Consecrated men, women point the path to peace, salvation, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Consecrated men and women can wake up the world, being small beacons of light pointing the way to God’s plan of peace and salvation for humanity, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Today, the church asks you to be special witnesses,” who walk in communion with the whole family of God, he said, “sharing within it the joy of your vocation and also, where necessary, overcoming divisions, forgiving injustices suffered, asking forgiveness for being closed up in ‘self-referentiality.'”

“Day by day, work to increasingly become ‘experts in synodality,’ so that you may be prophets in the service of God’s people,” he said during an audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall Oct. 10 with those taking part in the Jubilee of Consecrated Life.

Thousands of men and women religious, monks, contemplatives, members of secular institutes, consecrated virgins, hermits and people belonging to “new institutes” came to Rome from all over the world for their Oct. 8-9 Jubilee.

Pope Leo, who is also a member of a religious order, the Augustinians, told the men and women how much the church needs them, especially because of their rich and vast diversity. They come from and serve all over the world, even in the most remote corners of the earth, and they represent so many diverse charisms and ministries, he said.

“With your vitality and the witness of a life centered on Christ as Lord, you can help ‘awaken the world,'” he said in his address.

“United to him, and in him with one another, your small lights become like the markings of a luminous path in God’s great plan of peace and salvation for humanity,” he said.

The world needs the “hope and peace that dwells in the heart of every man and woman of our time, and you, consecrated men and women, want to be bearers and witnesses of this through your lives, as promoters of harmony through your words and example, and even more so as people who, by the grace of God, bear within themselves the mark of reconciliation and unity,” the pope said.

Thus, he said, they can build bridges and promote a culture of encounter, dialogue and mutual understanding that respects differences because of their faith, which allows them to recognize the “sacred and wonderful face” of Christ in every human being.

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