Pope Francis encourages the Primatial Council of the Confederation Canons Common of Saint Augustine to hunt the Lord in all they do, witness God’s love, and let the Gospel be their rule of life, as they speak in confidence to the longer term with renewed hope.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Place Christ on the middle of your life and mission, and witness the love of God in all you do.
This was the advice Pope Francis gave to the Primatial Council of the Confederation Canons Common of Saint Augustine on Friday morning within the Vatican.
The Confederation was established in 1959 by Pope St. John XXIII.
In his tackle, the Pope recalled that consecrated life is like water, “if it doesn’t circulate, it stagnates,” and like salt, “if it loses its flavour, it turns into ineffective.” He additionally warned in opposition to isolation and self-referentiality, and inspired non secular to at all times work collectively and assist one another.
Whereas encouraging them to worth the previous, he referred to as on them “to reside the current totally and with out concern, as a way to speak in confidence to the longer term with renewed hope.”
The Holy Father instructed the Augustinians they’ve a fantastic historical past to construct upon, and that the Holy Spirit will empower them to do nice issues.
Christ lives in me
The basic rule of spiritual life, the Pope mentioned, is the next of Christ proposed by the Gospel.
“Let the Gospel be your vademecum,” the Pope exhorted, “in order that, whereas staying away from the temptation to cut back it to ideology, it at all times stays spirit and life for you.”
Our old flame is Christ
The Gospel, he continued, continuously reminds us to position Christ on the centre of our life and mission.
“It brings us again to the ‘old flame’. And loving Christ means loving the Church, His physique.”
Due to this fact, as Canons Common, the Holy Father urged, their “predominant occupation” needs to be “the fixed and every day seek for the Lord.”
All of the methods to hunt the Lord
The Pope went on to counsel a number of methods they will search the Lord, together with in group life, and within the assiduous studying of Sacred Scripture, “in whose pages Christ and the Church resound.”
He additionally invited the Augustinians to hunt Him within the liturgy, particularly within the Eucharist, “the summit of Christian life,” in addition to in research, and in unusual pastoral work.
“Search the Lord additionally within the realities of our time, figuring out that nothing human may be overseas to us and that, free from all worldliness, we will animate the world with the leaven of the Kingdom of God.”
The Lord illuminates
These are the completely different paths of a single quest, which presupposes the trail of interiority, data and love of the Lord.
The Pope exhorted them to recollect St. Augustine’s phrases as a way to enter into themselves and uncover the reality mendacity inside.
On this method, the Holy Father mentioned, the sunshine of the internal Grasp illuminates for us temporal realities.
The Holy Father prayed that this time of encounter amongst them and with the Successor of Peter may assist the Augustinians to revisit their charism and develop nearer inside their group, and at the start, with God.
In conclusion, Pope Francis thanked them for his or her witness and presence within the Church.
“Might Our Woman hold you and intercede for you. I bless you and your communities from my coronary heart.”