.
b) From
Church-Communion to the communional-fraternal dimension of religious
community
Religious
community, in its structure, motivations, distinguishing values, makes
publicly visible and continually perceptible the gift of fraternity given by
Christ to the whole Church. For this very reason, it has as its commitment
and mission, which cannot be renounced, both to be and to be seen to be a
living organism of intense fraternal communion, a sign and stimulus for all
the baptised.(4)
c) From
Church animated by charisms to the charismatic dimension of religious
community
Religious
community is a living organism of fraternal communion, called to live as
animated by the foundational charism. It is part of the organic communion of
the whole Church, which is continuously enriched by the Spirit with a variety
of ministries and charisms.
Those who
enter into such communities must have the particular grace of a vocation. In
practice, the members of a religious community are seen to be bound by a
common calling from God in continuity with the foundational
charism, by a characteristically common ecclesial consecration, and
by a common response in sharing that "experience of the Spirit"
lived and handed on by the founder and in his or her mission within the
Church.(5)
The Church
also wishes to receive with gratitude "the more simple and widely
diffused" charisms(6) which God distributes among her members for the
good of the entire Body. Religious community exists for the Church, to
signify her and enrich her,(7) to render her better able to carry out her
mission.
d) From
Church as Sacrament of unity to the apostolic dimension of religious
community
The purpose
of apostolate is to bring humanity back to union with God and to unity among
itself, through divine charity. Fraternal life in common, as an expression of
the union effected by God's love, in addition to being an essential witness
for evangelization, has great significance for apostolic activity and for its
ultimate purpose. It is from this that the fraternal communion of religious
community derives its vigour as sign and instrument. In fact, fraternal
communion is at both the beginning and the end of apostolate.
The
Magisterium, since the
time of the Council, has deepened and enriched the renewed vision of
religious community with fresh insights.(8)
Canonical
development
3. The Code of Canon Law (1983)
specifies and defines the Council's determinations concerning community life.
When it
speaks of "common life", it is necessary to distinguish clearly two
aspects.
While the
1917 Code(9) could have given the impression of concentrating on exterior
elements and uniformity of life-style, Vatican II(10) and the new Code(11)
insist explicitly on the spiritual dimension and on the bond of fraternity
which must unite all members in charity. The new Code has synthesised these
two elements in speaking of "living a fraternal life in
common".(12)
Thus, in
community life, two elements of union and of unity among the members can be
distinguished:
All of this
is lived "in their own special manner"(15) in the various
communities, according to the charism and proper law of the institute.(16)
From this arises the importance of proper law which must apply to community
life the patrimony of every institute and the means for doing this.(17)
It is clear that
"fraternal life" will not automatically be achieved by observance
of the norms which regulate common life; but it is evident that common life
is designed to favour fraternal life greatly.
Development
within society
4. Society is in constant
evolution and men and women religious, who are not of the world, but who
nevertheless live in the world, are subject to its influence.
Here we will
mention only some aspects which have had a direct impact on religious life in
general and on religious community in particular.
a) Movements
for political and social emancipation in the Third World and a
stepped up process of industrialisation have led to the rise of major social
changes, with particular emphasis on the "development of peoples"
and, in recent decades, on situations of poverty and misery. Local Churches
have reacted actively in the face of these developments.
Above all in
Latin America, through the general assemblies of the Latin American
episcopate at Medellin, Puebla, and Santo Domingo, the
"evangelical and preferential option for the poor"(18) has been
strongly emphasised, and has led to a new emphasis on social commitment.
Religious
communities have been profoundly affected by this; many were led to rethink
their presence in society, in view of more direct service to the poor,
sometimes even through insertion among the poor.
The
overwhelming increase of suffering on the outskirts of large cities and the
impoverishment of rural areas have hastened the "repositioning" of
a considerable number of religious communities towards these poorer areas.
Everywhere,
there is the challenge of inculturation. Cultures, traditions, and the
mentality of a particular country all have an impact on the way fraternal
life is lived in religious communities.
Moreover,
movements of large-scale migration in recent years have raised the problem of
the co-existence of different cultures, and the problem of racist reactions.
All of these issues also have repercussions on pluri-cultural and
multi-racial religious communities, which are becoming increasingly common.
b) Demands
for personal freedom and human rights have been at the root of a
broad process of democratisation, which has favoured economic development and
the growth of civil society.
In the
immediate wake of the Council, this process, especially in the west,
quickened and was marked by moments of calling meetings about everything and
rejection of authority.
The Church
and religious life were not immune from such questioning of authority, with
significant repercussions for community life as well.
A one-sided
and exasperated stress on freedom contributed to the spread of a culture of
individualism throughout the west, thus weakening the ideal of life in common
and commitment to community projects.
We also
observe other reactions which were equally one-sided, such as flight into
safely authoritarian projects, based on blind faith in a reassuring leader.
c) The
advancement of women, which according to Pope John XXIII is one of
the signs of our times, has also had many repercussions on life in Christian
communities in various countries.(19) Even if in some areas the influence of
extremist currents of feminism is deeply affecting religious life, almost
everywhere women's religious communities are positively seeking forms of
common life judged more suitable for a renewed awareness of the identity,
dignity and role of women in society, Church and religious life.
d) The
communications explosion, which began in the 1960's, has
considerably, and at times dramatically, influenced the general level of
information, the sense of social and apostolic responsibility, apostolic
mobility and the quality of internal relationships, not to mention the
specific life-style and recollected atmosphere which ought to characterise a
religious community.
e) Consumerism
and hedonism, together with a weakening of the vision of faith
characteristic of secularism, in many regions have not left religious
communities unaffected. These factors have severely tested the ability of
some religious communities to "resist evil" but they have also
given rise to new styles of personal and community life which are a clear
evangelical testimony for our world.
All of this
has been a challenge, a call to live the evangelical counsels with more
vigour, and this has helped support the witness of the wider Christian
community.
Changes in
religious life
5. In recent years, there have
been changes which have profoundly affected religious communities.
a) A
new profile in religious communities. In many countries, increased
state programmes in areas in which religious have traditionally been active
-- such as social service, education, and health -- together with the
decrease in vocations, have resulted in a diminished presence of religious in
works which used to be typically those of apostolic institutes.
Thus, there
is a shrinking of large religious communities at the service of visible works
which characterised various institutes for many years.
This is
accompanied, in some regions, by a preference for smaller communities
composed of religious who are active in works not belonging to the institute,
even though they are often in line with the charism of that institute. This
has a significant impact on the style of their common life and requires a
change in traditional rhythms.
Sometimes the
sincere desire to serve the Church and attachment to the institute's works,
combined with urgent requests from the particular Church, can easily bring
religious to take on too much work, thus leaving less time for common life.
b) The
increase in the number of requests for assistance in responding to
more urgent needs (those of the poor, drug addicts, refugees, the
marginalized, the handicapped, the sick of every kind) has given rise in
religious life to responses of admirable and admired dedication.
This,
however, has also made evident the need for changes in the traditional
profile of religious communities, which are deemed, by some, to be inadequate
for coping with the new situations.
c) The
way of understanding and living one's own work in a secularised
context, especially when it is understood as the mere exercise of a given
profession or occupation rather than as the undertaking of a mission of
evangelization, has at times obscured the reality of consecration and the
spiritual dimension of religious life, to the point that fraternal life in
common has become for some an obstacle to the apostolate, or a merely
functional instrument.
d) A
new concept of the human person emerged in the immediate wake of the
Council, emphasising the value of the individual person and of personal
initiatives. This was followed immediately by a sharpened sense of community,
understood as fraternal life built more on the quality of interpersonal
relationships than on the formal aspects of regular observance.
Here or
there, these accents were radicalised (giving rise to the opposing tendencies
of individualism and communitarianism), sometimes without coming to a
satisfactory balance.
e) New
governing structures emerged from revised constitutions, requiring
far greater participation on the part of men and women religious. This has
led to a different way of approaching problems, through community dialogue,
co-responsibility and subsidiarity. All members became involved in the
problems of the community. This greatly affected interpersonal relationships
and, in turn, affected the way authority is perceived. In not a few cases,
authority then encountered practical difficulties in finding its true place
within the new context.
The
combination of changes and tendencies mentioned has affected the character of
religious communities in a profound way but also in ways that must be
differentiated.
The
differentiations, sometimes rather notable, depend, as can be easily
understood, on the diversity of cultures and continents, on whether the
communities are of men or of women, on the kind of religious life and the
kind of institute, on the different activities and the degree of commitment
to re-read and reclaim the charism of the founder, on the different ways of
standing before society and the Church, on different ways of receiving the
values proposed by the Council, on different traditions and ways of common
life, and on various ways of exercising authority and promoting the renewal
of permanent formation. These problematic settings are only partially common
to all; rather they tend to differ from community to community.
Objectives of
the document
6. In light of these new
situations, the purpose of this document is, above all, to support the
efforts made by many communities of religious, both men and women, to improve
the quality of their fraternal life. This will be done by offering some
criteria of discernment, in view of authentic evangelical renewal.
This document
also intends to offer reasons for reflection to those who have distanced
themselves from the community ideal, so that they may give serious
consideration again to the need for fraternal life in common for those
consecrated to the Lord in a religious institute or incorporated in a society
of apostolic life.
7. For this purpose, the document
is structured as follows:
a) Religious
community as gift: before being a human project, fraternal
life in common is part of God's plan and he wishes to share his life of
communion.
b) Religious
community as place where we become brothers and sisters:the most
suitable channels for building Christian fraternity by the religious
community.
c) Religious
community as place and subject of mission: specific choices
which a religious community is called to carry out in various situations, and
criteria for discernment.
To enter into
the mystery of communion and of fraternity, and before undertaking the
difficult discernment necessary for renewing the evangelical radiance of our
communities, we must humbly invoke the Holy Spirit, that he may accomplish
what he alone can do: "I shall give you a new heart, and put a new
spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give
you a heart of flesh instead. You shall be my people and I will be your
God" (Ez. 36:26-28).
I.
THE GIFT OF COMMUNION AND THE GIFT OF COMMUNITY
8. Before being a human
construction, religious community is a gift of the Spirit. It is the love of
God, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, from which religious
community takes its origin and is built as a true family gathered together in
the Lord's name.(20)
It is
therefore impossible to understand religious community unless we start from
its being a gift from on high, from its being a mystery, from its being
rooted in the very heart of the blessed and sanctifying Trinity, who wills it
as part of the mystery of the Church, for the life of the world.
The Church as
communion
9. In creating man and woman in
his own image and likeness, God created them for communion. God the Creator,
who revealed himself as Love, as Trinity, as communion, called them to enter
into intimate relationship with himself and into interpersonal communion, in
the universal fraternity of all men and women.(21)
This is our
highest vocation: to enter into communion with God and with our brothers and
sisters.
God's plan
was compromised through sin, which sundered every kind of relationship:
between the human race and God, between man and woman, among brothers and
sisters, between peoples, between humanity and the rest of creation.
In his great
love, the Father sent his Son, the new Adam, to reconstitute all creation and
bring it to full unity. When he came among us, he established the beginning
of the new People of God, calling to himself apostles and disciples, men and
women -- a living parable of the human family gathered together in unity. He
announced to them universal fraternity in the Father, who made us his
intimates, his children, and brothers and sisters among ourselves. In this
way he taught equality in fraternity and reconciliation in forgiveness. He
overturned the relationships of power and domination, himself giving the
example of how to serve and choose the last place. During the Last Supper, he
entrusted to them the new commandment of mutual love: "a new commandment
I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you
also love one another" (Jn. 13:34; cf. 15:12); he instituted the
Eucharist, which, making us share in the one bread and one cup, nourishes
mutual love. Then he turned to the Father asking, as a synthesis of his
desires, for the unity of all, modelled on the Trinitarian unity: "that
they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they
also may be in us" (cf. Jn. 17:21).
Entrusting
himself then to the Father's will, he achieved in the paschal mystery that
unity which he had taught his disciples to live and which he had asked of the
Father. By his death on the cross, he destroyed the barrier that separated
peoples, reconciling us all in unity (cf. Eph. 2:14-16). By this, he taught
us that communion and unity are the fruit of sharing in the mystery of His
death.
The coming of
the Holy Spirit, first gift to believers, brought about the unity willed by
Christ. Poured out on the disciples gathered in the Upper Room with Mary, the
Spirit gave visibility to the Church, which, from the very first moment, is
characterised as fraternity and communion in the unity of one heart and one
soul (cf. Acts 4:32).
This
communion is the bond of charity which joins among themselves all the members
of the same Body of Christ, and the Body with its Head. The same life-giving
presence of the Holy Spirit(22) builds in Christ organic cohesion: he unifies
the Church in communion and ministry, co-ordinates and directs it with
various hierarchic and charismatic gifts which complement each other, and
makes the Church beautiful by his fruits.(23)
In her
pilgrimage through this world, the Church, one and holy, has constantly been
characterised by a tension, often painful, towards effective unity. Along her
path through history, she has become increasingly conscious of being the
People and family of God, the Body of Christ, Temple of the Spirit, Sacrament
of the intimate union of the human race, communion, icon of the Trinity. The
Second Vatican Council has brought out, perhaps as never before, this
mysterious and "communional" dimension of the Church.
Religious
community as expression of ecclesial communion
10. From the very beginning,
consecrated life has cultivated this intimate nature of Christianity. In
fact, the religious community has felt itself to be in continuity with the
group of those who followed Jesus. He had called them personally, one by one,
to live in communion with himself and with the other disciples, to share his
life and his destiny (cf. Mk. 3:13-15), and in this way to be a sign of the
life and communion begun by him. The first monastic communities looked to the
community of the disciples who followed Christ and to the community of
Jerusalem as their ideal of life. Like the nascent Church, having one heart
and one soul, so the monks, gathering themselves under a spiritual guide, the
abbot, set out to live the radical communion of material and spiritual goods
and the unity established by Christ. This unity finds its archetype and its
unifying dynamism in the life of unity of the Persons of the Most Blessed
Trinity.
In subsequent
centuries, many forms of community have arisen under the charismatic action
of the Spirit. He who searches the depths of the human heart reaches out to
it and satisfies its needs. He raises up men and women who, enlightened by
the light of the Gospel and sensitive to the signs of the times, give life to
new religious families -- and hence to new ways of living out the one single
communion in a diversity of ministries and communities.(24)
It is
impossible to speak of religious community univocally. The history of
consecrated life witnesses to a variety of ways of living out the one
communion according to the nature of the various institutes. Thus, today we
can admire the "wondrous variety" of religious families which
enrich the Church and equip her for every good work(25) and, deriving from
this, the variety of forms of religious communities.
Nevertheless,
in the various forms it takes, fraternal life in common has always appeared
as a radical expression of the common fraternal spirit which unites all
Christians. Religious community is a visible manifestation of the communion
which is the foundation of the Church and, at the same time, a prophecy of
that unity towards which she tends as her final goal. As "experts in
communion, religious are, therefore, called to be an ecclesial community in
the Church and in the world, witnesses and architects of the plan for unity
which is the crowning point of human history in God's design. Above all, by
profession of the evangelical counsels, which frees one from what might be an
obstacle to the fervour of charity, religious are communally a prophetic sign
of intimate union with God, who is loved above all things. Furthermore,
through the daily experience of communion of life, prayer and apostolate --
the essential and distinctive elements of their form of consecrated life --
they are a sign of fraternal fellowship. In fact, in a world frequently very
deeply divided and before their brethren in the faith, they give witness to
the possibility of a community of goods, of fraternal love, of a programme of
life and activity which is theirs because they have accepted the call to
follow more closely and more freely Christ the Lord who was sent by the
Father so that, firstborn among many brothers and sisters, he might establish
a new fraternal fellowship in the gift of his Spirit".(26)
This will be
all the more visible to the extent that they not only think with and within
the Church, but also feel themselves to be Church, identifying themselves
with her in full communion with her doctrine, her life, her pastors, her
faithful, her mission in the world.(27)
Particularly
significant is the witness offered by contemplative men and women. For them,
fraternal life has broader and deeper dimensions which derive from the
fundamental demand of this special vocation, the search for God alone in
silence and prayer.
Their
constant attention to God makes their attention to other members of the
community more delicate and respectful, and contemplation becomes a force
liberating them from every form of selfishness.
Fraternal
life in common, in a monastery, is called to be a living sign of the mystery
of the Church: the greater the mystery of grace, so much the richer is the
fruit of salvation.
In this way,
the Spirit of the Lord, who gathered together the first believers, and who
continually calls the Church into one single family, calls together and
nourishes religious families which, by means of their communities spread
throughout the world, have the mission of being clearly readable signs of
that intimate communion which animates and constitutes the Church, and of
being a support for the fulfilment of God's plan.
II.
RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY AS PLACE FOR BECOMING BROTHERS AND
SISTERS
11. From the gift of communion
arises the duty to build fraternity, in other words, to become brothers and
sisters in a given community where all are called to live together. From
accepting with wonder and gratitude the reality of divine communion shared
with mere creatures, there also arises conviction of the need to make it always
more visible by building communities "filled with joy and with the Holy
Spirit" (Acts 13:52).
In our days,
and for our days, it is necessary to take up again this
"divine-human" work of building up the community of brothers and
sisters, keeping in mind the specific circumstances of present times in which
theological, canonical, social and structural developments have profoundly
affected the profile and life of religious community.
Starting from
a number of specific situations, the present document wishes to offer
indications for strengthening commitment to a continued evangelical renewal
of communities.
Spirituality
and common prayer
l2. In its primary mystical
component, every authentic Christian community is seen in "itself a
theological reality, an object of contemplation".(28) It follows that a
religious community is, above all else, a mystery which must be contemplated
and welcomed with a heart full of gratitude in the clear context of faith.
Whenever we
lose sight of this mystical and theologal dimension which binds religious
community to the mystery of divine communion, present and communicated to the
community, we inevitably come to forget the profound reasons for "making
community", for patiently building fraternal life. This life can
sometimes seem beyond human strength and a useless waste of energy,
especially to those intensely committed to action and conditioned by an
activist and individualistic culture.
The same
Christ who called them, daily calls together his brothers and sisters to
speak with them and to unite them to himself and to each other in the
Eucharist, to assimilate them increasingly into His living and visible Body,
in whom the Spirit lives, on journey towards the Father.
Prayer in
common, which has always been considered the foundation of all community
life, starts from contemplation of God's great and sublime mystery, from
wonder for his presence, which is at work in the most significant moments of
the life of our religious families as well as in the humble and ordinary
realities of our communities.
13. As a response to the admonition
of the Lord, "watch at all times, and pray" (cf. Lk. 21:36), a
religious community needs to be watchful and take the time necessary for
attending to the quality of its life. Sometimes men and women religious
"don't have time" and their day runs the risk of being too busy and
anxious, and the religious can end up being tired and exhausted. In fact,
religious community is regulated by a rhythmic horarium to give determined
times to prayer, and especially so that one can learn to give time to God (vacare
Deo).
Prayer needs
to be seen also as time for being with the Lord so that He might act in us
and, notwithstanding distractions and weariness, might enter our lives,
console them and guide them. So that, in the end, our entire existence can
belong to him.
14. One of the most valuable
achievements of recent decades, recognised and blessed by all, has been the
rediscovery of liturgical prayer by religious families.
Communal
celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, or at least of some
part of it, has revitalised prayer in many communities, which have been
brought into more lively contact with the word of God and the prayer of the
Church.(29)
Thus, all
must remain strongly convinced that community is built up starting from the
liturgy, especially from celebration of the Eucharist(30) and the other
sacraments. Among these other sacraments, renewed attention should be given
to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, through which the Lord restores union
with Himself and with one's brothers and sisters.
As happened
in the first community in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 2:42), the word, the Eucharist,
common prayer, dedication and fidelity to the teaching of the Apostles and
their successors, put one in touch with God's great works; in this context,
these works become resplendent and generate praise, thanksgiving, joy, union
of hearts, comfort in the shared difficulties of daily life together, and
mutual encouragement in faith.
Unfortunately,
the decrease in the number of priests may, here or there, make it impossible
to participate daily in the Mass. In these circumstances, we must be
concerned to deepen our appreciation of the great gift of the Eucharist and
place at the very heart of our lives the Sacred Mystery of the Body and Blood
of our Lord, alive and present in the Community to sustain and inspire it in
its journey to the Father. From this derives the necessity that every
religious house have its own oratory as the centre of the community,(31)
where members can nourish their own Eucharistic spirituality by prayer and
adoration.
It is around
the Eucharist, celebrated or adored, "source and summit" of all
activity of the Church, that the communion of souls is built up, which is the
starting point of all growth in fraternity. "From this all education for
community spirit must begin".(32)
15. Communal prayer reaches its
full effectiveness when it is intimately linked to personal prayer. Common
prayer and personal prayer are closely related and are complementary to each
other. Everywhere, but especially so in some regions and cultures, greater
emphasis must be placed on the inner aspect, on the filial relationship to
the Father, on the intimate and spousal relationship with Christ, on the
personal deepening of what is celebrated and lived in community prayer, on the
interior and exterior silence that leaves space for the Word and the Spirit
to regenerate the more hidden depths. The consecrated person who lives in
community nourishes his or her consecration both through constant personal
dialogue with God and through community praise and intercession.
16. In recent years, community
prayer has been enriched by various forms of expression and sharing.
For many
communities, the sharing of Lectio divina and reflection on
the word of God, as well as the sharing of personal faith experiences and
apostolic concerns have been particularly fruitful. Differences of age,
formation and character make it advisable to be prudent in requiring this of
an entire community. It is well to recall that the right moment cannot be
rushed.
Where it is
practised with spontaneity and by common agreement, such sharing nourishes
faith and hope as well as mutual respect and trust; it facilitates
reconciliation and nourishes fraternal solidarity in prayer.
17. The Lord's injunction to
"always pray and not lose heart" (Lk. 18:1; cf. 1 Thes. 5:17) is
equally valid for personal prayer and for communal prayer. A religious
community lives constantly in the sight of its Lord and ought to be
continuously aware of his presence. Nevertheless, prayer in common has its
own rhythms whose frequency (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly) is set forth
in the proper law of each institute.
Prayer in
common which requires fidelity to an horarium also and above all requires
perseverance: "that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the
scriptures we might have hope..., that together you may with one voice
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 15:4-6).
Faithfulness
and perseverance will also help overcome, creatively and wisely, certain
difficulties which mark some communities, such as diversity of commitments
and consequent differences in schedules, overwork which absorbs one, and
various kinds of fatigue.
18. Prayer to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, animated by a love for her which leads us to imitate her, has the
effect that her exemplary and maternal presence becomes a great support in
daily fidelity to prayer (cf. Acts 1:14), becoming a bond of communion for
the religious community.(33)
The Mother of
the Lord will help configure religious communities to the model of
"her" family, the Family of Nazareth, a place which religious
communities ought often to visit spiritually, because there the Gospel of
communion and fraternity was lived in a wonderful way.
19. Common prayer also sustains and
nourishes apostolic impulse. On the one hand, prayer is a mysterious
transforming power which embraces all realities to redeem and order the
world. On the other, it finds its stimulus in the apostolic ministry, in its
daily joys and difficulties. These then become an occasion for seeking and
discovering the presence and action of the Lord.
20. Religious communities which are
most apostolically and evangelically alive -- whether contemplative or active
-- are the ones which have a rich experience of prayer. At a time such as
ours, when we note a certain reawakening of the search for the transcendent,
religious communities can become privileged places where the various paths
which lead to God can be experienced.
"As a
family united in the Lord's name, [a religious community] is of its nature
the place where the experience of God should be able in a special way to come
to fullness and be communicated to others",(34) above all to one's own
brothers and sisters within the community.
Men and women
consecrated to God will fail to meet this historic challenge if they do not
respond to the "search for God" in our contemporaries, who, will
then perhaps turn to other erroneous paths in an effort to satisfy their
thirst for the Absolute.
Personal
freedom and the building of fraternity
21. "Bear one another's
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2). In the entire
dynamic of community life, Christ, in his paschal mystery, remains the model
of how to construct unity. Indeed, he is the source, the model and the
measure of the command of mutual love: we must love one another as he loved
us. And he loved us to the point of giving up his life for us. Our life is a
sharing in the charity of Christ, in his love for the Father and for his
brothers and sisters, a love forgetful of self.
All of this,
however, is not in the nature of the "old man", who wants communion
and unity but does not want or intend to pay the price in terms of personal
commitment and dedication. The path that leads from the "old man",
who tends to close in on himself, to the "new man" who gives
himself to others is a long and difficult one. The holy founders
realistically emphasised the difficulties and dangers of this passage,
conscious as they were that community cannot be improvised. It is not a
spontaneous thing nor is it achieved in a short time.
In order to
live as brothers and sisters, a true journey of interior liberation is
necessary. Israel, liberated from Egypt, became the People of God after
walking for a long time through the desert under the guidance of Moses. In
much the same way, a community inserted within the Church as People of God
must be built by persons whom Christ has liberated and made capable of loving
as he did, by the gift of his liberating love and the heartfelt acceptance of
those he gives us as guides.
The love of
Christ poured out in our hearts urges us to love our brothers and sisters
even to the point of taking on their weaknesses, their problems and their
difficulties. In a word: even to the point of giving our very selves.
22. Christ gives a person two basic
certainties: the certainty of being infinitely loved and the certainty of
being capable of loving without limits. Nothing except the Cross of Christ
can give in a full and definitive way these two certainties and the freedom
they bring. Through them, consecrated persons gradually become free from the
need to be at the centre of everything and to possess the other, and from the
fear of giving themselves to their brothers and sisters. They learn rather to
love as Christ loved them, with that love which now is poured forth in their
hearts, making them capable of forgetting themselves and giving themselves as
the Lord did.
By the power
of this love a community is brought to life as a gathering of people who are
free, liberated by the Cross of Christ.
23. This path of liberation which
leads to full communion and to the freedom of the children of God demands,
however, the courage of self-denial in accepting and welcoming the other with
his or her limitations, starting with the acceptance of authority.
Many have
noted that this has constituted one of the weak points of the recent period
of renewal. There has been an increase of knowledge and various aspects of
communal life have been studied. Much less attention has been paid, however,
to the ascetic commitment which is necessary and irreplaceable for any
liberation capable of transforming a group of people into a Christian
fraternity.
Communion is
a gift offered which also requires a response, a patient learning experience
and struggle, in order to overcome the excesses of spontaneity and the
fickleness of desires. The highest ideal of community necessarily brings with
it conversion from every attitude contrary to communion.
Community
that is not mystical has no soul, but community that is not ascetic has no
body. "Synergy" between the gift of God and personal commitment is
required for building an incarnated communion, for giving, in other words,
flesh and concrete existence to grace and to the gift of fraternal communion.
24. It must be admitted that this
kind of reasoning presents difficulty today both to young people and to
adults. Often, young people come from a culture which overrates subjectivity
and the search for self-fulfilment, while adults either are anchored to
structures of the past or experience a certain disenchantment with respect to
the never-ending assemblies which were prevalent some years ago, a source of
verbosity and uncertainty.
If it is true
that communion does not exist without the self-offering of each member, then
it is necessary, right from the beginning, to remove the illusion that
everything must come from others, and to help each one discover with
gratitude all that has already been received, and is in fact being received
from others. Right from the beginning, it is necessary to prepare to be not
only consumers of community, but above all its builders; to be responsible
for each other's growth; to be open and available to receive the gift of the
other; to be able to help and to be helped; to replace and to be replaced.
A fraternal
and shared common life has a natural attraction for young people but, later,
perseverance in the real conditions of life can become a heavy burden.
Initial formation needs, then, to bring one to awareness of the sacrifices
required for living in community, to accepting them in view of a joyful and
truly fraternal relationship and of all the other attitudes characteristic of
one who is interiorly free.(35) When we lose ourselves for our brothers and
sisters, then we find ourselves.
25. It must always be remembered
that, for religious men and women, fulfilment comes through their
communities. One who tries to live an independent life, detached from
community, has surely not taken the secure path to the perfection of his or
her own state.
Whereas western
society applauds the independent person, the one who can attain
self-actualisation alone, the self-assured individualist, the Gospel requires
persons who, like the grain of wheat, know how to die to themselves so that
fraternal life may be born.(36)
Thus
community becomes "Schola Amoris," a School of
Love, for young people and for adults -- a school in which all learn to love
God, to love the brothers and sisters with whom they live, and to love
humanity, which is in great need of God's mercy and of fraternal solidarity.
26. The communitarian ideal must
not blind us to the fact that every Christian reality is built on human
frailty. The perfect "ideal community" does not exist yet: the
perfect communion of the saints is our goal in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Ours is the
time for edification and constant building. It is always possible to improve
and to walk together towards a community that is able to live in forgiveness
and love. Communities cannot avoid all conflicts. The unity which they must
build is a unity established at the price of reconciliation.(37) Imperfection
in communities ought not discourage us.
Every day,
communities take up again their journey, sustained by the teaching of the
Apostles: "love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another
in showing honour" (Rom. 12:10); "live in harmony with one
another" (Rom. 12:16); "welcome one another, therefore, as Christ
has welcomed you" (Rom. 15:7); "I myself am satisfied... that you
are... able to instruct one another" (Rom. 15:14); "wait for one
another" (1 Cor. 11:33); "through love, be servants of one
another" (Gal. 5:13); "encourage one another" (1 Thes. 5:11);
"forbearing one another in love" (Eph. 4:2); "be kind to one
another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another" (Eph. 4:32); "be subject
to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Eph. 5:21); "pray for
one another" (James 5:16); "clothe yourselves, all of you, with
humility towards one another" (1 Pet. 5:5); "we have fellowship
with one another" (1 Jn. 1:7); "let us not grow weary in
well-doing..., especially to those who are of the household of faith"
(Gal. 6:9-10).
27. It may be useful to recall that
in order to foster communion of minds and hearts among those called to live
together in a community, it is necessary to cultivate those qualities which
are required in all human relationships: respect, kindness, sincerity,
self-control, tactfulness, a sense of humour and a spirit of sharing.
Recent
documents from the Magisterium are rich with suggestions and indications
helpful for community living such as joyful simplicity,(38) clarity and
mutual trust,(39) capacity for dialogue,(40) and sincere acceptance of a
beneficial communitarian discipline.(41)
28. We must not forget, in the end,
that peace and pleasure in being together are among the signs of the Kingdom
of God. The joy of living even in the midst of difficulties along the human
and spiritual path and in the midst of daily annoyances is already part of
the Kingdom. This joy is a fruit of the Spirit and embraces the simplicity of
existence and the monotonous texture of daily life. A joyless fraternity is
one that is dying out; before long, members will be tempted to seek elsewhere
what they can no longer find within their own home. A fraternity rich in joy
is a genuine gift from above to brothers and sisters who know how to ask for
it and to accept one another, committing themselves to fraternal life,
trusting in the action of the Spirit. Thus the words of the Psalm are made
true: "Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in
unity.... For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life for
evermore" (Ps. 133:1-3), "because when they live together as
brothers, they are united in the assembly of the Church; they are of one
heart in charity and of one will".(42)
Such a testimony
of joy is a powerful attraction to religious life, a source of new vocations
and an encouragement to perseverance. It is very important to cultivate such
joy within a religious community: overwork can destroy it, excessive zeal for
certain causes can lead some to forget it, constant self-analysis of one's
identity and one's own future can cloud it.
Being able to
enjoy one another; allowing time for personal and communal relaxation; taking
time off from work now and then; rejoicing in the joys of one's brothers and
sisters, in solicitous concern for the needs of brothers and sisters;
trusting commitment to works of the apostolate; compassion in dealing with
situations; looking forward to the next day with the hope of meeting the Lord
always and everywhere: these are things that nourish serenity, peace and joy.
They become strength in apostolic action.
Joy is a
splendid testimony to the evangelical quality of a religious community; it is
the end point of a journey which is not lacking in difficulties, but which is
possible because it is sustained by prayer: "rejoice in your hope, be
patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer" (Rom. 12:12).
Communicating
in order to grow together
29. In the renewal of recent years,
communication has been recognised as one of the human factors acquiring
increased importance for the life of a religious community. The deeply felt
need to enhance fraternal life in community is accompanied by a corresponding
need for communication which is both fuller and more intense.
In order to
become brothers and sisters, it is necessary to know one another. To do this,
it is rather important to communicate more extensively and more deeply.
Today, more attention is given to various aspects of communication, although
the form and the degree may vary from one institute to another, and from one
region to the next.
30. Communication within institutes
has developed considerably. There is a growing number of regular meetings of
members at different levels, central, regional, and provincial; superiors
often send letters and suggestions, and their visits to communities are more
frequent. The publication of newsletters and internal periodicals is more
widespread.
This kind of
broad communication asked for at various levels, corresponding to the character
proper to the institute, normally creates closer relations, nourishes a
family spirit and sharing in the concerns of the entire institute, creates
greater sensitivity to general problems, and brings religious closer together
around their common mission.
31. Regular meetings at the
community level, often on a weekly basis, have also proved very useful; they
let members share problems concerning the community, the institute, the
Church, and in relation to the Church's major documents. They provide opportunities
to listen to others, share one's own thoughts, review and evaluate past
experiences, and think and plan together.
Such meetings
are particularly necessary for the growth and development of fraternal life,
especially in larger communities. Time must be set aside for this purpose and
kept free from all other engagements. In addition to concern for community
life, these meetings are also important for fostering co-responsibility and
for situating one's own work within the broader framework of religious life,
Church life and the life of the world to which we are sent in mission. This
is an avenue which must be pursued in every community, adapting its rhythms
and approaches to the size of the community and to the members' commitments.
In contemplative communities, it should respect their own style of life.
32. But there is more. In many
places, there is a felt need for more intense communication among religious
living together in the same community. The lack of or weakness in
communication usually leads to weakening of fraternity: if we know little or
nothing about the lives of our brothers or sisters, they will be strangers to
us, and the relationship will become anonymous, as well as create true and
very real problems of isolation and solitude. Some communities complain about
the poor quality of the fundamental sharing of spiritual goods. Communication
takes place, they say, around problems and issues of marginal importance but
rarely is there any sharing of what is vital and central to the journey of consecration.
This can have
painful consequences, because then spiritual experience imperceptibly takes
on individualistic overtones. A mentality of self-sufficiency becomes more
important; a lack of sensitivity to others develops; and, gradually,
significant relationships are sought outside the community.
This problem
should be dealt with explicitly. It requires, on the one hand, a tactful and
caring approach which does not exert pressure; but it also requires courage
and creativity, searching for ways and methods which will make it possible
for all to learn to share, simply and fraternally, the gifts of the Spirit so
that these may indeed belong to all and be of benefit to all (cf. 1 Cor.
12:7).
Communion
originates precisely in sharing the Spirit's gifts, a sharing of faith and in
faith, where the more we share those things which are central and vital, the
more the fraternal bond grows in strength. This kind of communication can
also be helpful as a way of learning a style of sharing which will enable
members, in their own apostolates, to "confess their faith" in
simple and easy terms which all may understand and appreciate.
There are
many ways in which spiritual gifts can be shared and communicated. Besides
the ones already mentioned (sharing the word and the experience of God,
communal discernment, community projects),(43) we should recall fraternal
correction, review of life, and other forms characteristic of the tradition.
These are concrete ways of putting at the service of others and of pouring
into the community the gifts which the Spirit gives so abundantly for its
upbuilding and for its mission in the world.
All of this
takes on greater importance now since communities often include religious of
different ages and different races, members with different cultural and
theological formation, religious who have had widely differing experiences
during these agitated and pluralistic years.
Without
dialogue and attentive listening, community members run the risk of living
juxtaposed or parallel lives, a far cry from the ideal of fraternity.
33. Every kind of communication
implies itineraries and particular psychological difficulties which can also
be addressed positively with the help of the human sciences. Some communities
have benefited, for example, from the help of experts in communication and
professionals in the fields of psychology or sociology.
These are
exceptional measures which need to be evaluated prudently, and they can be
used with moderation by communities wishing to break down the walls of separation
which at times are raised within a community. These human techniques are
useful, but they are not sufficient. All must have at heart the welfare of
their brothers and sisters, cultivating an evangelical ability to receive
from others all that they might wish to give and to communicate, and all that
they in fact communicate by their very existence.
Be "of
the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind....
In humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not
only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others". Your
mutual relations should be founded on the fact that you are united to Christ
Jesus (cf. Phil. 2:2-5).
In a climate
such as this, various techniques and approaches to communication compatible
with religious life can enhance the growth of fraternity.
34. The considerable impact of mass
media on modern life and mentality has its effect on religious communities as
well, and frequently affects internal communication.
A community,
aware of the influence of the media, should learn to use them for personal
and community growth, with the evangelical clarity and inner freedom of those
who have learned to know Christ (cf. Gal. 4:17-23). The media propose, and
often impose, a mentality and model of life in constant contrast with the
Gospel. In this connection, in many areas one hears of the desire for deeper
formation in receiving and using the media, both critically and fruitfully.
Why not make them an object of evaluation, of discernment and of planning in
the regular community meetings?
In particular
when television becomes the only form of recreation, relations among people
are blocked or even impeded, fraternal communication is limited and indeed
consecrated life itself can be damaged.
A proper
balance is needed: the moderate and prudent use of the communications
media,(44) accompanied by community discernment, can help the community know
better the complexity of the world of culture, receive the media with
awareness and a critical eye and, finally, evaluate their impact in relation
to the various ministries at the service of the Gospel.
In keeping
with the choice of their specific state of life, characterised by a more
marked separation from the world, contemplative communities should consider
themselves more committed to preserving an atmosphere of recollection, being
guided by the norms determined in their own constitutions about the use of
the communications media.
Religious
community and personal growth
35. Because religious community is
a Schola Amoris which helps one grow in love for God and for
one's brothers and sisters, it is also a place for human growth. The path is
a demanding one, since it requires the renunciation of goods that are
certainly highly valued,(45) but it is not impossible. A multitude of men and
women saints and the wonderful figures of religious men and women are there
to prove that consecration to Christ "does not constitute an obstacle to
the true development of the human person but by its nature is supremely
beneficial to that development".(46)
The path
towards human maturity, which is a prerequisite of a radiant evangelical
life, is a process which knows no limits, since it involves continuous
enrichment not only of spiritual values but also of values in the
psychological, cultural and social order.(47)
In recent
years, major changes in culture and custom have been oriented, in practice,
more towards material realities than towards spiritual values. This makes it
necessary to pay attention to some areas where, today, persons appear to be
particularly vulnerable.
36. Identity
The process
of maturing takes place through one's own identifying with the call of God. A
weak sense of identity can lead to a misconceived idea of self-actualisation,
especially in times of difficulty, with an excessive need for positive
results and approval from others, an exaggerated fear of inadequacy, and
depression brought on by failure.
The identity
of a consecrated person depends on spiritual maturity; this is brought about
by the Spirit who prompts us to be conformed to Christ, according to the
particular characteristic provided by "the founding gift which mediates
the Gospel to the members of a given religious institute".(48) For this
reason, the help of a spiritual guide, who knows well and respects the
spirituality and mission of the institute, is most important. Such a one will
"discern the action of God, accompany the religious in the ways of God,
nourish life with solid doctrine and the practice of prayer".(49) This
accompaniment is particularly necessary in the initial stage of formation,
but it is useful throughout life, in order to foster "growth towards the
fullness of Christ".
Cultural
maturity also helps one face the challenges of mission by acquiring the tools
necessary for discerning future trends and working out appropriate responses,
in which the Gospel is continuously proposed as the alternative to worldly
proposals, integrating its positive forces and purifying them of the leaven
of evil.
In this
dynamic, the consecrated person and the religious community are a proposal of
the Gospel, a proposal which manifests the presence of Christ in the
world.(50)
37.
Affectivity
Fraternal
life in common requires from all members good psychological balance within
which each individual can achieve emotional maturity. As mentioned above, one
essential element of such growth is emotional freedom, which enables
consecrated persons to love their vocation and to love in accordance with
this vocation. It is precisely this freedom and this maturity which allow us
to live out our affectivity correctly, both inside and outside the community.
To love one's
vocation, to hear the call as something that gives true meaning to life, and
to cherish consecration as a true, beautiful and good reality which gives
truth, beauty and goodness to one's own existence -- all of this makes a
person strong and autonomous, secure in one's own identity, free of the need
for various forms of support and compensation, especially in the area of
affectivity. All this reinforces the bond that links the consecrated person
to those who share his or her calling. It is with them, first and foremost,
that he or she feels called to live relationships of fraternity and
friendship.
To love one's
vocation is to love the Church, it is to love one's institute, and to
experience the community as one's own family.
To love in
accordance with one's vocation is to love in the manner of one who, in every
human relationship, wishes to be a clear sign of the love of God, not
invading and not possessing, but loving and desiring the good of the other
with God's own benevolence.
Therefore,
special formation is required in the area of affectivity to promote an
integration of the human aspect with the more specifically spiritual aspect.
In this respect, the guidelines contained in Potissimum
Institutioni(51) concerning discernment of "a balanced affectivity,
especially sexual balance" and "the ability to live in
community" are particularly relevant.
However,
difficulties in this area are frequently echoes of problems originating in
other areas: affectivity and sexuality marked by a narcissistic and adolescent
attitude, or by rigid repression, can sometimes be a result of negative
experiences prior to entering the community, but they can also be a result of
difficulties in community or apostolate. A rich and warm fraternal life, one
that "carries the burden" of the wounded brother or sister in need
of help, is thus particularly important.
While a
certain maturity is necessary for life in community, a cordial fraternal life
is equally necessary in order to allow each religious to attain maturity.
Where members of a community become aware of diminished affective autonomy in
one of their brothers or sisters, the response on the part of the community
ought to be one of rich and human love, similar to that of our Lord Jesus and
of many holy religious -- a love that shares in fears and joys, difficulties
and hopes, with that warmth that is particular to a new heart that knows how
to accept the whole person. Such love -- caring and respectful, gratuitous
rather than possessive -- should make the love of Our Lord seem very near:
that love which caused the Son of God to proclaim through the Cross that we
cannot doubt that we are loved by Love.
38.
Difficulties
A special
occasion for human growth and Christian maturity lies in living with persons
who suffer, who are not at ease in community, and who thus are an occasion of
suffering for others and of disturbance in community life.
We must first
of all ask about the source of such suffering. It may be caused by a
character defect, commitments that seem too burdensome, serious gaps in
formation, excessively rapid changes over recent years, excessively
authoritarian forms of government, or by spiritual difficulties.
There may be
some situations when the one in authority needs to remind members that life
in common sometimes requires sacrifice and can become a form of maxima
poenitentia, grave penance.
In some cases
recourse to the social sciences is necessary, in particular where individuals
are clearly incapable of living community life due to problems of
insufficient maturity and psychological weakness, or due to factors which are
more pathological.
Recourse to
such intervention has proved useful not only at the therapeutic stage -- in
cases of more or less evident psycho-pathology -- but also as a preventive
measure, to assist in the proper selection of candidates, and to assist
formation teams in some cases to address specific pedagogical and formative
problems.(52)
In all cases,
in choosing specialists, preference is to be given to those who are believers
and are well experienced with religious life and its dynamics. So much the
better if these specialists are themselves consecrated men or women.
Finally, the
use of such methods will be truly effective only if it is applied
exceptionally and not generalised; this is so partly because
psycho-pedagogical measures do not solve all problems and thus "cannot
substitute for an authentic spiritual direction".(53)
From me to us
39. Respect for the human person,
recommended by the Council and by various succeeding documents,(54) has had a
positive influence on the praxis of communities. Simultaneously, however,
individualism has spread, with greater or lesser intensity depending on the
regions of the world, and in various forms: the need to take centre stage; an
exaggerated insistence on personal well-being, whether physical,
psychological or professional; a preference for individual work or for
prestigious and "signed" work; the absolute priority of one's
personal aspirations and one's own individual path, regardless of others and
with no reference to the community.
On the other
hand, we must continue to seek a just balance, not always easy to achieve,
between the common good and respect for the human person, between the demands
and needs of individuals and those of the community, between personal
charisms and the community's apostolate. And this should be far from both the
disintegrating forces of individualism and the levelling aspects of
communitarianism. Religious community is the place where the daily and
patient passage from "me" to "us" takes place, from my
commitment to a commitment entrusted to the community, from seeking "my
things" to seeking "the things of Christ".
In this way,
religious community becomes the place where we learn daily to take on that
new mind which allows us to live in fraternal communion through the richness
of diverse gifts and which, at the same time, fosters a convergence of these
gifts towards fraternity and towards co-responsibility in the apostolic plan.
40. In order to realise such a
community and apostolic "symphony", it is necessary:
a) to
celebrate and give thanks together for the common gift of vocation and
mission, a gift far surpassing every individual and cultural difference; to
promote a contemplative attitude with regard to the wisdom of God, who has
sent specific brothers and sisters to the community that each may be a gift
to the other; to praise him for what each brother or sister communicates from
the presence and word of Christ;
b) to
cultivate mutual respect by which we accept the slow journey of weaker
members without stifling the growth of richer personalities; a respect which
fosters creativity but also calls for responsibility to others and to
solidarity;
c) to focus
on a common mission: each institute has its own mission, to which all must
contribute according to their particular gifts. The road of consecrated men
and women consists precisely in progressively consecrating to the Lord all
that they have, and all that they are, for the mission of their religious
family;
d) to recall
that the apostolic mission is entrusted in the first place to the community
and that this often entails conducting works proper to the institute.
Dedication to this kind of community apostolate helps a consecrated person
mature and grow in his or her particular way of holiness;
e) to
consider that religious, on receiving in obedience personal missions, ought
to consider themselves sent by the community. For its part, the community
shall see to their regular updating and include them in the reviews of
apostolic and community commitments.
During the
time of formation, all good will not withstanding, it may prove impossible to
integrate the personal gifts of a consecrated individual within fraternity
and a common mission. It may be necessary in such cases to ask, "Do
God's gifts in this person... make for unity and deepen communion? If they do,
they can be welcomed. If they do not, then no matter how good the gifts may
seem to be in themselves, or how desirable they may appear to some members,
they are not for this particular institute.... It is not wise to tolerate
widely divergent lines of development which do not have a strong foundation
of unity in the institute itself".(55)
41. In recent years, there has been
an increase in the number of small communities, especially for reasons of
apostolate. These communities can also foster closer relations among
religious, prayer which is more deeply shared, and a reciprocal and more
fraternal taking up of responsibility.(56)
But there are
some motives which are questionable, such as sameness of tastes or of
mentality. In this situation, it is easy for a community to close in on
itself and come to the point of choosing its own members, and brothers or
sisters sent by the superiors may or may not be accepted. This is contrary to
the very nature of religious community and to its function as sign. Optional
homogeneity, besides weakening apostolic mobility, weakens the Pneumatic
strength of a community and robs the spiritual reality which rules the
community of its power as witness.
The effort
involved in mutual acceptance and commitment to overcoming difficulties,
characteristics of heterogeneous communities, show forth the transcendence of
the reason which brought the community into existence, that is, the power of
God which "is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
We stay
together in community not because we have chosen one another, but because we
have been chosen by the Lord.
42. Whereas culture of a western
stamp can lead to individualism which makes fraternal life in common
difficult, other cultures can lead to communitarianism which makes giving proper
recognition to the human person difficult. All cultural forms need
evangelization.
The presence
of religious communities -- which, through a process of conversion, enter
into a fraternal life where individuals make themselves available to their
brothers or sisters, and where the "group" enhances the individual
-- is a sign of the transforming power of the Gospel and of the coming of the
Kingdom of God.
International
institutes in which members from different cultures live together can
contribute to an exchange of gifts through which the members mutually enrich
and correct one other in the common desire to live more and more intensely
the Gospel of personal freedom and fraternal communion.
Being a
community in permanent formation
43. Community renewal has greatly
benefited from permanent formation. Recommended and presented in its basic
outline by the documentPotissimum Institutioni,(57) permanent
formation is considered by all who are responsible for religious institutes
as of vital importance for the future.
In spite of
some uncertainties (difficulties in integrating its different aspects,
difficulties in sensitising all the members of a community, the absorbing
demands of apostolic work, and a correct balance between activity and
formation), most institutes, at either the central or local level, have
undertaken initiatives.
One of the
goals of such initiatives is to form communities that are mature,
evangelical, fraternal and capable of continuing permanent formation in daily
life. Religious community is the place where broad guidelines are implemented
concretely, through patient and persevering daily efforts. Religious
community is, for everyone, the place and the natural setting of the process
of growth, where all become co-responsible for the growth of others.
Religious community is also the place where, day by day, members help one
another to respond as consecrated persons, bearing a common charism, to the
needs of the least and to the challenges of the new society.
Quite
frequently, responses to existing problems can differ and this entails
obvious consequences for community life. From this arises the realisation
that one of the challenges intensely felt today is to integrate members who
were given a different formation and have different apostolic visions into
one single community life, in such a way that these differences become not so
much occasions of conflict as moments of mutual enrichment. In such a
diversified and changeable context, the unifying role of those responsible
for community becomes ever more important; it is appropriate to provide them
with specific support in the area of permanent formation, in light of their
task of motivating the fraternal and apostolic life of their communities.
Based on the
experience of recent years, two aspects deserve particular attention: the
community dimension of the evangelical counsels and the charism.
44. The
community dimension of the evangelical counsels
Religious
profession expresses the gift of self to God and to the Church -- a gift,
however, which is lived in the community of a religious family. Religious are
not only "called" to an individual personal vocation. Their call is
also a "con-vocation" -- they are called with
others, with whom they share their daily life.
There is here
a convergence of "yeses" to God which unites a number of religious
into one single community of life. Consecrated together -- united in the same
"yes", united in the Holy Spirit -- religious discover every day
that their following of Christ "obedient, poor and chaste", is
lived in fraternity, as was the case with the disciples who followed Jesus in
his ministry. They are united with Christ, and therefore called to be united
among themselves. They are united in the mission to oppose prophetically the
idolatry of power, of possession and of pleasure.(58)
Thus, obedience binds
together the various wills and unites them in one single fraternal community,
endowed with a specific mission to be accomplished within the Church.
Obedience is
a "yes" to God's design, by which He has entrusted a particular
task to a group of people. It brings with it a bond to the mission, but also
to the community which must carry out its service here and now and together.
It also requires a clear-sighted vision of faith regarding the superiors who
"fulfil their duty of service and leadership"(59) and who are to
see that there is conformity between apostolic work and the mission. It is in
communion with them that the divine will -- the only will which can save --
must be fulfilled.
Poverty, the sharing of goods, even spiritual
goods, has been from the beginning the basis of fraternal communion. The
poverty of individual members, which brings with it a simple and austere
life-style, not only frees them from the concerns inherent in private
ownership but it also enriches the community, enabling it to serve God and
the poor more effectively.
Poverty
includes an economic dimension: the possibility of disposing of money as if
it were one's own, either for oneself or for members of one's family, a
life-style too different from that of fellow community members and from the
poverty level of the society within which one is living -- these things
injure and weaken fraternal life.
"Poverty
of spirit", humility, simplicity, recognising the gifts of others,
appreciating evangelical realities such as "the hidden life with Christ
in God," respect for the hidden sacrifice, giving value to the least
ones, dedication to efforts that are neither recognised nor paid -- these are
all unitive aspects of fraternal life and spring from the poverty professed.
A community
of "poor" people is better able to show solidarity with the poor
and to point to the very heart of evangelization because it concretely
presents the transforming power of the beatitudes.
In the
community dimension, consecrated chastity, which also
implies great purity of mind, heart and body, expresses a great freedom for
loving God and all that is his, with an undivided love and thus with a total
availability for loving and serving all others, making present the love of
Christ. This love, neither selfish nor exclusive, neither possessive nor
enslaved to passion, but universal and disinterested, free and freeing, so
necessary for mission, is cultivated and grows through fraternal life. Thus,
those who live consecrated celibacy "recall that wonderful marriage made
by God, which will be fully manifested in the future age, and in which the
Church has Christ for her only spouse".(60)
This communal
dimension of the vows must be continuously fostered and deepened -- a process
which is characteristic of permanent formation.
45. The
charism
This is the
second aspect of permanent formation to which we must give special attention
in order to promote the growth of fraternal life.
"Religious
consecration establishes a particular communion between religious and God
and, in him, between the members of the same institute.... The foundation of
unity, however, is the communion in Christ established by the one founding
gift."(61) Reference to the institute's founder and to the charism lived
by him or her and then communicated, kept and developed throughout the life
of the institute,(62) thus appears as an essential element for the unity of
the community.
To live in
community is to live the will of God together, in accordance with the
orientation of the charismatic gift received by the founder from God and
transmitted to his or her disciples and followers.
The renewal
of recent years, re-emphasising the importance of the originating charism by
rich theological reflection,(63) has promoted the unity of the community,
which is seen as bearer of this same gift from the Spirit, a gift to be
shared with the brothers or sisters, and by which it is possible to enrich
the Church "for the life of the world." For this reason, formation
programmes which include regular courses of study and prayerful reflection on
the founder, the charism and the constitutions of the institute are
particularly beneficial.
A deepened
understanding of the charism leads to a clearer vision of one's own identity,
around which it is easier to build unity and communion. Clarity concerning
one's own charismatic identity allows creative adjustment to new situations
and this leads to positive prospects for the future of the institute.
A lack of
clarity in this area can easily cause insecurity concerning goals and
vulnerability with respect to conditions surrounding religious life, cultural
currents and various apostolic needs, in addition to the obstacles it raises
regarding adaptation and renewal.
46. It is therefore necessary to
promote an institute's charismatic identity, especially to avoid a kind of genericism, which
is a true threat to the vitality of a religious community.
Several
factors have been identified as having caused suffering for religious
communities in recent years and, in some cases, continue to cause it:
The
genericism which reduces religious life to a colourless lowest common
denominator leads to wiping out the beauty and fruitfulness of the many and
various charisms inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Authority in
the service of fraternity
47. It is generally agreed that the
evolution of recent years has contributed to the maturity of fraternal life
in communities. In many communities, the climate of life in common has
improved: there is more space for the active participation of all; there has
been a move from a common life based too much on observance to a life that is
more attentive to individual needs, that is better attended to on the human
level. The effort to build communities that are less formalistic, less
authoritarian, more fraternal and participatory, is generally considered to
be one of the more visible fruits of these recent years.
48. These positive developments in
some places have risked being compromised by a distrust of authority.
The desire
for deeper communion among the members and an understandable reaction against
structures felt as being too rigid and authoritarian have contributed to a
lack of understanding of the full scope of the role of authority; indeed,
some consider it to be altogether unnecessary to community life, and others
have reduced it to the simple role of co-ordinating the initiatives of the
members. As a result, a certain number of communities have been led to live
with no one in charge while other communities make all decisions collegially.
All of this brings with it the danger, not merely hypothetical, of a complete
breakdown of community life; it tends to give priority to individual paths,
and simultaneously to blur the function of authority -- a function which is
both necessary for the growth of fraternal life in community and for the
spiritual journey of the consecrated person.
However, the
results of these experiments are gradually leading back to the rediscovery of
the need for and the role of personal authority, in continuity with the
entire tradition of religious life.
If the
widespread democratic climate has encouraged the growth of co-responsibility
and of participation by all in the decision-making process, even within the
religious community, nevertheless, we must not forget that fraternity is not
only a fruit of human effort but also and above all a gift of God. It is a
gift that comes from obedience to the Word of God, and also, in religious
life, to the authority who reminds us of that Word and relates it to specific
situations, in accordance with the spirit of the institute.
"But we
beseech you, brothers, to respect those who labour among you and are over you
in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because
of their work" (1 Thes. 5:12-13). The Christian community is not an
anonymous collective, but it is endowed, from the beginning, with leaders,
for whom the Apostle asks consideration, respect and charity.
In religious
communities, authority, to whom attention and respect are due also by reason
of the obedience professed, is placed at the service of the fraternity, of
its being built up, of the achievement of its spiritual and apostolic goals.
49. The recent renewal has helped
to redesign authority with the intention of linking it once again more
closely to its evangelical roots and thus to the service of the spiritual
progress of each one and the building up of fraternal life in community.
Every
community has a mission of its own to accomplish. Persons in authority thus
serve a community which must accomplish a specific mission, received and
defined by the institute and by its charism. Since there is a variety of
missions, there must also be a variety of kinds of communities, and thus a
variety of ways of exercising authority. It is for this reason that religious
life has within it various ways of conceiving and exercising authority,
defined by proper law.
Authority is,
evangelically, always service.
50. The renewal of recent years has
led to highlighting some aspects of authority.
a) Spiritual
authority
If
consecrated persons have dedicated themselves to the total service of God,
authority promotes and sustains their consecration. In a certain sense,
authority can be seen as "servant of the servants of God".
Authority has as its main task building in unity the brothers and sisters of
"a fraternal community, in which God is sought and loved above
all".(64) A superior must therefore be, above all, a spiritual person,
convinced of the primacy of the spiritual, both with respect to personal life
and for the development of fraternal life; in other words, he or she must
know that the more the love of God increases in each individual heart, the
more unity there will be between hearts.
Thus, the
superior's main task will be the spiritual, community and apostolic animation
of his or her community.
b) Authority
conducive to unity
An authority
conducive to unity is one concerned to create a climate favourable to sharing
and co-responsibility; to encourage all to contribute to the affairs of all;
to encourage members to assume and to respect responsibility; to promote, by
their respect for the human person, voluntary obedience;(65) to listen
willingly to the members, promoting their harmonious collaboration for the
good of the institute and the Church;(66) to engage in dialogue and offer
timely opportunities for encounter; to give courage and hope in times of
difficulty; to look ahead and point to new horizons for mission. Still more:
an authority which seeks to maintain a balance among the various aspects of
community life -- between prayer and work, apostolate and formation, work and
rest.
The authority
of a superior works so that the religious house is not merely a place of
residence, a collection of subjects each of whom lives an individual history,
but a "fraternal community in Christ".(67)
c) Authority
capable of making final decisions and assuring their implementation
Community
discernment is a rather
useful process, even if not easy or automatic, for involving human
competence, spiritual wisdom and personal detachment. Where it is practised with
faith and seriousness, it can provide superiors with optimal conditions for
making necessary decisions in the best interests of fraternal life and of
mission.
When a
decision has been made in accordance with the procedures established by
proper law, superiors need perseverance and strength to ensure that what has
been decided not remain mere words on paper.
51. It is also necessary that the
proper law of each institute be as precise as possible in determining the
respective competence of the community, the various councils, departmental
co-ordinators and the superior. A lack of clarity in this area is a source of
confusion and conflict.
"Community
projects", which can help increase participation in community life and
in its mission in various contexts, should also take care to define clearly
the role and competence of authority, in line with the constitutions.
52. Fraternal and united
communities are increasingly called to be an important and eloquent element
of the Gospel counter-culture, salt of the earth and light of the world.
Thus, for
example, if in western society where individualism is rampant, a religious
community is called to be a prophetic sign of the possibility of achieving in
Christ fraternity and solidarity, in cultures where authoritarianism or
communitarianism is rampant it is called to be a sign of respect for and
promotion of the human person, and also an exercise of authority in agreement
with the will of God.
While
religious communities must take on the culture of their place, they are also
called to purify and elevate it, through the salt and light of the Gospel,
offering through their existing communities a concrete synthesis of what is
not only an evangelization of culture but also an evangelising inculturation
and an inculturated evangelization.
53. Finally, we must never forget
in this delicate, complex and often painful issue that faith plays a decisive
role which allows us to understand the saving mystery of obedience.(68) Just
as from the disobedience of one man came the disintegration of the human
family and from the obedience of the New Man began its reconstitution (cf.
Rom. 5:19), so an obedient attitude will always be an essential force for all
family life.
Religious
life has always lived from this conviction of faith and is called to live
from it also today with courage, so as not to run in vain in search of
fraternal relations and so as to be an evangelically relevant reality in the
Church and in society.
Fraternity as
sign
54. The relationship between
fraternal life and apostolic activity, in particular within institutes
dedicated to works of the apostolate, has not always been clear and has all
too often led to tension, both for the individual and for the community. For
some, "building community" is felt as an obstacle to mission,
almost a waste of time in matters of secondary importance. All must be
reminded that fraternal communion, as such, is already an apostolate; in
other words, it contributes directly to the work of evangelization. The sign par
excellence left us by Our Lord is that of lived fraternity: "By
this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another" (cf. Jn. 13:35).
Along with
sending them to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mt. 28:19-20), the Lord
sent his disciples to live together "so that the world may believe"
that Jesus is the one sent by the Father and that we owe him the full assent
of faith (Jn. 17:21). The sign of fraternity is then of the greatest
importance because it is the sign that points to the divine origin of the
Christian message and has the power to open hearts to faith. For this reason,
"the effectiveness of religious life depends on the quality of the
fraternal life in common".(69)
55. A religious community, if and
to the extent that it promotes fraternal life among its members, makes
present in a continuous and legible way this "sign" which is needed
by the Church, above all in her task of new evangelization.
Also for this
reason, the Church takes to heart the fraternal life of religious
communities: the more intense their fraternal love, the greater the
credibility of the message she proclaims, and the more visible the heart of
the mystery of the Church, sacrament of the union of humankind with God, and
of its members among themselves.(70) Fraternal life is not the
"entirety" of the mission of a religious community, but it is an
essential element. Fraternal life is just as important as apostolic life.
The needs of
apostolic service cannot therefore be invoked to accept or to justify
defective community life. Activities undertaken by religious must be
activities of people who live in community and who inform their actions with
community spirit by word, action and example.
Particular
circumstances, considered later, may require adjustments, but these should
not be such as to remove a religious from living the communion and spirit of
his or her community.
56. Religious communities, aware of
their responsibilities towards the greater fraternity of the Church, also
become a sign of the possibility of living Christian fraternity and of the
price that must be paid to build any form of fraternal life.
Moreover, in
the context of the diverse societies of our planet -- torn as they are by the
divisive forces of passion and conflicting interests, yearning for unity but
unsure of what path to follow -- the presence of communities where people of
different ages, languages and cultures meet as brothers and sisters, and which
remain united despite the inevitable conflicts and difficulties inherent in
common life, is in itself a sign that bears witness to a higher reality and
points to higher aspirations.
"Religious
communities, who by their life proclaim the joy and the human and
supernatural value of Christian fraternity, speak to our society about the
transforming power of the Good News".(71)
"And
above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect
harmony" (Col. 3:14), love as it was taught and lived by Jesus Christ
and communicated to us through his Spirit. This love that unites is also the
love that leads us to extend to others the experience of communion with God
and with each other. In other words, it creates apostles by urging
communities on their path of mission, whether this be contemplative,
proclamation of the Word or ministries of charity. God wishes to inundate the
world with his love; so, fraternal communities become missionaries of this
love and concrete signs of its unifying power.
57. The quality of fraternal life
has a significant impact on the perseverance of individual religious. Just as
the poor quality of fraternal life has been mentioned frequently by many as
the reason for leaving religious life, so fraternity lived fully has often
been, and still is, a valuable support to the perseverance of many.
Within a
truly fraternal community, each member has a sense of co-responsibility for
the faithfulness of the others; each one contributes to a serene climate of
sharing life, of understanding, and of mutual help; each is attentive to the
moments of fatigue, suffering, isolation or lack of motivation in others;
each offers support to those who are saddened by difficulties and trials.
Thus,
religious communities, in the support they give to the perseverance of their
members, also acquire the value of a sign of the abiding fidelity of God, and
thus become a support to the faith and fidelity of Christians who are
immersed in the events of this world, where the paths of fidelity seem to be
less and less known.
III.
RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY AS PLACE AND SUBJECT OF MISSION
58. Just as the Holy Spirit
anointed the Church in the Upper Room to send her out to evangelise the
world, so every religious community, as an authentic Pneumatic community of
the Risen One, is also, and according to its own nature, apostolic.
In fact,
"communion begets communion: essentially it is likened to a mission on
behalf of communion.... Communion and mission are profoundly connected with
each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point
that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: communion
gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion".(72)
No religious
community, including specifically contemplative ones, is turned in on itself;
rather it is announcement, diakonia, and prophetic witness.
The Risen One, who lives in the community, communicating his own Spirit to
it, makes it a witness of the resurrection.
Religious
community and mission
Before
reflecting on some particular situations that religious communities, in order
to be faithful to their specific mission, must face today in various contexts
around the world, it is helpful to consider here the particular relationship
between different kinds of religious communities and the mission they are
called to carry out.
59. a) The Second Vatican Council
made the following statement: "Let religious see well to it that the
Church truly show forth Christ through them with ever-increasing clarity to
believers and unbelievers alike -- Christ in contemplation on the mountain,
or proclaiming the kingdom of God to the multitudes, or healing the sick and
maimed and converting sinners to a good life, or blessing children and doing
good to all, always in obedience to the will of the Father who sent
him".(73)
From
participation in the various aspects of Christ's mission, the Spirit makes
different religious families arise, characterised by different missions, and
therefore by different kinds of community.
b) The
contemplative type of community (showing forth Christ on the mountain) is
centred on the twofold communion with God and among its members. It has a
most efficacious apostolic impact, even though it remains to a great extent
hidden in mystery. The "apostolic" religious community (showing
forth Christ among the multitudes) is consecrated for active service to
others, a service characterised by a specific charism.
Among
"apostolic communities", some are more strongly centred on common
life so that their apostolate depends on the possibility of their forming
community. Others are decidedly oriented towards mission and for them the
type of community depends on the type of mission. Institutes clearly ordered
to specific forms of apostolic service accent the priority of the entire religious
family, considered as one apostolic body and one large community to which the
Holy Spirit has given a mission to be carried out in the Church. The
communion which vivifies and gathers the large family is lived concretely in
the single local communities, which are entrusted with carrying out the
mission, according to the different needs.
There are
thus various kinds of religious community that have been handed down over the
centuries, such as monastic, conventual, and active or "diaconal".
It follows that
"common life lived in community" does not have the same meaning for
all religious. Monastics, conventuals and religious of active life have
maintained legitimate differences in their ways of understanding and living
religious community.
This
diversity is presented in their constitutions, which outline the character of
the institute, and thus the character of the religious community.
c) It is
generally recognised, especially for religious communities dedicated to works
of the apostolate, that it proves to be somewhat difficult in daily
experience to balance community and apostolic commitment. If it is dangerous
to oppose these two aspects, it is also difficult to harmonise them. This too
is a fruitful tension of religious life, which is designed to cultivate
simultaneously both the disciple who must live with Jesus and with the group
of those following him and the apostle who must take part in the mission of
the Lord.
d) In recent
years, the great variety of apostolic needs has often resulted in co-existence,
within one institute, of communities considerably different from each other:
large and rather structured communities exist alongside smaller, much more
flexible ones, but without losing the authentic community character of
religious life.
All of this has
a considerable impact on the life of the institute and on its makeup, which
is now no longer as compact as it once was, but is more diversified and has
different ways of living religious community.
e) The
tendency, in some institutes, to emphasise mission over community, and to
favour diversity over unity, has had a profound impact on fraternal life in
common, to the point that this has become, at times, almost an option rather
than an integral part of religious life.
The
consequences of this have certainly not been positive; they lead us to ask
serious questions about the appropriateness of continuing along this path,
and suggest the need to undertake a path of rediscovering the intimate bond
between community and mission, in order creatively to overcome unilateral
tendencies, which invariably impoverish the rich reality of religious life.
In the
particular Church
60. The missionary presence of a
religious community is developed within the context of a particular Church,
to which the members bring the richness of their consecration, of their
fraternal life and of their charism.
By its mere
presence, not only does a religious community bear in itself the richness of
Christian life but as a unit it constitutes a particularly effective
announcement of the Christian message. It can be said that it is a living and
continuous preaching. This objective condition, which clearly holds religious
themselves responsible, calling them to be faithful to this, their primary
mission, correcting and eliminating anything which could attenuate or weaken
the drawing power of their example, makes their presence in the particular
Church identifiable and precious, prior to any other consideration.
Since charity
is the greatest of the charisms (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13), a religious community
enriches the Church of which it is a living part, first of all by its love.
It loves the universal Church and the particular Church in which it is
inserted because it is within the Church and as Church that it is placed in
contact with the communion of the blessed and beatifying Trinity, source of
all goods. In this way it becomes a privileged manifestation of the very
nature of the Church herself.
A religious
community loves the particular Church, enriches it with its charisms and
opens it to a more universal dimension. The delicate relationships between
the pastoral needs of the particular Church and the charismatic specificity
of the religious community have been dealt with inMutuae Relationes. In
addition to the theological and pastoral orientations it provides, that
document has made an important contribution to more cordial and intense
collaboration. The time has come to take another look at that document, in
order to give a new thrust to the spirit of true communion between religious
community and the particular Church.
The growing
difficulties of mission work and the scarcity of personnel can tempt both a
religious community and the particular Church to a certain isolation; this,
of course, does nothing to improve mutual understanding and collaboration.
The religious
community runs the risk, on the one hand, of being present in the particular
Church with no organic link to its life or to its pastoral programme and, on
the other hand, of being reduced to merely pastoral functions. Moreover, if
religious life tends more and more to emphasise its own charismatic identity,
the local Church often makes pressing and insistent demands on the energies
of religious for the pastoral activities of the diocese or parish. The
guidelines provided by Mutuae Relationes take us far from
the isolation and independence of a religious community in relation to a
particular Church and far from the practical assimilation of a religious
community into the particular Church.
Just as a
religious community cannot act independently of the particular Church, or as
an alternative to it, or much less against the directives and pastoral
programme of the particular Church, so the particular Church cannot dispose,
according to its own pleasure and according to its needs, of a religious
community or of any of its members.
It is
important to recall that a lack of proper consideration for the charism of a
religious community serves neither the good of the particular Church nor that
of the religious community itself. Only if a religious community has a
well-defined charismatic identity can it integrate itself into an
"overall pastoral programme" without losing its own character.
Indeed, only in this way will it enrich the programme with its gift.
We must not
forget that every charism is born in the Church and for the world and the
link to its source and purpose must be continuously renewed; each charism is
alive to the extent that one is faithful to it.
The Church
and the world make possible its interpretation, request it and stimulate it
to continued growth in relevance and vitality. Charism and particular Church
should not be in conflict but should rather support and complete one another,
especially now that so many problems of living out the charism and its
insertion into changed situations have arisen.
At the root
of many misunderstandings is perhaps a mutual partial knowledge either of the
particular Church or of religious life, and of the responsibilities of the
bishop for religious life.
It is
earnestly recommended that all diocesan theological seminaries include a
course specifically on the theology of consecrated life, including study of
its dogmatic, juridic and pastoral aspects; religious should in turn receive
adequate theological formation concerning the particular Church.(74)
Above all,
however, a truly fraternal religious community will feel in duty bound to
spread a climate of communion that will enable the entire Christian community
to consider itself "the family of the children of God".
61. The
parish
In parishes,
it may sometimes be difficult to co-ordinate parish life and community life.
In some
regions, the difficulties of living in community while being active in parish
ministry create considerable tension for religious priests. At times, the
heavy commitment to pastoral work in the parish is carried out to the
detriment of the institute's charism and to community life, to the point that
parishioners, secular clergy and even religious themselves lose sight of the
particular nature of religious life.
Urgent
pastoral needs must never lead us to forget that the best service a religious
community can give to the Church is that of being faithful to its charism.
This is also reflected in accepting responsibility for parishes and running
them. Preference should be given to parishes which allow a community to live
as community and where the religious can express their charism.
Religious
communities of women, also frequently asked to become involved in a more
direct way in the pastoral ministry of the parish, go through similar
difficulties.
Here too, it
is worth repeating, their presence will be all the more fruitful, the more
the religious community is present in its charismatic character.(75) All of
this can be a great advantage for both the religious community and the
pastoral work, in which religious women are generally well accepted and
appreciated.
62. Ecclesial
movements
Ecclesial
movements in the broadest sense of the term, endowed with lively spirituality
and apostolic vitality, have attracted the attention of some religious who
have become involved in them, sometimes deriving fruits of spiritual renewal,
apostolic dedication and a reawakening of their vocation. Sometimes, however,
such involvements have also brought divisions into the religious community.
It is, then,
opportune to make the following observations:
a) some
movements are simply movements of renewal; others have apostolic projects which
can be incompatible with those of a religious community.
Also, there
can be different degrees of involvement on the part of consecrated persons:
some take part only as onlookers; others participate occasionally; still
others are permanent members while remaining in full harmony with their own
community and spirituality. However, those whose principal membership goes to
the movement and who become psychologically distanced from their own
institute become a problem. They live in a state of inner division: they
dwell within their communities, but they live in accordance with the pastoral
plans and guidelines of the movement.
There is
need, then, for careful discernment between one movement and another, and
between various kinds of involvement on the part of individual religious;
b) these
movements can be a fruitful challenge to a religious community, to its
spiritual dynamic, to the quality of its prayer life, to the relevance of its
apostolic initiatives, to its fidelity to the Church, to the intensity of its
fraternal life. A religious community should be open to encounters with these
movements, showing an attitude of mutual recognition, dialogue and exchange
of gifts.
The great
spiritual tradition -- ascetic and mystical -- of religious life and of the institute
can also be helpful to these young movements;
c) the main
difficulty in relating to these movements is the identity of the individual
consecrated person: if it is solid, the relationship can be fruitful for
both.
For those
religious who seem to live more in and for a particular movement than in and
for their religious community, it is good to recall the following statement
in Potissimum institutioni: "An institute... has an
internal cohesiveness which it receives from its nature, its end, its spirit,
its character, and its traditions. This whole patrimony is the axis around
which both the identity and unity of the institute itself and the unity of
life of each of its members are maintained. This is a gift of the Spirit to
the Church and does not admit any interference or any admixture. A dialogue
and sharing within the Church presumes that each institute is well aware of
what it is.
"Candidates
for the religious life... place themselves... under the authority of the superiors
[of the institute].... They cannot simultaneously be dependent upon someone
apart from the institute....
"These
exigencies remain after the religious profession, so as to avoid appearance
of divided loyalties, either on the level of the personal spiritual life of
the religious or on the level of their mission".(76)
Taking part
in a movement will be positive for religious if it reinforces their specific
identity.
Some
particular situations
63. Insertion
into poor neighbourhoods
Alongside
many other brothers and sisters in the faith, religious communities have been
among the first in attending to the material and spiritual poverty of their
time, in continuously renewed ways.
In recent
years, poverty has been an issue which has involved religious very intensely
and which has touched their hearts. Religious life has seriously faced the
question of how to be available for the task of evangelising the poor (evangelizare
pauperibus). But religious have also wanted to be evangelised
through their contact with the world of the poor (evangelizari a
pauperibus).
In this huge
mobilisation, in which religious have chosen as their programme
"everyone for the poor", "many with the poor", "some
like the poor", some accomplishments in the area of being "like the
poor" deserve special mention.
In face of
the impoverishment of great masses of people, especially in abandoned and
marginal areas of large cities and in forgotten rural areas, "religious
communities of insertion" have arisen as one of the expressions of the
preferential and solidarist evangelical option for the poor. These
communities intend to accompany the poor in their process of integral
liberation, but are also fruit of the desire to discover the poor Christ in
marginalized brothers and sisters, in order to serve him and become conformed
to him.
a)
"Insertion" as an ideal of religious life has developed in a
context of the movement of faith and solidarity of religious communities with
the poorest.
It is a
reality which cannot but arouse admiration for the tremendous personal
dedication and great sacrifices which it involves; for the love of the poor
which carries one to share their real and harsh poverty; for the effort to
make the Gospel present in sectors of the population which are without hope;
to bring them closer to the Word of God, and to make them feel a living part
of the Church.(77) These communities often live in areas deeply marked by a
violence which gives rise to insecurity and, sometimes, to persecution, to
the point of real danger to life. Their great courage is clear testimony to
the hope that it is possible to live as brothers and sisters, despite all
situations of suffering and injustice.
Often sent to
the front lines of mission, sometimes witnesses of the apostolic creativity
of their founders, such religious communities ought to be able to count on
the good will and fraternal prayer of the other members of their institute
and on particular care from their superiors.(78)
b) These
religious communities should not be left to themselves; they must be helped
to live a life of community. This requires space for prayer and fraternal
exchanges, in order to ensure that the charismatic originality of their
institute not appear to them relatively less important than undifferentiated
service to the poor, and in order that their evangelical witness not be clouded
by partisan interpretations or exploitation.(79)
Superiors
shall be careful to select suitable members and to prepare such communities
in a way that will ensure connection with other communities of the institute,
thereby guaranteeing continuity.
c) We should
also applaud the efforts of the other religious communities who are
effectively committed to the poor, whether in traditional ways, or in new
ways more suited to new forms of poverty, or by raising awareness at all
levels of society of the problems of the poor -- thus generating among the
laity vocations to social and political commitment, charitable projects and
voluntary service.
All of this
bears witness that the faith is alive in the Church, that the love of Christ
is active and present among the poor: "as you did it to one of the least
of these, you did it to me" (cf. Mt. 25:40).
Where
insertion among the poor has become, for both the poor and the religious
community itself, a true experience of God, there is experienced the truth of
the affirmation that the poor are evangelised and the poor evangelise.
64. Small
communities
a) Other
social factors have also influenced communities. In some more economically
developed regions, the State has become more active in areas such as
education, health and social services, often in ways that leave little or no
space for other agents, such as religious communities. On the other hand, the
decrease in numbers of men and women religious and, here or there, a limited
understanding of the presence of Catholics in social action, seen more as
supplementary rather than as a genuine expression of Christian charity, have
made it difficult to carry on complex projects.
Hence, in
some regions, there has been a gradual abandonment of traditional works --
which for many years had been in the hands of strong and homogeneous
communities -- and an increase in small communities available for new kinds
of services, more often than not in keeping with the institute's charism.
b) Smaller
communities have also become more frequent as a result of deliberate choices
made by certain institutes in order to promote fraternal union and
collaboration through closer relationships among persons and a mutual and
more broadly based sharing of responsibility.
Such
communities, as mentioned in Evangelica Testificatio,(80) are
certainly possible, although they have proved to be more demanding for their
members.
c) Small
communities, often situated in close contact with the daily life and problems
of people -- but also more exposed to the influence of a secularised
mentality -- have the important responsibility of being visible places of
happy fraternity, enthusiastic industry and transcendent hope.
It is
therefore necessary that these communities be given a programme of life which
is solid, flexible and binding, approved by the competent authority who is to
ensure that the apostolate have a community dimension. This programme should
be suited to the persons and demands of the mission in such a way as to
promote balance between prayer and activity, between moments of community
intimacy and apostolic work. It should also include regular meetings with
other communities of the same institute, precisely to overcome the danger of
isolation and margination from the broader community of the institute.
d) Even if
small communities can offer advantages, it is not normally recommended that
an institute be made up of only small communities. Larger communities are
necessary. They can offer significant services both to the entire institute
and to the smaller communities: cultivating the life of prayer and
celebrations with more intensity and richness, being preferred places for
study and reflection, offering possibilities for retreat and rest for members
working on the more difficult frontiers of the evangelising mission.
This exchange
between the two kinds of community is made fruitful by a climate of kindness
and acceptance.
These
communities should be recognisable primarily for the fraternal love which
unites the members, for the simplicity of their lives, for the mission they
undertake in the name of the community, for persevering fidelity to their
charism, for the constant diffusion of the "sweet perfume" of
Christ (2 Cor. 2:15), so that in the most diverse circumstances they may
point to the "way of peace", even for the confused and fragmented
members of modern society.
65. Men and
women religious living alone
One of the
realities encountered from time to time is that of men and women religious
living alone. Common life in a house of the institute is essential for
religious life. "Religious should live in their own religious house,
observing a common life. They should not live alone without serious reason,
and should not do so if there is a community of their institute reasonably
near".(81)
There are,
however, exceptions which must be evaluated and can be authorised by
superiors(82) by reason of apostolate on behalf of the institute (as for
example, commitments requested by the Church; extraordinary missions; great
distances in mission territories; gradual decrease in the membership of a
community, to the point that a single religious is in charge of one of the institute's
works), or for reasons of health and study.
While it is
the responsibility of superiors to cultivate frequent contacts with members
living outside community, it is the duty of these religious to keep alive in
themselves the sense of belonging to the institute and a sense of communion
with its members, seeking every means suitable for strengthening fraternal
bonds. Periods of intense communal living must be scheduled, as well as
regular meetings with fellow religious for formation, fraternal sharing,
review of life, and prayer, for breathing in a family atmosphere. Wherever
they may be, members of an institute shall be bearers of the charism of their
religious family.
A religious
living alone is never an ideal. The norm is that religious live in fraternal
communities: the individual is consecrated in this common life and it is in
this form of life that such men and women normally undertake their
apostolate; it is to this life that they return, in heart and in person, as
often as it is necessary for them to live apart for a time, long or short.
a) The
demands of a particular apostolic work, for example of a diocesan work, have
led various institutes to send one of their members to collaborate in an
inter-congregational team. There are positive experiences in which religious
who collaborate in serving a particular work in a place where there is no
community of their own institute, instead of living alone, live in the same
house, pray together, have meetings to reflect on the word of God, share food
and domestic duties, etc. As long as this does not become a substitute for
living communication with their own institute, this kind of "community
life" can be advantageous for the work and for the religious themselves.
Religious
should be prudent in wanting to take on work which normally requires them to
live outside community, and superiors should likewise be prudent in assigning
members to these works.
b) Also,
requests for attending to elderly and sick parents, often involving long
absences from community, need careful discernment and possibly such needs can
be satisfied by other arrangements in order to avoid excessively long
absences of the son or daughter.
c) It must be
noted that the religious who lives alone, without an assignment or permission
from the superior, is fleeing from the obligation to common life. Nor is it
sufficient to take part in a few meetings or celebrations to be fully a
religious. Efforts must be made to bring about the progressive disappearance
of these unjustified and inadmissible situations for religious men and women.
d) In each
case, it is helpful to recall that religious, even when living outside
community, are subject in areas relating to apostolate to the authority of
the bishop,(83) who is to be informed of their presence in his diocese.
e) Should
there be institutes in which, unfortunately, the majority of members no
longer live in community, such institutes would no longer be able to be
considered true religious institutes. Superiors and religious are invited to
reflect seriously on this sorrowful outcome and, consequently, on the
importance of resuming with vigour the practice of fraternal life in common.
66. In
mission territories
Fraternal
life in common has special value in areas of the mission ad gentesbecause
it shows the world, especially the non-Christian world, the
"newness" of Christianity, that is, the charity which is capable of
overcoming divisions created by race, colour, tribe. In some countries where
the Gospel cannot be proclaimed, religious communities are almost the only
sign and silent and effective witness of Christ and of the Church.
But not
rarely it is precisely in mission territories that religious come up against
notable practical difficulties in building stable and viable communities:
distances which require great mobility and widely scattered communities;
belonging to different races, tribes, and cultures; the need for formation in
inter-congregational centres. These and other factors can be obstacles for a
community ideal.
The important
thing is that the members of the institute be aware of the unusualness of the
situation, that they promote frequent communication among themselves, that
they promote regular community meetings and, as soon as possible, set up
fraternal religious communities with a strong missionary character so that
they can offer the missionary sign par excellence: "that
they may all be one..., so that the world may believe" (Jn. 17:21).
67.
Reorganization of works
Changes in
cultural and ecclesial conditions, internal factors in the development of
institutes and changes of their resources can require a reorganization of the
works and of the presence of religious communities.
This task,
not an easy one, has real implications touching on community. Generally, it
is a question of works in which many brothers and sisters have expended their
best apostolic energies and to which they are tied by special psychological
and spiritual bonds.
The future of
these works, their apostolic significance and their reorganization require
study, comparison and discernment. All of this can become a school for
learning to seek and follow the will of God, but at the same time it can be
an occasion of painful conflicts not easily overcome.
Criteria
which cannot be overlooked and which enlighten communities at the time of
decisions, sometimes bold and painful, are: commitment to safeguard the
significance of their own charism in a specific setting, concern to keep
alive an authentic fraternal life and attention to the needs of the
particular Church. A trusting and ongoing dialogue with the particular Church
is therefore essential, as is effective connection with those responsible for
communion among the religious.
In addition
to attention to the needs of the particular Church, religious communities
must be concerned also for all that the world neglects -- that is to say, for
the new forms of poverty and suffering in the many forms in which they are
found in different parts of the world.
Reorganization
will be creative and a source of prophetic signs if it takes care to announce
new ways of being present -- even if only in small numbers -- in order to
respond to new needs, especially those of the most abandoned and forgotten
areas.
68. Elderly
religious
One of the
situations which community life faces more often today is the increasing age
of its members. Ageing has taken on particular significance both because of
the reduced number of new vocations and because of the progress of medicine.
For a
community, on the one hand this fact means concern for accepting in their midst
and esteeming deeply the presence and services which elderly brothers and
sisters can offer and, on the other, it means attention to provide
fraternally and in a way consistent with consecrated life those means of
spiritual and material assistance which the elderly need.
The presence
of the elderly in communities can be quite positive. An elderly religious who
does not allow himself or herself to be overcome by the annoyances and
limitations of age, but keeps alive joy, love and hope, is an invaluable support
for the young. The elderly provide a witness, wisdom and prayer which are a
constant encouragement to the young in their spiritual and apostolic journey.
Moreover, religious who take care of the elderly give evangelical credibility
to their own institute as a "true family convoked in the name of the
Lord".(84)
Consecrated
persons also should prepare themselves long in advance for becoming old and
for extending their "active" years, by learning to discover their
new way of building community and collaborating in the common mission,
responding positively to the challenges of their age, through lively
spiritual and cultural interests, by prayer, and by continued participation
in their work for as long as they can render service, even if limited. Superiors
should arrange courses and meetings to assist personal preparation and to
prolong and enhance as much as possible the presence of religious in their
normal workplaces.
When in time
these elderly members lose their autonomy or require special care, even when
their health is cared for by lay persons, the institute should be very much
concerned with supporting them so that they continue to feel a part of the
life of the institute, sharers in its mission, involved in its apostolic
dynamism, comforted in their solitude, encouraged in their suffering. They
never leave the mission but they are placed at its heart, participating in it
in a new and effective manner.
However
invisible, their fruitfulness is not less than that of more active
communities. These derive strength and fruitfulness from the prayer, the
suffering, and the apparent lack of influence of the elderly. Mission has
need of both, and the fruits will become visible when the Lord comes in glory
with his angels.
69. Problems posed by the growing
number of elderly religious become still more striking in some monasteries
which have suffered a lack of vocations. Because a monastery is normally an
autonomous community, it is difficult for it to overcome these problems by
itself. So it is helpful to recall the importance of organisms of communion,
such as federations, for example, in order to overcome situations of great
need of personnel.
Fidelity to
the contemplative life requires the members of a monastery to unite with
another monastery of the same Order when a monastic community, by reason of
the number of its members, age, or lack of vocations, foresees its own
extinction. Also in the painful situation of communities no longer able to
live according to their proper vocation because the members are worn down by
practical labours or by caring for the elderly or sick members, it will be
necessary to seek reinforcements from the same Order or to choose union or
fusion with another monastery.(85)
70. New
relationship to the laity
Conciliar
ecclesiology has shed light on the complementarity of the different vocations
in the Church which are called to be, together in every situation and place, witnesses
of the Risen Lord. Encounter and collaboration among religious men, religious
women, and lay faithful are seen as an example of ecclesial communion and, at
the same time, they strengthen apostolic energies for the evangelization of
the world.
Appropriate
contact between the values characteristic of the lay vocation, such as a more
concrete perception of the life of the world, of culture, politics, economy,
etc., and the values characteristic of religious life, such as the radicality
of the following of Christ, the contemplative and eschatological dimension of
Christian existence, etc., can become a fruitful exchange of gifts between
the lay faithful and religious communities.
Collaboration
and exchange of gifts become more intense when groups of lay persons share,
by vocation and in the way proper to them, in the heart of the same spiritual
family, in the charism and mission of the institute. In this way, fruitful
relationships, based on bonds of mature co-responsibility and supported by
regularly scheduled programmes of formation in the spirituality of the
institute will be established.
In order to
achieve such an objective, however, it is necessary to have: religious
communities with a clear charismatic identity, assimilated and lived, capable
of transmitting them to others and disposed to share them; religious
communities with an intense spirituality and missionary enthusiasm for
communicating the same spirit and the same evangelising thrust; religious
communities who know how to animate and encourage lay people to share the
charism of their institute, according to their secular character and
according to their different style of life, inviting them to discover new
ways of making the same charism and mission operative. In this way, a
religious community becomes a centre radiating outwardly, a spiritual force,
a centre of animation, of fraternity creating fraternity, and of communion
and ecclesial collaboration, where the different contributions of each help
build up the Body of Christ, which is the Church.
Naturally,
very close collaboration should be worked out with respect for the reciprocal
vocations and different styles of life proper to religious and to lay
persons.
A religious
community has its own needs of animation, horarium, discipline and privacy,(86)
such as to render unacceptable those forms of collaboration which imply
cohabitation and the living together of religious and laity, even when such
arrangements specify conditions which are to be respected.
Otherwise, a
religious community would lose its own character, which it is responsible for
maintaining by observing its common life.
CONCLUSION
71. A religious community, as an
expression of the Church, is a fruit of the Spirit and a participation in the
Trinitarian communion. For this reason, each and every religious is committed
to feel co-responsible for fraternal life in common, so that it will manifest
clearly their belonging to Christ, who chooses and calls brothers and sisters
to live together in His name.
"The
effectiveness of religious life depends on the quality of the fraternal life
in common. Even more so, the current renewal in the Church and in religious
life is characterised by a search for communion and community".(87)
For some
consecrated persons and for some communities, the task of beginning again to
rebuild fraternal life in common may appear daunting, even utopian. In the
face of certain past wounds and of difficulties in the present, the task may
appear beyond feeble human capacities.
It is a
question of taking up in faith a reflection on the theologal sense of
fraternal life in common, of being convinced that through it the witness of
consecration flows.
"The
response to this invitation to build community together with the Lord, in
patience every day," says our Holy Father, "takes place on the way
of the Cross; it requires frequent self-denial".(88)
United with
Mary, Mother of Jesus, our communities invoke the Spirit, who has the power
to create fraternal communities which radiate the joy of the Gospel and which
are capable of attracting new disciples, following the example of the
earliest community: "and they devoted themselves to the apostles'
teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts
2:42), "and more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes
both of men and women" (Acts 5:14).
May Mary
bring together religious communities and support them daily in invoking the
Spirit, who is the bond, the ferment, and the source of all fraternal
communion.
On 15 January
1994, the Holy Father approved this document of the Congregation for
Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and authorised
its publication.
Rome, 2
February 1994, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
Eduardo Card. Martínez Somalo
Prefect
+ Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa
Secretary
(1) PC 2.
(2) Cf. PC
2-4.
(3) Cf. LG
44d.
(4) Cf. PC
15a; LG 44c.
(5) Cf. MR
11.
(6) LG 12.
(7) Cf. MR
14.
(8) Cf. ET
30-39; MR 2, 3, 10, 14; EE 18-22; PI 25-28; see also can. 602.
(9) Cf. can.
594 §1.
(10) Cf. PC
15.
(11) Cf. can.
602, 619.
(12) Can. 607
§2.
(13) Cf. can.
602.
(14) Cf. can.
608; 665.
(15) Can. 731
§1.
(16) Cf. can.
607 §2; also can. 602.
(17) Cf. can.
587.
(18) SD 178,
180.
(19) Cf. Mulieris
Dignitatem; GS 9, 60.
(20) Cf. PC
15a; can. 602.
(21) Cf. GS
3.
(22) Cf. LG
7.
(23) Cf. LG
4; MR 2.
(24) Cf. PC
1; EE 18-22.
(25) Cf. PC
1.
(26) RHP 24.
(27) PI
21-22.
(28) CDim 15.
(29) Cf. can.
663 §3 and 608.
(30) Cf. PO
6; PC 6.
(31) Cf. can.
608.
(32) PO 6.
(33) Cf. can.
663 §4.
(34) CDim 15.
(35) Cf. PI
32-34; 87.
(36) Cf. LG
46b.
(37) Cf. can.
602; PC 15a.
(38) Cf. ET 39.
(39) Cf. PC 14.
(40) Cf. can. 619.
(41) Cf. ET 39; EE 19.
(42) St.
Hilary, Tract. in Ps. 132, PL Suppl. 1, 244.
(43) See
above nn. 14, 16, 28, and 31.
(44) Cf. CDim
14; PI 13; can. 666.
(45) LG 46.
(46) Ibid.
(47) Cf. EE
45.
(48) Ibid.
(49) EE 47.
(50) Cf. LG
44.
(51) PI 43.
(52) PI 43,
51, 63.
(53) PI 52.
(54) PC 14c;
can. 618; EE 49.
(55) EE 22;
cf. also MR 12.
(56) Cf. ET
40.
(57) Cf. PI
66-69.
(58) Cf. RHP
25.
(59) MR 13.
(60) PC 12;
cf. can. 607.
(61) EE 18;
cf. MR 11-12.
(62) Cf. MR
11.
(63) Cf. MR
11-12; EE 11; 41.
(64) Can.
619.
(65) Cf. can.
618.
(66) Ibid.
(67) Can.
619.
(68) Cf. PC
14; EE 49.
(69) John
Paul II, to the Plenary Meeting of CICLSAL, 20 November 1992, n. 3, OR
(English) 2 December 1992.
(70) Cf. LG
1.
(71) John
Paul II, to the Plenary Meeting of CICLSAL, 20 November 1992, n. 4, OR
(English) 2 December 1992.
(72) ChL 32.
(73) LG 46a.
(74) Cf. MR
30b, 47.
(75) MR
49-50.
(76) PI 93.
(77) Cf. SD
85.
(78) Cf. RHP
6; EN 69; SD 92.
(79) Cf. PI 28.
(80) Cf. ET 40.
(81) EE III, §12.
(82) Cf. can.
665 §1.
(83) Cf. can.
678 §1.
(84) PC 15a.
(85) Cf. PC
21 and 22.
(86) Cf. can.
667, 607 §3.
(87) John
Paul II, to the Plenary Meeting of CICLSAL, 20 November 1992, n. 3, OR
(English) 2 December 1992.
(88) Ibid., n.
2.
ABBREVIATIONS
DOCUMENTS OF
THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
DV Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 1965.
GS Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1965.
LG Dogmatic
Constitution Lumen Gentium, 1964.
PC Decree Perfectae
Caritatis, 1965.
PO Decree Presbyterorum
Ordinis, 1965.
SC Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, 1963.
PONTIFICAL DOCUMENTS
ChL Apostolic
Exhortation Christifideles Laici, John Paul II, 1989.
EN Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, Paul VI, 1975.
ET Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelica Testificatio, Paul VI, 1971.
MD Apostolic
Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul II, 1988.
MM Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra, John XXIII,
1961.
DOCUMENTS OF
THE HOLY SEE
can. canon or
canons from the Code of Canon Law, 1983.
CDim The
Contemplative Dimension of Religious Life, Sacred Congregation for
Religious and Secular Institutes (SCRIS), 1980.
EE Essential
Elements in the Church's Teaching on Religious Life, SCRIS, 1983.
MR Directives
for the Mutual Relations Between Bishops and Religious in the Church, Sacred
Congregation for Bishops and SCRIS, 1978.
PI Potissimum
Institutioni, Directives on Formation in Religious Institutes,CICLSAL,
1990.
RHP Religious
and Human Promotion, SCRIS, 1980.
OTHER
ABBREVIATIONS
CICLSAL
Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic
Life.
OR L'Osservatore
Romano.
SD Santo
Domingo: Conclusions of the IV General Assembly of the Latin American
Episcopate, 1992.
In this text,
"fraternal" and "fraternity" refer inclusively to both
women and men and are, in the judgement of the translators, the words most
apt in English for conveying the warmth of communion which lies at the heart
of community.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Theological
development
Canonical
development
Development
within society
Changes in
religious life
Objectives of
the document
I. The Gift
of Communion and the Gift of Community
The Church as
communion
Religious
community as expression of ecclesial communion
II. Religious
Community as Place for Becoming Brothers and Sisters
Spirituality
and common prayer
Personal
freedom and the building of fraternity
Communicating
in order to grow together
Religious
community and personal growth
Identity
Affectivity
Difficulties
From me to us
Being a
community in permanent formation
The community
dimension of the evangelical counsels
The charism
Authority in
the service of fraternity
Fraternity as
sign
III.
Religious Community as Place and Subject of Mission
Religious
community and mission
In the
particular Church
The parish
Ecclesial
movements
Some
particular situations
Insertion
into poor neighbourhoods
Small
communities
Men and women
religious living alone
In mission
territories
Reorganization
of works
Elderly
religious
New
relationship to the laity
CONCLUSION
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Thứ Hai, 4 tháng 5, 2015
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