After the conclusion of the 64th General Chapter on Sunday, July 14, 2024, the Chapter fathers, along with other confreres, met with the Pope today, July 15, 2024, in a private audience together with other congregations.
In the Clementine Hall, the Pope met with the Minims, Clerics Regular Minor, Augustinian Sisters of Divine Love, Clerics of Saint Viator, Reparatrix Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and Missionary Sisters of Saint Anthony Mary Claret, who are in Rome for General or Provincial Chapters.
Here is an excerpt of the Pope’s message:
Thank you for this meeting. Here are present: Minims, Clerics Regular Minor, Augustinian Sisters of Divine Love, Clerics of Saint Viator, Reparatrix Sisters of the Sacred Heart and Missionary Sisters of Saint Anthony Mary Claret.
I will ask a question before we begin: How many novices do you have? How many?… You need to pray. And how are things going? Where do your novices come from? [In response: “From Asia, Africa and Latin America”.] Indeed, the future is there, yes? [In response: “We have eight”.] That’s good. And you? [In response: “We have seventeen”.] And over here, how are you doing? [In response: “We have twelve”.] But we have to double these numbers. Thank you for your visit. I like to ask this question, because it is a question about the future of your congregation.
You represent different institutes and religious orders of various foundation, whose origins range from the sixteenth to the twentieth century: Minims, Clerics Regular Minor, Augustinian Sisters of Divine Love, Clerics of Saint Viator, Reparatrix Sisters of the Sacred Heart and Missionary Sisters of Saint Anthony Mary Claret. In this diversity, you are a living image of the mystery of the Church, in which “to each is given the manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7), so that the beauty of Christ may shine in all its splendour throughout the world. It was not by chance that the Fathers of the Church defined the spiritual life of consecrated men and women as “philokalía, or love of the divine beauty, which is the reflection of the divine goodness” (SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, 19). Yet, how often our steps along the journey of the spiritual life are far removed from our internal struggles, far removed from the love that should motivate us. I would like to take a moment and reflect with you on two aspects of your life that have much to do with precisely this: beauty and simplicity.
