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Skriven 2007-02-06 06:58:30 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service - Press Release
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                               VIS-Press releases

CONSECRATED PEOPLE PROCLAIM THAT GOD IS THE LORD OF LIFE

VATICAN CITY, FEB 3, 2007 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon in the Vatican Basilica,
the Holy Father met with members of congregations, institutes, societies of
apostolic life, and new forms of consecrated life, for the occasion of the
World Day of Consecrated Life, an annual celebration instituted by John Paul
II.

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration presided by Cardinal Franc Rode C.M.,
prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of
Apostolic Life, Benedict XVI entered the basilica and greeted those present.
Opening his address he affirmed that the Day "is an appropriate opportunity to
ask the Lord together for the gift of an ever more incisive presence of male
and female religious, and of consecrated people, in the Church on her journey
in the world."

The Pope reminded his audience that "your evangelical witness, in order to be
truly effective, must arise from an unreserved response to the initiative of
God, Who consecrated you for Him through a special act of love."

"In our time there exists, especially among the young, a widespread need to
meet God. Those who are chosen by God for consecrated life make this spiritual
longing definitively their own. ... With their example, they proclaim to the
world - which is often disoriented but in reality searching for meaning - that
God is the Lord of existence."

Consecrated men and women, "by choosing obedience, poverty and chastity for the
Kingdom of Heaven, show that all ties of love to things and to people are
incapable of definitively satisfying the heart." Their lives "constitute a
total and definitive, unconditional and passionate response to God."

"When they renounce everything to follow Christ," the Pope added, "consecrated
people ... necessarily become a 'sign of contradiction,' because their way of
life and thought often contrasts with the logic of the world. ... When faced
with such courage, many people who thirst for truth are inspired and attracted
by those who do not hesitate to give their lives for that which they believe."

The Pope encouraged those present never to forget that "consecrated life is a
divine gift and that it is, in the first instance, the Lord who brings it to
success. ... This certainty must be a comfort to you, keeping you from
temptation and discouragement in the face of the inevitable difficulties of
life and the many challenges of the modern age."

The Pope concluded his remarks by recalling how that day's liturgy of the
Presentation of the Lord Jesus in the Temple is characterized by the symbol of
light, "indicating Christ, the true light of the world, which shines forth in
the night of history and illuminates all searchers after truth. Dear
consecrated men and women, burn with this flame and make it shine in your own
lives, so that everywhere may be lit by a fragment of the brilliance irradiated
by Jesus, splendor of truth."
AC/CONSECRATED LIFE/RODEVIS 070205 (500)

SUMMARY

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