V. Consecrated by the Spirit (VC 19,30).

This new consecration is attributed to the Holy Spirit; the consecrated life itself, under the action of the Holy Spirit, the origin of every vocation and every charism, thus becomes a mission (VC 72).

This consecration is viewed as a process in the power of the Spirit; as a call to a personal encounter with Christ, a radical response "ad vitam" in the following of Christ and a resultant openness to mission.

The task of devoting themselves wholly to "mission" is ... included in their call (VC 72).

In the example of Mary we find the realisation of this process. (VC 18, to the end)

It is from the consecrated persons’ profound relationship to the Holy Spirit that this mission impulse is born. It is the Spirit who "drives" (a term repeated in RM 23,25,26,33,87) them to the mission. When communities are under the influence of the spirit they are open to the mission ad gentes, as were the communities of Jerusalem or Antioch, from which the spirit sent Barnabas and Paul on a "mission" among the pagans (Acts 13:1ff). If a religious community is not open to mission it is a sign that it is not under the life-giving influence of the Spirit. In each religious, as in institutes and communities, the Spirit reveals the mystery of the universal mission (Eph 3:5-6), prays in the missionary (Rom 8:26 ff.; Rev 22:17; Gal 4:6; and here it would be possible to consider the meaning of the term "Paraclete"), dialogues with missionaries (Jn 16:13), guides them, etc. If the goal of mission is to form a Church, it is formed as a communion by the Spirit who is the principle of communion (UR 2; LG 13, 17). Without forgetting that fraternal communion draws many non-Christians to the Church, "ut omnes sint unum, ut mundus credat".

Religious life, moreover, continues the mission of Christ with another feature specifically its own: fraternal life in community for the sake of the mission. Thus, men and women religious will be all the more committed to the apostolate (mission) ... the more fraternal their community life (VC 72).

How many failures in the interior life and missionary life are due to this lack of fraternal life.

Consecrated persons are to tend towards the perfection of charity, and it is the Spirit who infuses this charity, this love and life of God, in our hearts (Rom 5:5, cited in PC 1; LG 40) and it is this charity that makes our missionary work effective, as St Paul’s teaching reminds us (1 Cor 13). The love of God was missionary, and the missions of the Son and Spirit proceed from the love of the Father (AG 1). In this light we can understand the role of the missionary effectiveness that is proper to the hidden, contemplative life (PC 7, VC 8, AG 40). "To be love in the Church", as the patroness of the missions wrote.

The Spirit leads to the proclamation of the word (DV 8, EN 75), a topic that we will speak about later. At the same time the missionary theology of the Spirit presents his work in non-Christians, in their cultures and religions (RM 26). If the Spirit drives us towards non-Christians, it is he himself who asks us for an attitude of esteem and respect for those in whom he is already at work. This is one of the foundations of interreligious dialogue. Through dialogue one learns many things from others. Today more than atheistic ideologies, there is more emphasis given to dialogue with the renewed traditional religions and with the new religious movements. Religious are agents of this reciprocal help among the particular churches confronted with this new world. Contemplatives, and not simply a few consecrated persons, are in a position with discernment to conduct a dialogue about "religious experience"; all consecrated persons are called to a dialogue of respect and tolerance for others in the areas of religion (Asia) and ethnic and tribal structures (Africa). The dialogue of social co-operation is always open to consecrated persons according to their own charism.

The Spirit makes the word of our missionary proclamation fruitful and renders the sacramental signs fruitful as well. Our word resounds in the senses, but only the Spirit "opens hearts so that faith may be born" (AG 13; EN 75). The fact of the virginity and fecundity of Mary remind us of this by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary is the "figure" of the missionary Church (LG 63).

Since Vatican II there has been an emphasis on the fidelity of the consecrated persons to their own particular "charism" or nature, or the style of life of each institute (LG 44; PC 2: "own physiognomy, their own function").

In the first place, there is the need for fidelity to the founding charism and subsequent spiritual heritage of each institute (VC 36 - and this fidelity is presented as a gift of the Holy Spirit).

Bishops have the primary responsibility for preserving this fidelity (can. 680), and the institutes are granted a "just autonomy" with regard to the hierarchy.

However much the needs of the active apostolate demand it, members of these institutes (which are wholly ordered to contemplation), cannot be summoned to aid in various pastoral ministries (can. 674).

The particular charisms must not create an obstacle to communion among diverse institutes nor to co-operation between the institutes and the particular Churches (VC 48-51).