For religious sisters and consecrated women – The Pope Video
Recognition and prayer for religious sisters
The Pope’s Video of February 2022 and the World Day of Consecrated Life
On 2 February, the Catholic Church celebrates the World Day for Consecrated Life. It provides an opportunity to recognise the commitment of all the consecrated women and men religious and the many consecrated lay persons, both within the Church and in the world at large. By their choice of life, these women and men - members of religious, monastic, or contemplative institutes as well as institutes of apostolic life - seek to follow Jesus by dedicating their whole life to his salvific mission.
For the month of February, Pope Francis, through his Worldwide Prayer Network, invites us to pray “for religious and consecrated women”. The Holy Father asks, “What would the Church be without religious and consecrated women? We cannot understand the Church without them.”
Pope Francis urges us to pray to support these women, especially in their work with the poor and the marginalized. More broadly, he asks us to pray also that they may manifest the beauty of God’s love and compassion in all that they do, whether they are catechists, theologians or spiritual guides.
With typical frankness, Francis added that religious women should put up a fight when they are treated unjustly within the Church or when they are reduced to a state of servitude, sometimes by men of the clerical world.
By living their vocation faithfully, they will continue to make God’s goodness known not only in their apostolic works, but most especially through the testimony of their consecrated lives.
There are no Jesuit nuns, but among the more than 1,900 congregations of religious women, comprising about 630,000 women, several have chosen to be guided by the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and by the Ignatian tradition. Following their own charisms, they can certainly inspire Jesuits and members of the Ignatian family, especially in the way they live the preferential option for the poor.
Watch
the Pope’s video, and listen to his message. Let yourself be touched by the images
that show religious women all over the world, accompanying indigenous peoples,
working with street children, serving in health clinics, and helping victims of
human trafficking, as well as teaching in universities and participating in
international meetings on environmental protection.
This month, we will pray in a special way for religious sisters and consecrated women.
What would the Church be without religious sisters and consecrated laywomen? The Church cannot be understood without them.
I encourage all consecrated women to discern and choose what is best for their mission in the face of the world’s challenges that we’re experiencing.
I exhort them to keep working and to have an impact with the poor, with the marginalized, with all those who are enslaved by traffickers; I especially ask them to make an impact on this.
And let us pray that they may show the beauty of God’s love and compassion as catechists, theologians, and spiritual guides.
I invite them to fight when, in some cases, they are treated unfairly, even within the Church; when they serve so much that they are reduced to servitude - at times, by men of the Church.
Do not be discouraged. May you keep making God’s goodness known through the apostolic works you do. But above all through your witness of consecration.
Let us pray for religious sisters and consecrated women, thanking them for their mission and their courage; may they continue to find new responses to the challenges of our times.
Thank you for what you are, for what you do, and for how you do it.
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Let us pray that the dignity and worth of women be recognized in every culture, and for an end to the discrimination they face in various parts of the world.
Saturday, 24 February, was a historic day for the Jesuits in Pakistan, especially for Fr Robbie D’Lima, who professed his First Vows at Saint Mary’s School, Al-Mehtab Park, Lahore. The school was chosen as a reminder of the intentional presence of the Jesuits in Pakistan.
Let us pray that those who risk their lives for the Gospel in various parts of the world might imbue the Church with their courage and missionary drive.
