4. The elements of the programme "Starting afresh from Christ with Mary" in the renewed Constitutions of  Institutes of consecrated life

        Institutes have to examine their renewed Constitutions to verify in what measure the Trinitarian, Christological and Marian elements of consecrated life are present in them. The Constitutions which present the Biblical, theological and spiritual elements of the exhortation Vita consecrata are to be considered to be well. On the contrary, it would be necessary to provide something to enlighten the Constitutional texts. Considering the state of their Constitutions, we can classify Institutes into four groups.

        Some Institutes are new and are preparing the definitive text of their Constitutions. If they wish to describe clearly the Trinitarian, Christological and Marian elements of consecrated life, these Institutes can do it easily, taking inspiration from the content of the Council documents and above all, following closely the formulae, the clarifications and the explanation given by the Exhortation Vita consecrata.

        Other Institutes, who received the approval of their revised Constitutions between 1980 and 1990, for several reasons, have decided to revise the Constitutional texts. It would be very opportune that such a revision would also include the effort to study, at depth, the Biblical, theological  and spiritual elements of consecrated life in the light of the orientations of the Exhortation.

        Other Institutes, which received approval almost 15 years ago, precisely because they have seriously compared their Constitutional texts with the Trinitarian, Christological and Marian elements of the Exhortation, have decided to re-elaborate their texts, basing themselves on the orientations of the enlightening document of 1996.  In a careful, attentive comparison one is aware, for example, that the Trinitarian perspective and the Marian dimension of consecrated life, so important for consecrated life, are practically absent in some Constitutional texts. It is sufficient to remember, for example, that in some Constitutions, the Holy Spirit is the great "unnamed", because, in fact, his name is not mentioned even once and the Virgin Mary occupies a place which seems to be that of Cinderella.

        Other Institutes, finally, which received approval of their renewed Constitutions more than 15 years ago, have decided to leave their Constitutional texts intact, as they are. The members of these Institutes will do very well to have close at hand, together with the Constitutions, the text of the Exhortation. Meditating and accepting, with docility, the orientations of the Pope, those consecrated persons will be able to integrate and enlighten the Trinitarian, Christological and Marian elements of their Constitutions and, in this way, carry out knowingly the programme "Starting afresh from Christ with Mary".