III. Guiding principles

In a spirit of faith and of humble gratitude to the Lord for the gifts he has given his Church by raising up the various Institutes of consecrated life, the Assembly sends out an invitation to continue praying to the Lord of the harvest, to ask him to continue to grant his church new vocations. At the same time, it invites all those in the consecrated life to respond with great selflessness to the vocation they have received.

Vocation ministry is a very wide field, and as such should involve the consecrated life not only in its internal life, but also in its action outside of itself in the global pastoral context of the Church.

What we might call the internal aspect presupposes a responsible commitment on the part of each member to live his (her) consecration in all its depth, and in this way, to make oneself into a living witness capable of attracting young people. It is in this sense that we can say that every member of the consecrated life is an animator, a promoter, of vocations.

Vocations ministry presupposes equally, the creation of communities who live out joyfully and enthusiastically the charismatic mission to which they have been called; communities characterized by a real authentic sense of brotherhood, communities of welcome, able to share their spiritual goods with lay people.

As regards the external aspect of vocations ministry, the Assembly underlined the need to pay particular attention to young people, and the importance of offering them an environment in which they are understood and welcomed, while respecting their liberty, and of offering them places and "spaces" where they can have a profound experience of God and can grow in sensitivity towards the most needy.

However, attention to the young cannot be given adequately if we discount other aspects with reference to the Church ministries in the wider sense. To this end, the suggestion is made that some thought be given to a "vocations culture", by means of attention to the families and other social groups, in such a way that society arrives little by little at an appreciation of the meaning and value of the vocation to the consecrated life in all its forms. An authentic vocations ministry for consecrated life should also understand, respect, and correlate with other vocations and with other states of life.