At 12:20pm today, in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience a group of those participating in the International Congress of Formators for Consecrated Men and Women, organized by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and focused on the theme: To live in Christ according to the gospel way of life (Rome, April 8-11, 2015).
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The Cardinal Prefect told me your number, how many you are, and I told him: What, with the shortage of vocations, there seem to be more formators than there are those being formed! This is a problem! You need to ask the Lord and do everything you can to promote vocations!
I thank Cardinal Braz de Aviz for the words he has offered in the name of all those who are present. I also thank the Secretary and the other collaborators who have prepared the Congress, the first of its kind to be celebrated in the Church, precisely during the Year dedicated to Consecrated Life, with formators from many Institutes from various parts of the world.
I wanted to have this gathering with you, for that which you are, representatives of educators and formators, and because in each of you I see your and our youth, protagonists of a present lived with passion, and promotors of a future animated by hope; young people who, driven by love for God, seek in the Church a path to taking on this task in their own lives. I feel them present here and I send them all an affectionate greeting.
Seeing so many of you, no one would ever think that there was a vocational crisis! But in truth there is an undeniable quantitative decrease, and this makes the challenge facing formators even more urgent, a formation that truly shapes the hearts of young people to make them more like the heart of Jesus, while allowing them always to maintain their own feelings and thoughts (cf Phil 2:5; Consecrated life, 65). I am also convinced that there is no vocational crisis where there are consecrated persons who are able to pass on, through their own witness, the beauty of consecration. And this testimony is fruitful. If there is no witness, if there is no consistency, there will never be any vocations. It is to such a witness that we are called. This is your ministry, your mission. Do not be merely masters; above all, be witnesses of the followers of Christ according to your own charisms. And this can be done if every day we rediscover the joy of being disciples of Jesus. From this point we can also derive the importance of always caring for our own personal formation, beginning with a strong friendship with the only Master. During these days of the Resurrection, the word that often resounds in our prayer is that of Galilee, the place where everything began, says Peter in his first speech. Things happened in Jerusalem but they began in Galilee. Even our lives began in a Galilee: every one of us has had the experience of Galilee, in our meeting with the Lord, a meeting that we can never forget, but one that often ends up being covered over by other things, by work, by disturbing realities and even by sins and worldliness. In order to bear witness, we must each make our own pilgrimage to our own Galilee, reawakening the memories of that encounter, the astonishment, and from that point, we can begin again. But if we do not follow this path of remembering, we risk the possibility of committing the sin of remaining where we are, and also of forgetting that there is a danger of not knowing why we are there. This is a discipline for those who want to bear witness: to go directly to their own Galilee, where they once met the Lord, remembering the initial astonishment.
Consecrated life is beautiful; it is one of the most precious treasures in the Church, rooted in our baptismal vocation. Therefore it is good to be formators, because it is a privilege to participate in the work of the Father who forms the heart of the Son in those whom the Spirit has called. Sometimes this service can seem like a weight, as if it took us away from something more important. However, this is a deceit, it is a temptation. The mission is important, but to form others for the mission is just as important, to form them to the passion of the proclamation, to form them to the passion of going everywhere, to every periphery, to tell everyone about the love of Jesus Christ, especially those who are far away, to tell this good news to the little ones and to the poor, and to let ourselves also be evangelized by them. All this requires solid grounding, a Christian structure of the personality that families themselves rarely know how to give today. And this increases your responsibility.
One of the qualities of the formator is that of having a great heart for young people, to form big hearts in them, capable of receiving everything, hearts rich in mercy, full of tenderness. You are not only friends and companions of the consecrated life of those who are entrusted to you, but true fathers, true mothers, capable of asking and of giving them the most: to generate a life, to give birth to a religious life. And this is possible only through love, the love of fathers and mothers. And it’s not true that young people of today are mediocre and not generous; however, they are in need of experiencing that it is more blessed to give than to receive! (Acts 20:35), that there is great freedom in an obedient life, great fruitfulness in a virgin heart, great richness in not possessing anything. Hence the need to be lovingly attentive to the path of every one and evangelically demanding in every phase of the formative path, to begin with vocational discernment, so that the eventual crisis of quantity won’t determine a much greater crisis of quality. And this is the danger. Vocational discernment is important: all men and all women who know the human personality - be they psychologists, spiritual Fathers or spiritual Mothers - tell us that young people who unconsciously feel they have something unbalanced or some problem of balance or deviation, seek unconsciously strong structures to protect them, to be protected. And discernment is there: to be able to say no. But not to throw them out: no, no. I will accompany you, go, go, go .... And as the entrance is accompanied, so also the going out, so that he or she finds the way in life, with the necessary help. Not with that defence that is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow.
The crisis of quality ... I don’t know if it’s written, but it now comes to me to say: look at the qualities of many, many consecrated persons. Yesterday at lunch there was a little group of priests that was celebrating their 60th anniversary of Priestly Ordination: the wisdom of the elderly ... Some are a bit ... but the majority of elderly have wisdom! The Sisters who every day get up to work, the Sisters in hospitals, who are doctors in humanity: how much we must learn from this consecration of years and years! ... And then they die. And the missionary Sisters, the consecrated missionaries, that go there and die there ... Look at the elderly! And don’t just look at them: go out to find them, because the fourth Commandment counts also in religious life, with those elderly of ours. For a religious institution they are also a Galilee, because we find the Lord in them who speaks to us today. And how much good it does young people, to send them to them, to approach these elderly wise consecrated men and women: how much good it does! Because young people have the instinct to discover authenticity: this does good.
The initial formation, discernment, is the first step of a process destined to last an entire lifetime, and the youth is formed to humble and intelligent freedom to allow himself to be educated by God the Father every day of his life, in every age, in the mission as in fraternity, in action as in contemplation.
Thank you, dear men and women formators, for your humble and discreet service, for the time given to listening - the apostolate of the ear, to listen - for the time dedicated to the accompaniment and the care of each one of your youth. God has a virtue - if one can speak of God’s virtue - a quality, of which there is not much talk: it is patience. He has patience. God knows how to wait. You must also learn this, this attitude of patience, which so often is somewhat of a martyrdom: to wait ... and when a temptation of impatience comes to you, stop; or of curiosity ... I think of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, when a novice began to tell a story and she was happy to know how it ended, and then the novice went somewhere else; Saint Teresa said nothing, she waited. Patience is one of the virtues of formators. To accompany: in this mission neither time nor energy must be spared. And it’s not necessary to get discouraged when the results don’t correspond to the expectations. It is painful when a boy, or a girl comes after three or four years and says: Oh, I don’t hear it; I have found another love that is not against God, but I can’t, I’m going. This is hard, but it’s also your martyrdom. And the unsuccessful, these unsuccessful ones from the point of view of the formator can favour the path of continuous formation of the formator. And if at times you might have the sensation that your work is not sufficiently appreciated, know that Jesus follows you with love, and the whole Church is grateful to you. And always in this beauty of consecrated life: some say that consecrated life is paradise on earth. No. If anything, it’s Purgatory! However, continue with joy, continue with joy.
I wish you the ability to live with joy in gratitude for this ministry, with the certainty that there is nothing more beautiful in life than to belong forever and with all one’s heart to God, and to give one’s life for the service of our brothers and sisters.
I ask you, please, to pray for me, so that God will give me a bit of that virtue that He has: patience.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
to participants in the International Congress
of Formators of Religious Men and Women
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The Cardinal Prefect told me your number, how many you are, and I told him: What, with the shortage of vocations, there seem to be more formators than there are those being formed! This is a problem! You need to ask the Lord and do everything you can to promote vocations!
I thank Cardinal Braz de Aviz for the words he has offered in the name of all those who are present. I also thank the Secretary and the other collaborators who have prepared the Congress, the first of its kind to be celebrated in the Church, precisely during the Year dedicated to Consecrated Life, with formators from many Institutes from various parts of the world.
I wanted to have this gathering with you, for that which you are, representatives of educators and formators, and because in each of you I see your and our youth, protagonists of a present lived with passion, and promotors of a future animated by hope; young people who, driven by love for God, seek in the Church a path to taking on this task in their own lives. I feel them present here and I send them all an affectionate greeting.
Seeing so many of you, no one would ever think that there was a vocational crisis! But in truth there is an undeniable quantitative decrease, and this makes the challenge facing formators even more urgent, a formation that truly shapes the hearts of young people to make them more like the heart of Jesus, while allowing them always to maintain their own feelings and thoughts (cf Phil 2:5; Consecrated life, 65). I am also convinced that there is no vocational crisis where there are consecrated persons who are able to pass on, through their own witness, the beauty of consecration. And this testimony is fruitful. If there is no witness, if there is no consistency, there will never be any vocations. It is to such a witness that we are called. This is your ministry, your mission. Do not be merely masters; above all, be witnesses of the followers of Christ according to your own charisms. And this can be done if every day we rediscover the joy of being disciples of Jesus. From this point we can also derive the importance of always caring for our own personal formation, beginning with a strong friendship with the only Master. During these days of the Resurrection, the word that often resounds in our prayer is that of Galilee, the place where everything began, says Peter in his first speech. Things happened in Jerusalem but they began in Galilee. Even our lives began in a Galilee: every one of us has had the experience of Galilee, in our meeting with the Lord, a meeting that we can never forget, but one that often ends up being covered over by other things, by work, by disturbing realities and even by sins and worldliness. In order to bear witness, we must each make our own pilgrimage to our own Galilee, reawakening the memories of that encounter, the astonishment, and from that point, we can begin again. But if we do not follow this path of remembering, we risk the possibility of committing the sin of remaining where we are, and also of forgetting that there is a danger of not knowing why we are there. This is a discipline for those who want to bear witness: to go directly to their own Galilee, where they once met the Lord, remembering the initial astonishment.
Consecrated life is beautiful; it is one of the most precious treasures in the Church, rooted in our baptismal vocation. Therefore it is good to be formators, because it is a privilege to participate in the work of the Father who forms the heart of the Son in those whom the Spirit has called. Sometimes this service can seem like a weight, as if it took us away from something more important. However, this is a deceit, it is a temptation. The mission is important, but to form others for the mission is just as important, to form them to the passion of the proclamation, to form them to the passion of going everywhere, to every periphery, to tell everyone about the love of Jesus Christ, especially those who are far away, to tell this good news to the little ones and to the poor, and to let ourselves also be evangelized by them. All this requires solid grounding, a Christian structure of the personality that families themselves rarely know how to give today. And this increases your responsibility.
One of the qualities of the formator is that of having a great heart for young people, to form big hearts in them, capable of receiving everything, hearts rich in mercy, full of tenderness. You are not only friends and companions of the consecrated life of those who are entrusted to you, but true fathers, true mothers, capable of asking and of giving them the most: to generate a life, to give birth to a religious life. And this is possible only through love, the love of fathers and mothers. And it’s not true that young people of today are mediocre and not generous; however, they are in need of experiencing that it is more blessed to give than to receive! (Acts 20:35), that there is great freedom in an obedient life, great fruitfulness in a virgin heart, great richness in not possessing anything. Hence the need to be lovingly attentive to the path of every one and evangelically demanding in every phase of the formative path, to begin with vocational discernment, so that the eventual crisis of quantity won’t determine a much greater crisis of quality. And this is the danger. Vocational discernment is important: all men and all women who know the human personality - be they psychologists, spiritual Fathers or spiritual Mothers - tell us that young people who unconsciously feel they have something unbalanced or some problem of balance or deviation, seek unconsciously strong structures to protect them, to be protected. And discernment is there: to be able to say no. But not to throw them out: no, no. I will accompany you, go, go, go .... And as the entrance is accompanied, so also the going out, so that he or she finds the way in life, with the necessary help. Not with that defence that is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow.
The crisis of quality ... I don’t know if it’s written, but it now comes to me to say: look at the qualities of many, many consecrated persons. Yesterday at lunch there was a little group of priests that was celebrating their 60th anniversary of Priestly Ordination: the wisdom of the elderly ... Some are a bit ... but the majority of elderly have wisdom! The Sisters who every day get up to work, the Sisters in hospitals, who are doctors in humanity: how much we must learn from this consecration of years and years! ... And then they die. And the missionary Sisters, the consecrated missionaries, that go there and die there ... Look at the elderly! And don’t just look at them: go out to find them, because the fourth Commandment counts also in religious life, with those elderly of ours. For a religious institution they are also a Galilee, because we find the Lord in them who speaks to us today. And how much good it does young people, to send them to them, to approach these elderly wise consecrated men and women: how much good it does! Because young people have the instinct to discover authenticity: this does good.
The initial formation, discernment, is the first step of a process destined to last an entire lifetime, and the youth is formed to humble and intelligent freedom to allow himself to be educated by God the Father every day of his life, in every age, in the mission as in fraternity, in action as in contemplation.
Thank you, dear men and women formators, for your humble and discreet service, for the time given to listening - the apostolate of the ear, to listen - for the time dedicated to the accompaniment and the care of each one of your youth. God has a virtue - if one can speak of God’s virtue - a quality, of which there is not much talk: it is patience. He has patience. God knows how to wait. You must also learn this, this attitude of patience, which so often is somewhat of a martyrdom: to wait ... and when a temptation of impatience comes to you, stop; or of curiosity ... I think of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, when a novice began to tell a story and she was happy to know how it ended, and then the novice went somewhere else; Saint Teresa said nothing, she waited. Patience is one of the virtues of formators. To accompany: in this mission neither time nor energy must be spared. And it’s not necessary to get discouraged when the results don’t correspond to the expectations. It is painful when a boy, or a girl comes after three or four years and says: Oh, I don’t hear it; I have found another love that is not against God, but I can’t, I’m going. This is hard, but it’s also your martyrdom. And the unsuccessful, these unsuccessful ones from the point of view of the formator can favour the path of continuous formation of the formator. And if at times you might have the sensation that your work is not sufficiently appreciated, know that Jesus follows you with love, and the whole Church is grateful to you. And always in this beauty of consecrated life: some say that consecrated life is paradise on earth. No. If anything, it’s Purgatory! However, continue with joy, continue with joy.
I wish you the ability to live with joy in gratitude for this ministry, with the certainty that there is nothing more beautiful in life than to belong forever and with all one’s heart to God, and to give one’s life for the service of our brothers and sisters.
I ask you, please, to pray for me, so that God will give me a bit of that virtue that He has: patience.
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