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CONCLUSION
71. A religious community, as an expression of the Church, is a fruit of
the Spirit and a participation in the Trinitarian communion. For this reason,
each and every religious is committed to feel co-responsible for fraternal life
in common, so that it will manifest clearly their belonging to Christ, who
chooses and calls brothers and sisters to live together in His name.
"The effectiveness of religious life depends on the quality of the
fraternal life in common. Even more so, the current renewal in the Church and
in religious life is characterised by a search for communion and
community".(87)
For some consecrated persons and for some communities, the task of
beginning again to rebuild fraternal life in common may appear daunting, even
utopian. In the face of certain past wounds and of difficulties in the present,
the task may appear beyond feeble human capacities.
It is a question of taking up in faith a reflection on the theologal
sense of fraternal life in common, of being convinced that through it the
witness of consecration flows.
"The response to this invitation to build community together with
the Lord, in patience every day," says our Holy Father, "takes place
on the way of the Cross; it requires frequent self-denial".(88)
United with Mary, Mother of Jesus, our communities invoke the Spirit,
who has the power to create fraternal communities which radiate the joy of the
Gospel and which are capable of attracting new disciples, following the example
of the earliest community: "and they devoted themselves to the apostles'
teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts
2:42), "and more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes
both of men and women" (Acts 5:14).
May Mary bring together religious communities and support them daily in
invoking the Spirit, who is the bond, the ferment, and the source of all
fraternal communion.
On 15 January 1994, the Holy Father approved this
document of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies
of Apostolic Life and authorised its publication.
Rome, 2 February 1994, Feast of the Presentation of
the Lord.
Eduardo Card. Martínez Somalo
Prefect
+ Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa
Secretary
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