THE ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION PROMOTED BY THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CONSECRATED LIFE INSTITUTES AND THE APOSTOLIC LIFE SOCIETIES at Paul VI Hall Friday, 4 May 2018 highlighted three key areas for consecrated persons to be aware of and lived: prayer, poverty and patience.
“what are the things that the Spirit wants to keep strong in the consecrated life? And I said to myself: these are columns that remain, which are permanent in the consecrated life. Prayer, poverty and patience. And I chose to tell you about this: what I think is prayer in the consecrated life, and then poverty and patience.
Prayer is always to return to the first call. Any prayer, perhaps a prayer in need, but always it is to return to that Person who has called me. The prayer of a consecrated person, of a consecrated person, is to return to the Lord who has invited me to be close to him.
In the Constitutions, St. Ignatius to us Jesuits wrote this – but it was not something original to him, I think, he had taken it from the Desert Fathers, perhaps -“Poverty is the mother, it is the wall of containment of the consecrated life”. It is “mother”. Interesting: he does not say chastity, which is perhaps more connected to motherhood, paternity, and no: poverty is mother. Without poverty there is no fruitfulness in the consecrated life. And it is “wall”, it defends you. It protects you from the spirit of worldliness, of course.
And third, patience. “But, father, what does patience have to do with it here?” Patience is important. We do not usually talk about it, but it’s very important. Looking at Jesus, patience is what Jesus had to get to the end of his life. “Enter into patience”: it is an attitude of every consecration, which goes from the small things of community life or the life of consecration…”
ST FRANCIS DE SALES SAYS OF PRAYER:
when you come to prayer, you must say with your whole heart and in your heart: O my heart, my heart, God is truly here.
IDL 2: 2
OF POVERTY
Love the poor and poverty, for it is by this love that you shall become truly poor. As the Scripture says, we are made like the things we love. Love makes the lovers equal. “Who is weak,” says St. Paul, “and I am not weak?” He might likewise have said, “Who is poor, with whom I am not poor.” For love made him resemble those whom he loved. If you love the poor, you shall surely partake of their poverty and be poor like them.
IDL 3: 15
OF PATIENCE
God’s will lies in exercising restraint amid consolations and in practicing patience in tribulation.
TLG 2, 9:4, 106-07