Pope Francis says "I encourage you to be missionary disciples and communities of hope and joy, since "the great risk of today's world, with its multiple...offers of consumption, is an individualistic sadness..." FULL TEXT
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE GENERAL CHAPTER OF THE
CANONS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE OF
THE CONGREGATION OF OUR LADY
Sala Clementina - Monday, 24 January 2022
Dear Sisters!
I welcome you on the occasion of your General Chapter. I thank the Superior for her kind words, also with a sense of humor, but good, avec le sens de l'humour . I cordially greet each of you and, through you, I express my spiritual closeness to all the Sisters of your Congregation in various countries.
Together with you I thank the Lord for the work of his Spirit which is manifested in your educational charism, at the service of the new generations and families, for an integral humanism and a more fraternal world. Today, we are faced with the challenge of the formation and education of the human person. In fidelity to the evangelical insights of your founders Saint Pierre Fourrier and Beata Alix Le Clerc, you have committed yourselves to popular education, education to the faith, education to justice and closeness to the poor. In the various countries where you operate, I encourage you to be missionary disciples and communities of hope and joy, since "the great risk of today's world, with its multiple and oppressive offer of consumption, is an individualistic sadness that springs from a comfortable heart and miserly, from the sick search for superficial pleasures, from the isolated conscience - the drama of the isolated conscience -. When the interior life closes in its own interests there is no longer room for others, the poor no longer enter "(Apostolic Exhortation.Evangelii gaudium , 2).
Dear Sisters, the theme you have chosen for your Chapter, "Educational Pact of the Congregation of Notre-Dame", is a strong invitation to reflect on the new possible ways to reach young people in their daily reality, in order to contribute to their integral development. .Indeed, "a journey of life needs a hope founded on solidarity, and every change requires an educational path, to build new paradigms capable of responding to the challenges and emergencies of the contemporary world, of understanding and finding solutions to the needs of every generation and to make the humanity of today and tomorrow flourish ". [1]In the face of the challenges and dangers that threaten young people, I hope that your commitment and your enthusiasm, forged in the power of the Gospel, will restore to them the zest for life and the desire to build a society worthy of the name (cf. . All Brothers , 71).
Dear sisters, I count on you and I trust you, the Church trusts you. With your words, your actions and your testimony, you send a strong message to the world that rejects the vulnerable. May you drink, with prayer and adoration, at the source of goodness and truth, and find in communion with the dead and risen Christ the strength to lay a positive gaze, a gaze of love, a gaze of hope, a compassionate gaze. , a gaze of tenderness on the world, paying particular attention to the disadvantaged sections of society. This is how your mission as educators will bear quality fruits among the people for the good of society. Thanks to your charism, which aims to make every person discover the love of Christ, you contribute to opening new horizons and creating spaces for fraternity. Indeed, "educating is always an act of hope that invites co-participation and the transformation of the sterile and paralyzing logic of indifference into another different logic, capable of welcoming our common belonging".[2]
Dear Sisters, at this moment, in which the Covid-19 pandemic has produced a crisis with many aspects, in particular a strong impact on education and on young people, I invite you to get closer to people living in isolation, sadness and discouragement. Indeed, "the language of closeness should be privileged, the language of disinterested, relational and existential love that touches the heart, reaches life, awakens hope and desires" (Apostolic Exhortation postsin. Christus vivit , 211).
I entrust each of you and all your sisters to the Lord and the Virgin Mary, I bless you from my heart. Please don't forget to pray for me. Thank you.
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[1] Video message on the occasion of the meeting organized by the Congregation for Catholic Education: “ Global Compact on Education. Together to look beyond " (October 15, 2020).
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