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INTRODUCTION
1.
The Church as Bride of the Word shows forth in an exemplary way in those
dedicated to a wholly contemplative life the mystery of her exclusive union
with God. For this reason the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita
Consecrata presents the vocation and mission of cloistered nuns as “a sign
of the exclusive union of the Church as Bride with her Lord, whom she loves
above all things”, (1) showing how they are a unique grace and precious
gift within the mystery of the Church's holiness.
In their
undivided attention to the Father's word: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I
am well pleased” (Mt 3:17), and in their loving acceptance of that word,
cloistered nuns are always “with Him on the holy mountain” (2 Pt 1:17-18).
Fixing their gaze upon Christ Jesus, shrouded in the cloud of God's presence,
they wholly cleave to the Lord. (2)
Cloistered
nuns see themselves especially in the Virgin Mary, (3) Bride and
Mother, figure of the Church; (4) and sharing the blessedness of those
who believe (cf. Lk 1:45; 11:28), they echo her “Yes” and her loving
adoration of the Word of life, becoming with her the living “memory” of the
Church's spousal love (cf. Lk 2:19, 51). (5)
The
esteem which the Christian community has always had for cloistered
contemplative women has deepened with the rediscovery of the contemplative
nature of the Church herself and of the call addressed to every Christian to
enter a grace-filled encounter with God in prayer. Nuns, in living the whole of
their life as “hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3), realize in a
supreme way the contemplative vocation of the entire Christian people,
(6) and thus they become a luminous sign of the Kingdom of God (cf. Rom
14:17), “glory of the Church and wellspring of heavenly graces”. (7)
1)
John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Consecrated Life and
its Mission in the Church and the World, Vita Consecrata (25 March
1996), 59.
2)
Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine
Revelation Dei Verbum, 8; John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Vita Consecrata (25 March 1996), 14; 32; Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 555; Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, 45, 4 ad
2: “The entire Trinity appears: the Father in the voice, the Son in the man,
the Spirit in the shining cloud”; Cassian, Collationes, 10, 6: PL
49, 827: “The sole reason why he withdrew to the mountain to pray was to teach
us in this way, giving us an example of the hidden life, so that we too, if we
wish to call upon God with pure and undivided tenderness of heart, should
similarly withdraw from all human turmoil and confusion”; William of Saint
Thierry, Ad Fratres de Monte Dei, I, 1: PL 184, 310: “The Lord
himself lived the solitary life in close union with others when he was with the
disciples and was transfigured on the holy mountain, stirring in them such a
desire that Peter said immediately: How happy I would be to dwell here for
ever!”.
3)
Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata (25
March 1996), 28; 112.
4)
Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen
Gentium, 63.
5)
Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater (25 March 1987),
43; Address to Cloistered Nuns, Loreto (10 September 1995), 2: “What is the
enclosed life if not an unceasing renewal of a 'yes' which opens the doors of
one's being to welcome the Saviour? You speak this 'yes' in a daily assent to
the work of God and in tireless contemplation of the mysteries of salvation”.
6)
Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum
Concilium, 2; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the
Bishops of the Catholic Church on Certain Aspects of Christian Meditation Orationis
Formas (15 October 1989), 1; Catechism of the Catholic Church,
2566-2567.
7)
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the
Religious Life Perfectae Caritatis, 7; cf. John Paul II, Angelus (17
November 1996): “What an inestimable treasure for the Church and for society
are communities of contemplative life!”.
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