A Meditation For Good Friday And Holy Saturday

(I’m posting this late, since obviously I wasn’t going to be on the computer at all this afternoon, but I thought I would still share this meditation I wrote last year for a Lenten evening of reflection on the “Seven Last Words” at the university from which I recently graduated.)

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“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

—Mark 15:34

In my mind at least, these words are the very essence of the entire Passion. Even while Jesus’ physical and emotional torments were truly horrible, they are nothing when compared with this, Christ’s spiritual suffering.

God is truly the source and sustainer of everything good. Without Him, even things which we would consider good for their own sake—things like friendship and human sympathy, or natural beauty or artistic accomplishment—are empty and valueless. God is incalculably greater than all that He has made, and He is the only source of all joy.

This is why we are called to love God “with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength” (cf. Deuteronomy 6:5), because as we grow in our faith God should become everything to us. I think this is also why thousands of martyrs were able to relinquish all the things they held most dear in their earthly life; they understood that they were trading a small puddle for the ocean.

Of course Christians are still human, and we will feel pain when painful things happen to us. If we were to become seriously ill or lose someone close to us, it would be completely normal and healthy for us to grieve. Still, our faith could help us bear our grief with peace and hope.

But what if God Himself were to abandon us? Theologically, we know that God would never forsake any of us, His children. But in some sense, the question is not irrelevant.

For example, we now know that Bl. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, like many other great saints, spent most of her life under the subjective impression that God had rejected her, despite the abundant evidence to the contrary. Even if we ourselves never have a similar experience, we may still find it troubling that God would seem to behave this way towards someone so close to Him.

On a corporate level, the people of Israel—the nation whom God had chosen to be His own in a special way—seemed to have felt that God abandoned them during the period of the Babylonian captivity. Their experience is recorded in some of the psalms, as well as in the haunting lyrics of the book of Lamentations:

He has broken my teeth with gravel, /pressed my face in the dust;
My soul is deprived of peace, /I have forgotten what happiness is;

I tell myself my future is lost, /all that I hoped from the Lord.

The thought of my homeless poverty /is wormwood and gall;
Remembering it over and over /leaves my soul downcast within me.

(Lamentations 3:16-20)

In some ways, many of the crises plaguing the Church today can evoke similar reactions from contemporary Catholics. While issues such as the “culture of death,” the breakdown of the traditional family, and the increasing secularity of our society may not always seem as dramatic as the Babylonian exile, they are nevertheless able to shake many people’s faith and prompt them to question Providence.

And yet even apart form all of this, this question is important simply because it was a part of Jesus’ Passion. By virtue of our baptism, we are all called to be with Christ in His Passion to at least some degree. As Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) and “Can you drink to cup that I am to drink?” (Matthew 20:22)

We don’t stay with Jesus in His Passion because we like suffering, but rather because we love Jesus. I think probably most of us can wrap our minds around the idea of staying with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane—we probably feel that we could keep watch for an hour.

Perhaps with great difficulty, we can even manage to stay with Jesus at the scourging, along the Via Dolorosa, and at the crucifixion. But how could we possibly manage to be with Jesus during the moment he uttered this cry of complete desolation? It would almost seem akin to finding ourselves in Hell!

I honestly don’t know exactly how it is that we can remain with Jesus even here. The only thing I can say is that if God calls us to it, then He must give us the strength that we would need.

But here in the deepest darkness it’s important to remember some other words from the book of Lamentations, found even here in the midst of arguably the most anguished verses in all of Scripture:

The favors of the Lord are not exhausted /His mercies are not spent;
They are renewed every morning, /so great is His faithfulness.
My portion is the Lord, says my soul; /therefore I will hope in Him.

Good is the Lord to the one who waits for Him, /to the soul that seeks Him;
It is good to hope in silence /for the saving help of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear /the yolk from his youth.

Let him sit alone and in silence, /when it is laid upon him.
Let him put his mouth to the dust; /there may yet be hope

(Lamentations 3:22-29)

If, with the help of grace, we choose to continue to love God through darkness, He will use it as an opportunity to configure us more closely to Christ. Our faith will be strengthened, our hope will be increased, and our love will be purified.

Even while we will seem to have lost all of our joy, we will be given newer, deeper joys that we would not have understood before. We will understand Christ in a new way when he said, “Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld.” (Revelation 1:18)

And this is the Pascal mystery—the center of our faith and the gift we in inherited at Baptism.

St. Ambrose Writes On Marriage And Virginity

(About the image: This is a late Medieval/early Renaissance painting of St. Ambrose (c. 340 - 397 A.D.) preaching to St. Monica—a married woman of renowned holiness—and her son, St. Augustine.)

In continuing with my project to present and discuss more of the Church Fathers’ writings on consecrated virginity, here is Book I, chapter 6 of St. Ambrose’s De Virginibus, or “Concerning Virgins.” (For more sections of De Virginibus from this blog, see here and here. To read the work in its entirety, click here.)

I decided to post these “highlight” passages of De Virginibus in the order that they appear in the original work, which is why this particular passage is presented here now. However, I was a little uncomfortable posting it, because this particular selection seems to be a classic example of what it is that upsets people when they complain of the Church Fathers’ excessively “negative” views on marriage, or even of their alleged disparaging of the sacrament of matrimony in order to prove the superiority of consecrated celibacy.

But, I think that it is unfair to write off the opinions of the Church Fathers on this topic based on the viewpoints and pastoral needs of our contemporary Catholicism. True, in enumerating the trials of marriage and motherhood it would seem that St. Ambrose is trying to make consecrated virginity look like it’s the only truly virtuous and reasonable thing to do with one’s life. And this sort of theme is common in many of the Church Fathers’ writings.

However, while we should listen to what the Fathers actually said, I don’t think that we should necessarily take our negative initial impressions at their face value. First of all, St. Ambrose would not have praised consecrated virginity as that which “makes martyrs” (see this previous post) if he had seen this vocation as an “easy way out,” or even something which could be understood as valuable through a merely human wisdom.

Also, in speaking of the heartache inherent in marriage and family life (as well as speaking of particular character weaknesses frequently found among married women), St. Ambrose is not trying to depict marriage as something intrinsically bad. In fact, as a pastor he probably presumes that the joys and virtues of marital fidelity and fruitfulness are already self-evident to his audience; my thought is that the Catholics of his time did not need to be reminded of the worth and goodness of “settling down” into the permanent commitment of marriage in quite the same way as today’s Catholics often do. Rather, I think St. Ambrose is trying to present a sort of momento mori in order to highlight one of the unique beauties of consecrated virginity—namely, that the passing nature of this world does not affect a consecrated virgin in the same way as it does a married woman, since consecrated virgins already have their hearts firmly set in Eternity.

I have made some very minor editorial changes from the version posted on NewAdvent.org, in the interest of grammatical clarity for American readers. Emphases, in bold, and commentary, in (red) are mine.

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St. Ambrose explains that he is not speaking against marriage, and proceeds to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the single and married state.

24. I am not indeed discouraging marriage, but am enlarging upon the benefits of virginity. He who is weak, says the Apostle, eats herbs. (Romans 14:2) I consider one thing necessary, I admire another. Are you bound to a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Are you free from a wife? Seek not a wife. (1 Corinthians 7:27) This is the command to those who are. But what does he say concerning virgins? He who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who gives her not does better. (1 Corinthians 7:38) The one sins not if she marries, the other, if she marries not, it is for eternity. In the former is the remedy for weakness, in the latter the glory of chastity. The former is not reproved, the latter is praised.

25. Let us compare, if it pleases you, the advantages of married women with that which awaits virgins. Though the noble woman boasts of her abundant offspring, yet the more she bears the more she endures. Let her count up the comforts of her children, but let her likewise count up the troubles. (By “troubles” here, I think St. Ambrose is talking more about maternal worry and heartbreak common in an age of high infant mortality rates—and NOT so about the personal inconveniences and sacrifices which childrearing demands.) She marries and weeps. How many vows does she make with tears? She conceives, and her fruitfulness brings her trouble before offspring. She brings forth and is ill. How sweet a pledge which begins with danger and ends in danger, which will cause pain before pleasure! (It was also, of course, common for women to die in childbirth in St. Ambrose’s day.) It is purchased by perils, and is not possessed at her own will.

26. Why speak of the troubles of nursing, training, and marrying? These are the miseries of those who are fortunate. A mother has heirs, but it increases her sorrows. For we must not speak of adversity, lest the minds of the holiest parents tremble. Consider, my sister, how hard it must be to bear what one must not speak of. (I.e., losing a child.) And this is in this present age. But the days shall come when they shall say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore. (Luke 23:29) (I think St. Ambrose is using this reference to illustrate how consecrated virginity anticipates the Last Judgment and the Second coming of Christ.) For the daughters of this age are conceived, and conceive; but the daughter of the kingdom refrains from wedded pleasure, and the pleasure of the flesh, that she may be holy in body and in spirit. (The last part of this phrase is used in an antiphon in the Rite of Consecration.)

27. Why should I further speak of the painful ministrations and services due to their husbands from wives, to whom before slaves God gave the command to serve? (Genesis 3:16) And I mention these things that they may comply more willingly, whose reward, if approved, is love; if not approved, punishment for the fault. (It seems that St. Ambrose here is speaking about marriage in the ways in which it is marred by original sin—and NOT of the sacramental ideal of marriage as it was proposed in Pope John Paul II’s writings on the “Theology of the Body.”)

28. And in this position spring up those incentives to vice, in that they paint their faces with various colors, fearing not to please their husbands; and from staining their faces, come to think of staining their chastity. What madness is here, to change the fashion of nature and seek a painting, and while fearing a husband’s judgment to give up their own. For she is the first to speak against herself who wishes to change that which is natural to her. (In another context, this line could be useful in explaining to women the Church’s teaching on contraception.) So, while studying to please others, she displeases herself. What truer witness to your unsightliness do we require, O woman, than yourself who art afraid to be seen? If you are beautiful, why hide you yourself? If unsightly, why do you falsely pretend to beauty, so as to have neither the satisfaction of your own conscience, nor of the error of another? For he loves another, you desire to please another. And are you angry if he love another, who is taught to do so in your own person? You are an evil teacher of your own injury. (I certainly don’t think that this would apply to modest women today who wear natural-looking make-up to look professional or simply “polished.” But beyond that, I think that St. Ambrose still makes some interesting points here.)

29. And next, what expense is necessary that even a beautiful wife may not fail to please? Costly necklaces on the one hand hang on her neck, on the other a robe woven with gold is dragged along the ground. Is this display purchased, or is it a real possession? And what varied enticements of perfumes are made use of! The ears are weighed down with gems; a different color from nature is dropped into the eyes. What is there left which is her own, when so much is changed? The married woman loves her own perceptions, and does she think that this is to live?

30. But you, O happy virgins, who know not such torments, rather than ornaments, whose holy modesty, beaming in your bashful cheeks, and sweet chastity are a beauty, you do not, intent upon the eyes of men, consider as merits what is gained by the errors of others. (On a purely practical note, I think that this line—as well as the many similar thoughts expressed throughout the writings of the Fathers—might be a good argument for modern consecrated virgins to adopt sort of a “dress code” of not wearing make-up or jewelry beyond perhaps a very simple cross or religious medal—and a consecration ring, of course!) You, too, have indeed your own beauty, furnished by the comeliness of virtue, not of the body, to which age puts not an end, which death cannot take away, nor any sickness injure. Let God alone be sought as the judge of loveliness, Who loves even in less beautiful bodies the more beautiful souls. You know nothing of the burden and pain of childbearing, but more are the offspring of a pious soul, which esteems all as its children, which is rich in successors, barren of all bereavements, which knows no deaths, but has many heirs. (I think this is a beautiful tribute to spiritual motherhood.)

31. So the holy Church, ignorant of wedlock, but fertile in bearing, is in chastity a virgin, yet a mother in offspring. She, a virgin, bears us her children, not by a human father, but by the Spirit. She bears us not with pain, but with the rejoicings of the angels. She, a virgin, feeds us, not with the milk of the body, but with that of the Apostle, wherewith he fed the tender age of the people who were still children. (1 Corinthians 3:2) For what bride has more children than holy Church, who is a virgin in her sacraments and a mother to her people, whose fertility even holy Scripture attests, saying, For many more are the children of the desolate than of her that has an husband? She has not an husband, but she has a Bridegroom, inasmuch as she, whether as the Church among nations, or as the soul in individuals, without any loss of modesty, she weds the Word of God as her eternal Spouse, free from all injury, full of reason.

—St. Ambrose, De Virginibus; Book I, chapter 6

A Good Talk From The Pope

…sent to me by Fr. Luke Sweeney of “NYPriest.com.”

Obviously, virgins consecrated according to canon 604 don’t live in “contemplative” or monastic communities. But I think that cloistered nuns and consecrated virgins actually have more in common spiritually than do consecrated virgins and active Sisters, since the vocation to consecrated virginity (even “in the world”) is essentially contemplative.

Unfortunately, I don’t know very much about the saint mentioned here, but I found this article helpful.

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Pontiff Says Contemplatives Give Breath to World

...Calls Communities a “Spiritual Lung”

ROME, MARCH 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Contemplative communities are called to be a type of “spiritual lung” for the world, so that spiritual "respiration" is not strangled by the bustle of cities, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today when he visited the Oblate Sisters of Santa Francesca Romana. He stopped at the convent after having visited the headquarters of Rome's civil authorities, where he addressed the mayor and other civil leaders.

Today is the feast day of St. Francesca (1384-1440), whom the Holy Father referred to as “the most Roman of saints.”

After spending some time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and in veneration of the saint’s body, the Pope addressed the sisters and students that reside at the center.

Referring to his spiritual exercises last week with the members of the Curia, the Holy Father said “he had felt once again how indispensable silence and prayer are.”

He noted how the convent is located at the heart of the city, saying, “How can we not see in it the symbol of the need to return the spiritual dimension to the center of civil coexistence, to give full meaning to the multiple activities of the human being?”

The Bishop of Rome told the nuns: “Your community, together with the other communities of contemplative life, is called to be a sort of ‘spiritual lung’ of society, so that the performance, the activism of a city, is not devoid of spiritual ‘respiration,’ the reference to God and his plan of salvation. [...]

“A singular balance is lived here between religious and secular life, between the life of the world and outside of the world. A model that was not born in a laboratory, but in the concrete experience of a young Roman woman: written—it could be said—by God himself in Francesca's extraordinary existence.”

“It is no accident that the walls of this environment are decorated with images of her life, demonstrating that the real building that God wishes to construct is the life of the saints.”

In this context, the Pope stressed that also today “Rome needs women who are all for God and for their neighbor; women able to recollect themselves and give generous and discreet service; women who are able to obey their pastors, but also able to support and motivate them with their suggestions.”

This vocation “is the gift of a maternity that is made one with religious oblation, modeled after Mary,” the Pontiff reflected. “Mary’s heart is the cloister where the Word continues to speak in silence, and at the same time is the furnace of a charity that leads to courageous gestures, and also to a persevering and hidden generosity.”

St. Ambrose on Consecrated Virginity

(This is a mosaic of St. Ambrose from the crypt in St. Peter’s basilica. Even though our saint looks sort of cranky in this depiction, his letters to the consecrated virgins of his era show him to be a warm and caring pastor.)

One common misconception about consecrated virgins is that we don't have our own spiritual heritage. It’s even been suggested that therefore we should all individually “borrow” the spirituality of whatever major religious Order most appeals to us.

However, so much as a cursory knowledge of the Patristic writers would reveal that we actually have one of the richest spiritual patrimonies in the entire Church! The Church Fathers (such as Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and so on) wrote beautiful and profound treatises on the nature of consecrated virginity. And while these of course can apply to women in a variety of forms of consecrated life today and throughout history, they were written specifically for and about consecrated virgins—women who had exactly the same vocation as my own.

Because extensive reading of the Church Fathers can sometimes seem daunting, I have decided to start regularly sharing and discussing various selections pertaining to consecrated virginity here on my blog, hopefully in a “user-friendly” format. But for more Patristic writings, check out the section labeled “Fathers” on the “New Advent” website.

This first section is from book I, chapter 3 of St. Ambrose’s treatise “On Virginity.” It was written to his sister Marcellina, who herself was a consecrated virgin. As a side note, this chapter is immediately preceded by an essay in praise of St. Agnes, which is now used in the Office of Readings on her feast.

(emphases, in bold, and comments in red, are mine)

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Virginity is praised on many grounds, but chiefly because it brought down the Word from heaven, and hence its pursuit, which existed in but few under the old covenant, has spread to countless numbers.

“And now the love of purity draws me on, and you, my holy sister, even though not speaking in your silent habit, to say something about virginity, lest that which is a principal virtue should seem to be passed by with only a slight reference. For virginity is not praiseworthy because it is found in martyrs, but because itself makes martyrs.” (This thought-provoking quote is one of my favorite Patristic references to consecrated virginity. I find it significant that St. Ambrose could say this not too long after the initial widespread persecutions of the early Church by the Roman Empire.)

“But who can comprehend that by human understanding which not even nature has included in her laws? Or who can explain in ordinary language that which is above the course of nature? Virginity has brought from heaven that which it may imitate on earth. And not unfittingly has she sought her manner of life from heaven, who has found for herself a Spouse in heaven. She, passing beyond the clouds, air, angels, and stars, has found the Word of God in the very bosom of the Father, and has drawn Him into herself with her whole heart. For who having found so great a Good would forsake it? For Your Name is as ointment poured out, therefore have the maidens loved You, and drawn You. And indeed what I have said is not my own, since they who marry not nor are given in marriage are as the angels in heaven. Let us not, then, be surprised if they are compared to the angels who are joined to the Lord of angels. Who, then, can deny that this mode of life has its source in heaven, which we don’t easily find on earth, except since God came down into the members of an earthly body? Then a Virgin conceived, and the Word became flesh that flesh might become God.” (I like the way St. Ambrose is able to articulate the connection between consecrated virginity and the mystery of the Incarnation. While I had initially seen consecrated virginity primarily as a reflection of and participation in the Paschal mystery—which it of course is as well—I am happy to have grow in my understanding of the consecrated virginity’s deep relationship to the two “poles” of our Christian faith.)

“But some one will say: But Elijah is seen to have had nothing to do with the embraces of bodily love. And therefore was he carried by a chariot into heaven, therefore he appeared glorified with the Lord, (Matthew 17:3) and therefore he is to come as the forerunner of the Lord’s advent. (Malachi 4:5) And Miriam taking the timbrel led the dances with maidenly modesty. (Exodus 15:20) But consider whom she was then representing. Was she not a type of the Church, who as a virgin with unstained spirit joins together the religious gatherings of the people to sing divine songs? For we read that there were virgins appointed also in the temple at Jerusalem. But what says the Apostle? These things happened to them in a figure, that they might be signs of what was to come. (1 Corinthians 10:11) For the figure is shown in few, the life exists in many.” (In this discussion of how the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New, St. Ambrose also alludes to the theology which would describe a consecrated virgin as an icon of the Church.)

“But in truth after that the Lord, coming in our flesh, joined together the Godhead and flesh without any confusion or mixture, then the practice of the life of heaven spreading throughout the whole world was implanted in human bodies. This is that which angels ministering on earth signified should come to pass, (Matthew 4:11) which ministry should be offered to the Lord with the service of an unstained body. This is that heavenly service which the host of rejoicing angels spoke of for the earth. (Luke 2:13-14) We have, then, the authority of antiquity from of old, the fullness of the setting forth from Christ Himself.”

Habemus Episcopum!

Yesterday it was announced that Archbishop Dolan is to succeed Cardinal Egan as the Archbishop of my home diocese, the Archdiocese of New York. It’s been very exciting to read about this online and to talk to people back home, even while it is tough to be away studying in another region of the country when all this is going on.

It’s very convenient that the announcement was made just before Lent. Now I definitely know for whom I’ll be offering up a majority of my prayers and sacrifices for the next forty days! (Though I will of course still be praying for Cardinal Egan daily; I’m sure I will be—quite literally—eternally grateful to him for approving my consecration.)

From NYPriest.com:


“His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has appointed His Excellency, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of Milwaukee, to the Archdiocese of New York. Archbishop Dolan has served as the Archbishop of Milwaukee since 2002. He will be the 13th Bishop and 10th Archbishop of the See of New York. He succeeds His Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan, who submitted his letter of retirement upon reaching the age of 75 on April 2, 2007.”

“In a statement, Archbishop Dolan addressed New Yorkers, saying, ‘My brother bishops, priests, religious women and men, seminarians, committed Catholics of this wonderful Church, I pledge to you my love, my life, my heart, and I can tell you already that I love you, I need so much your prayers and support, I am so honored, humbled, and happy to serve as your pastor.’”

St. Scholastica, The Rite of Consecration, and Religious Life

On February 10, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Scholastica. She was the blood sister of St. Benedict, and is most famous for founding the female branch of the Benedictine Order. St. Scholastica was born in Nursia, Italy around the year 480 A.D., and died in a monastery near her brother in Monte Cassino c. 547.

In the time of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica, there were already some forms of consecrated life in existence which could be seen as precursors to religious life, such as the various loosely organized communities of early desert hermits (the sort of which St. John Cassian discusses in his writings). However, “religious life” properly speaking describes a form of life based on adherence to a specific Rule of Life—the word “religious” is even derived from the Latin for “to bind.”

While St. Benedict’s Rule is not the earliest in the history of the Church, it was the arguably the most successful and widely-adopted Rule of its era. In this sense, Sts. Benedict and Scholastica could be considered the father and mother of western religious life as we know it today. We may also be able to call St. Scholastica the original nun.

But unlike many other great female foundresses, in addition to being a nun St. Scholastica was almost certainly a consecrated virgin as well (that is, a woman having received the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity). In the Office of Readings for her feast St. Gregory the Great describes St. Scholastica as having been “consecrated to God from her earliest years,” so from this we may also assume that she was a consecrated virgin prior to her beginning monastic life.

And just as St. Benedict was originally a hermit who sought monasticism as a particular way of ordering his ascetical life, it may not be unreasonable to conjure that St. Scholastica embraced Benedict's Rule primarily as an aid to living out fully her original consecration as a virgin, as opposed to seeing the Rule and the Vows as the constitutive element in her consecrated life. This would be a contrast to later attitudes concerning consecrated virginity vis-à-vis religious life, which saw the Rite of Consecration is something more like the “crowning” of a monastic life well-lived.

Although the Rite of Consecration fell out of use for non-monastic women in approximately the year 1000, it continued to be used for solemnly professed nuns in certain Orders. The Benedictines in particular retained this practice (although perhaps not consistently, judging from the surge of renewed interest in the Rite of Consecration for Benedictine nuns which began in the nineteenth century). Incidentally, one Benedictine monastery in the United States which continues the tradition of celebrating the Rite of Consecration in conjunction with solemn profession of religious vows is the Abbey of Regina Laudis, in Bethlehem, Connecticut. And while the new contemplative community of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles does not use the actual Rite, their description of solemn profession shows a marked influence by the Rite of Consecration.

Feast of the Presentation and World Day of Consecrated Life

February 2, forty days after Christmas, is the feast of Jesus’ presentation in the temple. This is when the Church remembers the events described in Luke 2:22-38, where the prophets Simeon and Anna recognize the infant Jesus as the long-awaited savior.

Yesterday had also been designated by Pope John Paul II as “World Day of Consecrated Life”—my first as an official consecrated person! I believe this is in commemoration of Anna, who “...never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.”

“Roman Catholic Vocations” reprinted this article about the Pope Benedict XVI's address to consecrated people around the world, in this “Year of St. Paul”:

(emphases, in bold, are mine)

VATICAN CITY, 3 FEB 2009 (Vatican Information Service)

-- Yesterday afternoon in the Vatican Basilica Benedict XVI met with members of religious congregations, institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, at the end of a Mass marking the thirteenth Day of Consecrated Life, an annual celebration established by John Paul II.

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, presided by Cardinal Franc Rode C.M., prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Holy Father greeted those present.

In this year dedicated to St. Paul the Pope focused his remarks on the Apostle “who,” he said, “has always been recognized as father and master of those who, called by the Lord, have chosen to dedicate themselves unconditionally to Him and His Gospel. ... Imitating him by following Jesus is the best way to respond fully to your vocation of special consecration in the Church,” he said.

St. Paul's lifestyle “expresses the substance of a consecrated life inspired by the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. In the life of poverty he saw a guarantee that the Gospel would be announced gratuitously. At the same time, such a life is an expression of real solidarity towards brothers and sisters in need.”

“Accepting God's call to chastity,” noted the Holy Father, the Apostle of the Gentiles “gave his heart entirely to the Lord in order to be able to serve his brethren with greater freedom and dedication. Moreover, in a world in which the values of Christian chastity enjoyed little popularity, he offered secure guidelines of behavior.”

On the subject of obedience, Benedict XVI recalled how St. Paul was “under daily pressure because of his anxiety for all the churches” and how this “inspired, shaped and consumed his life, making it a sacrifice agreeable to God.”

“Another fundamental aspect of Paul's consecrated life was that of mission. He was entirely for Jesus in order to be, like Jesus, for everyone. ... In him, so closely bound to the person of Christ, we recognize a profound capacity to unite spiritual life and missionary activity. In him, these two dimensions support one another.”

The Pope told the consecrated people of his hope that the Pauline Year may “give you further encouragement to welcome the witness of St. Paul, meditating daily upon the Word of God through the faithful practice of ‘lectio divina,’ and singing ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts.’ May the Apostle help you to accomplish your apostolic service in and with the Church, with an unreserved spirit of communion, making a gift of your charisms to others and bearing witness to the greatest charism of all, which is charity.”