3.4.    Consecrated life is a “Christiform life” in the dynamism of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost

After Pentecost, Christ’s way of life continued to be present on the earth in the “apostolica vivendi forma”, witnessed in the Church under the action of the Holy Spirit. And that way  of life did not disappear even with the death of the last of the apostles: “In every age there have been men and women who, obedient to the Father’s call and to the prompting of the Spirit, have chosen this special way of following Christ, in order to devote themselves to him with an ‘undivided’ heart (cf 1 Cor 7:34). Like the apostles, they too have left everything behind in order to be with Christ and to put themselves, as he did, at the service of God and their brothers and sisters.” (VC 1b; cf 14a; 22a)

            Every Christian received the fundamental gift of sacramental grace of baptism from the “Holy and sanctifying Trinity”. (VC 21a) But the consecrated person, called to carry out a life plan with “new and special consecration” (VC 31d) and “special mission”  (VC 17a; 35c), receives in addition “a specific gift of the Holy Spirit”, (VC 30c) that is, “a special gift of the Spirit, which opens the way to new possibilities and fruits of holiness and apostolic work.” (VC 30d)

            Consecrated persons, in fact, are called to live as “persons conformed to Christ” (VC 19b) and that “Christ-conformed” existence (VC 14b) “ is possible only… by power of a special gift of the Spirit”. (VC 14b) Therefore for a person called to consecrated life “One’s whole life must be open to the action of the Holy Spirit:” (VC 65a)  “It is the Spirit who awakens the desire to respond fully; it is he who guides the growth of this desire, helping it to mature into a positive response and sustaining it as it is faithfully translated into action; it is he who shapes and moulds the hearts of those who are called, configuring them to Christ, the chaste, poor and obedient One, and prompting them to make his mission their own. By allowing themselves to be guided by the Spirit on an endless journey of purification, they become, day after day, conformed to Christ, the prolongation in history of a special presence of the Risen Lord.” (VC 19b)

            Thanks to the power of the Spirit of Pentecost, the consecrated person becomes profoundly missionary, because “the persons who by the power of the Holy Spirit are led progressively into full configuration to Christ” (VC 19c) are able to “love with the heart of Christ” (VC 75t) and place themselves, like him, “at the service of men and women”. (VC 75b)

            “Life in the Spirit is clearly of primary importance” (VC 71b) in initial and ongoing formation of consecrated persons. For consecrated persons, living in the Spirit or according to the Spirit means cultivating with great commitment a special spirituality: “We may say that the spiritual life, understood as life in Christ or life according to the Spirit, presents itself as a path of increasing faithfulness, on which the consecrated person is guided by the Spirit and configured by him to Christ.”(VC 93c)

            To live fully the characteristics of one’s spiritual identity, it is not enough to have only the spiritual elements common to consecrated life present. Each consecrated person must lovingly cultivate all the elements that generate the “special spirituality” (VC 93c) of his own institute, his “specific spiritual traits” (VC 36f), the “spiritual gifts received from founders and foundresses,” (VC 48b; cf  94a) that is, the gifts which, “As such,…constitute an ‘experience of the Spirit, transmitted to their disciples to be lived, safeguarded, deepened and constantly developed by them, in harmony with the Body of Christ continually in the process of growth.’ (MR 11)”  (VC 48b)

            Only in docility and in increasing fidelity to the Spirit of Pentecost will consecrated persons be able to fulfill the hoped for “great history still to be accomplished”. (VC 110a)