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The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
Verbi Sponsa

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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 livingmemory” 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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