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The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
Verbi Sponsa
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The sharing of contemplative nuns in the communion and mission of the Church

In the communion of the Church

6. Through their specific call to union with God in contemplation, cloistered nuns are fully within the communion of the Church, becoming a unique sign of the entire Christian community's intimate union with God. Through prayer, especially the celebration of the liturgy, and their daily self-offering, they intercede for the whole people of God and unite themselves to Jesus Christ's thanksgiving to the Father (cf. 2 Cor 1:20; Eph 5:19-20).

Therefore the contemplative life is the nun's particular way of being the Church, of building the communion of the Church, of fulfilling a mission for the good of the whole Church. (33) Cloistered contemplatives therefore are not asked to be involved in new forms of active presence, but to remain at the wellspring of Trinitarian communion, dwelling at the very heart of the Church. (34)

The cloistered community is also an excellent school of fraternal life; it is an expression of true communion and a force which draws towards communion. (35)

Because of the mutual love involved, fraternal life is a God-filled space in which the mystical presence of the Risen Lord is experienced: (36) in a spirit of communion, nuns share the grace of the same vocation with the members of their own community, helping one another to follow the same path, advancing together towards the Lord, one in heart and soul.

With monasteries of the same Order, nuns have the common duty to grow in faithfulness to their specific charism and spiritual heritage, cooperating if necessary in ways provided for by the Constitutions.

By force of their vocation, which sets them at the heart of the Church, nuns undertake in a special way to have “the mind of the Church (sentire cum Ecclesia)”, with sincere adherence to the Magisterium and unreserved obedience to the Pope.



33) Cf. Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, The Contemplative Dimension of Religious Life (12 August 1980), 26; Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic life, Instruction Fraternal Life in Community (2 February 1994), 59: “The contemplative type of community (showing forth Christ on the mountain) is centred on the twofold communion with God and among its members. It has a most efficacious apostolic impact, even though it remains to a great extent hidden in mystery”; John Paul II, Address to the Clergy, Consecrated Persons and Cloistered Nuns, Chiavari (18 September 1998), 4: “And now a special word to you, dear cloistered nuns, who are the sign of the exclusive union of the Church as Bride with her Lord who is loved above all else. You are impelled by an irresistible attraction which draws you towards God, the final goal of all that you feel and do. Contemplation of God's beauty has become your inheritance, your life's programme, your way of being present in the Church”.



34) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 4: “Thus the whole Church appears as ?the people gathered together by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”; Saint Cyprian, De Dominica Oratione, 23: PL 4, 536.



35) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata (25 March 1996), 46; Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic life, Instruction Fraternal Life in Community (2 February 1994), 10: “Fraternal life in common, in a monastery, is called to be a living sign of the mystery of the Church”.



36) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata (25 March 1996), 42.





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