To the Servants of Jesus and Mary (19 September 1984)

On Wednesday, 19 September 1984, the Holy Father concelebrated Holy Mass in the Monastery of the Servants of Jesus and Mary (Hull). In his homily, the Pope reflected on the role of contemplatives in the Church.

Oh, my dear sisters. 

1. “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:17:20).

The Church, inspired by the Spirit in her present, does not cease to address this appeal to the Lord Jesus. She is outstretched towards her return. She awaits him, as a bride sighs for her beloved husband, raised to the right hand of the Father. She has already “washed her robe” in her blood that redeemed her. She hopes to “dispose of the tree of life.” She knows that she already participates in her life, in a mysterious and partial way, in faith, in the sacraments, in prayer, in charity. It is with him that she works to renew this world according to her Spirit. But she is impatient with a complete renewal, of the full vision of her husband. For the time being his life is as an asthing in God. The whole Church must live on this expectation and be a witness to it. But consecrated souls have made “a charismatic choice of Christ as an exclusive spouse. Such a choice already allows itself to “concern oneself about the affairs of the Lord” but also when it is made “because of the kingdom of heaven” it makes this eschatological kingdom of God closer to the lives of all men. Consecrated persons bring into the world that passes the proclamation of the resurrection that will come and of eternal life” (cf. Ioannis Pauli PP. II, Redemptionis Donum, 11).

2. All men and women religious have this charism within the Church. But it is even more evident to the cloistered nuns who renounce all activity among the people to be present only to the Lord. It is in this place, it is first of all to you that I turn to myself, dear contemplative sisters. The Church considers your place in the complex of the mystical body of Christ as essential to the life of the Church, to her complete development, also in the young Churches absorbed by the tasks of evangelization (Perfecta Cartatis, 47; Ad Gentes, 40). Indeed, the prayer of contemplatives had a considerable function in deepening the faith in Canada. Such was precisely the intuition of Abbot Mangin and Sister Maria Zita who founded here, or almost a hundred years old, the Servants of Jesus and Mary. These religious especially honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist which is the supreme gift of his love, in which they adore him permanently. Is not your spiritual apostolate, my sisters, to support the ministry of priests and to collaborate in the eternal plan of the covenant of all believers: “May they be one!”? I am also thinking of all those who have established contemplative life in Canada, according to complementary spirituality. Beyond all the religious present here, I greet with affection and I encourage all the cloistered nuns and the monks of this nation!

3. “It will happen for the kingdom of heaven as for the ten virgins who took their lamp and went to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.” Sisters, wait for the bridegroom like these prudent virgins. Just be ready. Be available. Waiting for the Lord, watch.

The environment of your conventual life is organized to foster the experience of God; your withdrawal from the world, with its solitude; your silence, which is a silence of listening, a silence of love; asceticism, penance, the work that make you participate in the redemptive work; fraternal communion, renewed without pose; the daily Eucharistic celebration that unites your offering to that of Christ.

That fatigue, the tran, the monotony of your conventual life do not fall asleep, may any impressions of God’s absence, the temptations or simply the normal trials of progress in the mystical union of Christ do not discourage you! May the lamp of your prayer, of your love, fail! Provide the oil that will feed it day and night.

4. Since, even within a community, the path remains personal. Just as the wise virgins could not remedy the carelessness of foolish virgins, no one can substitute oneself for you to welcome the Trinitarian communion in the most intimate of your person, where the love received responds to love in adoration, praise and gratuitousness. Then you make your own the prayer of the psalmist we read a little while ago: “O God, you are my God, I seek you at the dawn, / of you thirsty my soul, / to you my flesh yearns, / as a deserted land, / arid, without water. / So in the sanctuary I sought you, to contemplate your power and your glory. Since your grace is worth more than life, my lips will say your praise. / So I will bless you as long as I live... / I think of you in the night vigils... / I exult with joy in the shadow of your wings. / My soul is tightened to you, and the strength of your right hand supports me” (Ps 63, 2-5.7-9).

This ineffable encounter of the living and personal God cannot be lived except in the darkness of faith. The groom is behind the door while you are still in the night. It is always in the light of faith that God gives himself. But the signs of God are so discreet in the irrelevating daily existence of your days that you need to be vigilant in order to persevere and grow in faith, in the school of Mary. The “treasure” that awaits you in heaven will be only the eschatological fulfilment of what was hidden... in the inner treasury of the heart (cf. Redemptionis Donum, 5).

5. Your lives have a secret but safe fertility. “He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit” (Jn 15:5). In this solidarity that unites all the members of Christ you are, according to the word of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, as the heart. Without your love, charity would cool down. In the Church that prays, suffers and evangelizes, your part is the account to God. Your offering makes you conform to Christ so that he can use your whole being and consume him for the redemptive work, as his love pleases. And God listens to the prayer of praise and intercession that rises from your hearts to dispense his grace, without which there would be no conversion in the Church to the Gospel, nor progress in faith, nor vocations of apostolic workers (cf. In Gentes, 40).

6. The Christian community of Hull seems to have well understood your vocation, and likewise the neighboring population of the great city of Ottawa. People are attached to your monastery, they support it, do not hesitate to confide in your sorrows and its joys, its projects and their prayer questions.

There are more and more people – and among them many young people – who seek areas of gratuitousness, prayer, contemplation, people thirsting for the absolute. Some people stop in your monasteries in search of spiritual values. For all these seekers of God, witness, through the truth and transparency of your people, that belonging to Christ makes you free and that the experience of God fills you. Without subtracting from the demands of the contemplative life, you find the gestures that can express for the culture of our time your radical option for God. To those who say: “We do not know how to pray,” please respond, through your existence, that dialogue with God is possible because “the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness” (Rom 8:26). To those who want to make of their lives something great, bear witness that the path to holiness is the most beautiful of adventures, works not only of our efforts, but the work of the infinite tenderness of God in the immense human misery. May your monasteries allow passers-by to approach the springs of living water: “Whoever thirsts come; he who wants to draw the water of life freely” (Remn.

7. My meditation seemed to be reserved for the cloistered nuns. In fact, I have consistently had all the women who consecrate themselves to God in the religious life of Canada. They are about forty thousand! What I have said of the spirit of consecrated life is equally true for all the religious of the active or apostolic life. The circumstances have done yes that I could not have had a special encounter with all of them, and I regret it. I have seen many of them at all my stages, with the people of God. But I was waiting for this opportunity, and tonight I am happy to greet them all, from this place of contemplation, and to address this message to them.

Dear sisters, you carry out within the Church the services that Christian communities and the world value earnestly: you take part, among other things, in catechesis, education, hospital care, support for the old, in parish activities. Happy those countries, those cities that are still reassured by the presence of such nuns! In short, you have a certain professional activity, preferably the one that allows you to express the charity and witness of the faith, and this in a community way.

8. But this is not the original mystery of your life. You have freely consecrated yourselves to the Lord who first placed a look of predilection on you. Your religious vows are deeply rooted in the consecration of Baptism, but they express it more fully (cf. Perfectae Caritatis, 5). You participate in a special and permanent way in the death on the Cross of the Redeemer and in his resurrection. The Easter character of your life is recognized in each of the “evangelical advisers” that you commit yourselves to practicing in a radical way. At the same time you become truly free to better serve. You point, not to “hare,” but on the quality of being, of the person who renews himself in Jesus Christ.

Our world needs more than ever to discover, in your communities and in your way of life, the value of a simple and poor life at the service of the poor, the value of a life freely committed to celibacy to preserve itself to Christ and, with it, to love particularly the beloved evils, the value of a life in which obedience and the community fraternate silently dispute the excesses of an independence sometimes capricious and sterile.

The world needs above all witnesses to the gratuitousness of God’s love. Among those who doubt God or who have the impression of his absence, you are the manifestation that the Lord deserves to be sought and loved for himself, that the kingdom of God, with its belonging folly, deserves that his life is consecrated to him. In this way your lives become a sign of the Church’s indestructible faith. The free gift of your life to Christ and to others is perhaps the most urgent challenge to oppose a society in which gain has become an idol. Your choice amazes, asks questions, seduces or irritates this world, but it never leaves it indifferent. In any case, the Gospel is always a sign of contradiction. You will never be understood by everyone. But do not be afraid to manifest your consecration to the Lord. He does you honor you! It is the honor of the Church! You have a specific place in the body of Christ, in which everyone must fulfill his task, his own charism.

If you seek, with the Holy Spirit, the holiness that corresponds to your state of life, do not be afraid. He will not abandon you. Vocations will come to reach you. And you yourselves will keep your youth of mind, which has nothing to do with age. Yes, dear sisters, live in hope. Keep your eyes fixed on Christ and walk with a firm step in his footsteps in joy and peace.

9. I cannot extend beyond this message to all Canadian women religious. I wrote a letter for you and all religious, Redemptionis Donum, on March 25th.

This evening, at the end of my long apostolic journey through Canada, I am very happy to be, with the bishop of this diocese Adolphe Proulx, a guest of the nuns. As Jesus loved to retire to Bethany at the home of Mary and Martha – one more contemplative, the most active one – I came to your house to pray with you. Like Peter and the other apostles withdrew in the Upper Room, together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, I come to invoke the Holy Spirit. May he pour out his light and his power on the inhabitants of this beloved nation, so that the Church may grow in holiness here! Pray with me for all religious, for all those who are consecrated, for men and women who are members of secular institutes. Let us pray for priests, who are ministers of the Eucharist and leaders of consciences. Let us pray for those who suffer persecution for their faith.

And, close to Ottawa, where I will meet those responsible for political life this evening, where tomorrow I will celebrate Mass for peace, let us pray for all those who must contribute to the achievement of greater justice, peace and fraternity, in Canada and in the less fortunate countries.

Let your kingdom come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Copyright 1984 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana