The Spirituality of Communion

28. If “the spiritual life must have first place in the program of the Families of consecrated life”⁸⁹ it should be above all a spirituality of communion suitable for the present time. “To make the Church the home and school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God's plan and respond to the world's deepest yearnings”.⁹⁰

The whole Church expects a clear contribution to this undertaking from consecrated life because of its specific vocation to a life of communion in love. In Vita Consecrata we read “Consecrated Persons are asked to be true experts of communion and to practice its spirituality as witnesses and artisans of that plan of communion which stands at the center of history according to God”.⁹¹

Moreover, we are reminded that one of the tasks of consecrated life today is that of spreading the spirituality of communion, first of all in their internal life and then in the Church community, and even beyond its boundaries, by beginning or continuing a dialogue in charity, especially in those places where today's world is torn apart by ethnic hatred or senseless violence”.⁹² This is a task which requires spiritual persons interiorly shaped by God, by loving and merciful communion and by mature communities where the spirituality of communion is the rule of life.

29. But what is the spirituality of communion? With incisive words, capable of giving new life to relationships and programs, John Paul II teaches: “A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart's contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling within us and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the faces of the brothers and sisters around us. A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body and therefore as 'those who are part of me'...”. Some consequences of feeling and doing derive from this principal with convincing logic: sharing the joys and sufferings of our brothers and sisters; sensing their desires and attending to their needs; offering them true and profound friendship. The spirituality of communion also implies the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and to prize it as a gift from God, and to know how to make room for others, sharing each other's burdens. Unless we follow this spiritual path, the external structures of communion serve very little purpose.⁹³

The spirituality of communion which appears to reflect the spiritual climate of the Church at the beginning of the third millennium is an active and exemplary task for consecrated life on all levels. It is the principle highway for the future of life and witness. Holiness and mission come through the community because in and through it Christ makes himself present. Brother and sister become Sacraments of Christ and of the encounter with God, the concrete possibility, and even more, the unsurpassable necessity in carrying out the commandment to love one another and bring about Trinitarian communion.

In recent years communities and various types of fraternities of consecrated persons are seen as places of communion where relationships seem to be less formal and where acceptance and mutual understanding are facilitated. The divine and human value of being together freely in friendship and sharing even moments of relaxation and recreation together as disciples gathered around Christ the Teacher is being rediscovered.

Moreover there is a more intense communion among the different communities of the same Institute: multi-cultural and International communities, called to “witness to the sense of communion among peoples, races, and cultures”,⁹⁴ are already in many areas a positive reality where mutual knowledge, respect, esteem and enrichment are being experienced. They prove to be training grounds for integration and inculturation and at the same time a witness to the universality of the Christian message.

The Exhortation Vita Consecrata, presenting this form of life as a sign of communion in the Church, emphasized all the wealth and demands expected of community life. Earlier our Dicastery had promulgated the document Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor, on community life. Every community should periodically go back to these documents to evaluate its own journey of faith and progress in communion.