ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in Christ,
The Prophet Joel, thousands of years ago, transmitted this magnificent prophecy: “Thus says the Lord: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; even upon the servants and the handmaids, in those days, I will pour out my spirit” (Jl 3:1-2).

How significant and fitting it is that you come together, at the beginning of this Conference, to invoke the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who inspires dreams and visions of hope is present among us to inspire all of the participants in this Conference to a renewed vision of consecrated service in the Church for the evangelization of the world. I am deeply pleased to be with you, the Major Superiors of many and various Congregations and Institutes of Consecrated Women Religious, to celebrate this Mass and to assure you of my prayerful support for you and for your communities. Be assured, too, of my personal gratitude and that of my brother Bishops in whose dioceses your communities serve. Your collaboration with the Bishops is extremely important as, together, we proclaim, through our mutual mission and your diverse apostolates, the message, the love, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Liturgy of the Word, selected from the readings for Pentecost Sunday, transports us to the Upper Room in Jerusalem. There, gathered in prayer, are the Apostles of Jesus, many of the disciples including the holy women, and, at the heart of the Cenacle, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of the Church and the Queen of Apostles. This Shrine dedicated to Our Lady is for us like the Cenacle. Gathered in prayer, we look to Mary to be with us and to intercede for us as we invoke the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon this important conference.

Saint Luke the Evangelist, in the Acts of the Apostles, describes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, fifty days after the Resurrection of Jesus. In the form of wind and flame, the Holy Spirit, with His manifold gifts, descends upon the Apostles and those gathered in the Upper Room. Transformed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles burst forth from the locked doors of the Upper Room to announce to the people gathered in Jerusalem the Good News of Jesus Christ: the love and mercy of God lavished upon mankind through the paschal mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

For two thousand years, the Church has carried out, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this mission of the proclamation of the Good News. This is the task of evangelization and you, dear Sisters in Christ, by your living of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, and by your fidelity to the charisms of your founders and foundresses, have contributed in unfathomable ways to the success of the Church’s mission. The Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium, summarized well the influential role of consecrated Religious in the life of the Church: “Being means to and instruments of love, the evangelical counsels unite those who practice them to the Church and her mystery in a special way. It follows that the spiritual life of such Christians should be dedicated also to the welfare of the entire Church. To the extent of their capacities and in keeping with the particular kind of religious life to which they are individually called, whether it be one of prayer or of active labor as well, they have the duty of working for the implanting and strengthening of the kingdom of Christ in souls and for spreading it to the four corners of the earth. It is for this reason that the distinctive character of various religious institutes is preserved and fostered by the Church” (no. 44).

The Holy Spirit first moved you to enter the consecrated life and to embrace the evangelical counsels. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, you have detached yourselves from the ways of the world. Yet, you are sustained by the Holy Spirit in chastity, poverty and obedience so that you will have a pivotal role in the world. In our own day, scarred by widespread violence, confused by indifference to the gift of human life and the sacred bond of marital love, blind to the impoverished conditions of so many, and made tense by a volatile economy, people more than ever need the visible sign of your witness to the chaste, poor, obedient and victorious Christ. Jesus alone remains the answer to the questions and worries of life. He alone is the Hope and Light of the World.

How well the Servant of God Pope John Paul II reminded you of the purpose of your vocation and of the gifts which you have received when, in Vita Consecrata, he exhorted all Religious: “Live to the full your dedication to God, so that this world may never be without a ray of divine beauty to lighten the path of human existence. Christians, immersed in the cares and concerns of this world but also called to holiness, need to discover in you purified hearts which in faith ‘see’ God, people docile to the working of the Holy Spirit who resolutely press on in fidelity to the charism of their call and mission” (no. 109).

That the Holy Spirit is at work within you and within your religious families causes great joy and tremendous confidence, particularly as you engage in the work of the apostolate. Pope Leo XIII, back in 1897, in his encyclical Divinum Illud Munus, addressed to the Church a magnificent reminder about “attribution,” that is, of how certain “operations” are attributed or appropriated to an individual Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. Although the Blessed Trinity is one and inseparable, and though the Three Divine Persons act inseparably, to each of the three Divine Persons is attributed a particular work. For example, God the Father is the First Cause of all things; God the Son is the Exemplar from whom all beauty and goodness are borrowed. He is also the Redeemer of the human race. God the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, in the words of Pope Leo XIII, “completes and perfects, by His strong yet gentle power, the secret work of man’s eternal salvation” (no. 3). Writing as he perceived his long Pontificate coming to an end, Pope Leo XIII knew that he would yet face suffering and difficulty; however, he entrusted all of his efforts to the Holy Spirit to bring them to conclusion and perfection.

Similarly, full of joy and confidence, we invoke the Holy Spirit in the understanding that He who has drawn you into the consecrated life, He who has inspired you to embrace the life-transforming evangelical counsels, He who urges you and your communities on to bear light and hope to the world, will bring to completion and perfection His work in you. In our time, as the Church daily faces and addresses the hardships and burdens of the world, we know that we, too, must suffer, like Jesus, in order to share in His victory.

Saint Paul, in the First Letter to the Corinthians, reminds us—and speaks to you, particularly—that the work to be done comes from God: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit” (1 Cor 12:4-7). Whether through Catholic education, care for the sick and the dying, outreach to the poor and homeless, the abused and abandoned, mission work among those who are uncatechized, whatever your apostolate, it is a call and gift from the Holy Spirit, who sustains you and will bring to completion and perfection the good works with which the Church has entrusted you. Therefore, all service within the Church, all apostolic work, must be nurtured by prayer—liturgical, individual, communal and contemplative.

Pope Paul VI, in his 1971 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelica Testificatio, addressed Religious on the need for steadfast prayer in these stirring words: “Dear Religious, how could you fail to desire to know better him whom you love and whom you wish to make manifest to men? It is prayer that unites you to him. If you have lost the taste for prayer, you will regain the desire for it by returning humbly to its practice. Do not forget, moreover, the witness of history: faithfulness to prayer or its abandonment are the test of the vitality or decadence of the religious life” (no. 42). Blessed Teresa of Calcutta instructed her Sisters, the Missionaries of Charity saying: “We must love prayer. It widens the heart to the point of making it capable of containing the gift that God makes of himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will be widened to welcome him and to keep him within itself” (Mother Teresa, Heart of Joy, p. 114).

As this conference begins, dear Sisters, we pray that the Holy Spirit will ever expand and constantly fill your hearts with the love needed to redirect society to a loving gaze upon Jesus. Your own love for Jesus present in the Sacred Scriptures and in the Holy Eucharist will enlighten, inspire and influence each person with whom you come in contact. May Our Lady, Queen of the Holy Rosary, Mother of Mercy, intercede for you as you show to the world the light, the love and the face of Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal Father, her Son, and our Lord. Amen.