From the Dicastery of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life

To all consecrated persons,

At this time when a synodal spirit is being breathed into the Church, we have the joy of celebrating on February 2nd, the feast of the Presentation, the 27th Day of Consecrated Life, with a Eucharistic Celebration in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

In the absence of the Holy Father due to his apostolic journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, the celebration will be presided over by His Eminence Cardinal João Braz de Aviz.

Through this day we gratefully recall the immense grace of our vocation to be “a living memorial of Jesus’ way of living and acting” (Vita Consecrata n. 22) and, aware that his grace is sufficient for us (cf. 2 Cor 12:9), we ask him with humility and trust, to live the gift of fidelity and the joy of perseverance.

On this day we are united with all the communities of consecrated life scattered throughout the world, pilgrims in the same land that sustains us and in which we live this history that challenges us. God continues to call us to consecrate our lives in the different forms that complement and enrich each other, and that are above all a gift for the Church.

Institutes of consecrated life (religious, monastic, contemplative, secular, “new institutes”), the Ordo virginum, hermits and societies of apostolic life express the whole of consecrated life that translates the Gospel into a particular form of life, that knows how to read the signs of the times with the eyes of faith and that seeks to respond with dynamic fidelity (cf. VC 37) to the needs of the Church and the world.

Read the whole Letter