Pope Francis received superiors and delegates of the Discalced Carmelites at the Vatican, meeting during these days to reflect and review their constitutions on 18 April, Thursday.
The Holy Father referred to this moment as a “time of the Spirit,” in which “you are called to live as an occasion for prayer and discernment.”
“Remaining internally open to what the Holy Spirit wants to suggest to you, you have the task of finding new languages, new paths and new instruments that promote with greater enthusiasm the contemplative life that the Lord has called you to embrace.”
So that “the charisma is preserved—the charisma is the same—and that it can become understood and attract many hearts, for the glory of God and the good of the Church,” added the Pontiff.
In this sense, he highlighted that reviewing the constitutions of the Order means “collecting the memory of the past to look to the future.”
“You teach me that the contemplative vocation does not lead to guarding ashes, but to feeding a fire that burns in an always new way and can give warmth to the Church and the world,” Pope Francis stressed.
For Pope Francis, what is included in the constitutions “is a richness that must remain open to the suggestions of the Holy Spirit, to the perennial novelty of the Gospel, to the signs that the Lord gives us through life and challenges”
Along these lines, he reiterated that the memory of history “is a wealth that must remain open to the suggestions of the Holy Spirit, to the perennial novelty of the Gospel, to the signs that the Lord gives us through life and challenges. humans, and thus a charisma is preserved.”
The Holy Father explained that this applies to all institutes of consecrated life, “but you cloisters experience it in a particular way, because you fully experience the tension between separation from the world and immersion in it.”
“You, certainly, do not take refuge in an intimate spiritual consolation or in a prayer far from reality; On the contrary, this is a path in which it is necessary to allow oneself to be affected by the love of Christ until one joins Him, so that this love permeates all of existence and is expressed in every gesture and every daily action.”
In this way, he stated that “contemplative life does not run the risk of being reduced to a form of spiritual inertia, which distracts from the responsibilities of daily life, but rather contemplative life continues to provide the inner light for discernment.”
“And what light do you need to review the Constitutions, facing the numerous concrete problems of monasteries and community life? The light is this: hope in the Gospel,” he clarified.