Wspólnoty zakonne na progu trzeciego tysiąclecia chrześcijaństwa

Abstract

Religious life stems out from the mystery of the Church. It is a prophetic gift which the Church receives from her Lord, and it is a token of God’s love expressed in the language of our day. All the religious communities today face the question how to make this form of charismatic service to Christ and people a testimony of the Gospel of the beatitudes in the third millennium of Christianity. During the general chapters, orders work out forms through which they adapt the charisms of their own institutions in order to be faithful to Christ and to their calling and mission. By serving people wherever they are, they may demonstrate a magnanimous and brave ministry towards the needs of the universal and local Church, dealing with those evangelical values which have been neglected in the world. Therefore they seek a new motivation for the evangelical counsels, treating celibacy as a means to make their ministries of love more efficient, poverty as a way to be magnanimous in sharing what they have with others and obedience as a decision to listen to the voice of the poor and rejected by the world. In renewing their prophetic calling, religious communities should put into practice their faithfulness: 1) to man and the present day, 2) to Christ and the Gospel, 3) to the Holy Spirit and His inspirations, 4) to the Church and her mission in the world, 5) to religious life and charisms of their own institution.