Pope Leo XIV urges consecrated women to be signs of hope and prophecy, renewing their service to families and transmitting the virtues of the Holy Family.
By Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday met with participants in the General Chapters of four female religious Institutes: the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the Daughters of Nazareth Institute, the Apostles of the Holy Family Institute, and the Sisters of Charity of Saint Mary, also known as “of Good Counsel.”
Witnesses of hope
Addressing the groups, in Rome to celebrate the Jubilee of Hope, the Holy Father underlined the grace of these moments of assembly, calling them “a gift for the Church as well as for your Congregations.” Greeting the Superiors General – both outgoing and incoming – and all the participants, he pointed to the richness they bring to the Church.
“You bring the charismatic gift that the Paraclete once bestowed upon your Foundresses and Founders, a gift that continues to be renewed. You bring the faithful and providential presence of the Lord in the histories of your Institutes. You bring the virtue with which those who came before you – often enduring severe trials – responded to God’s gifts. All this makes you, in a special way, witnesses of hope, especially of that hope which constantly urges us toward the good things yet to come, and of which, as religious, you are called to be a sign and a prophecy.”
Charism of the Holy Family
The Pope then went on to recall the diverse origins of the four Institutes, highlighting the courage of their Founders and Foundresses – Josep Manyanet, María Encarnación Colomina, Maria Luigia Angelica Clarac, Giuseppe Guarino, Carmela Auteri, Teresa Ferrara, and Agostino di Montefeltro. He noted the inspiration of the Franciscans and Salesians, and pointed to a common thread: “the desire to live and to transmit to others the values of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the hearth of prayer, forge of love and model of holiness.”
Reflecting on the centrality of the family, he recalled the words of Saint Paul VI during his 1964 pilgrimage to the Holy Land. “By looking to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we might come to understand ever more deeply the importance of the family: its communion of love, its simple and austere beauty, its sacred and inviolable character, its gentle pedagogy and its natural and irreplaceable role in society.”
Renewed commitment to families
“Still today, there is great need for all of this,” Pope Leo affirmed. “More than ever, the family needs to be supported, promoted and encouraged, through prayer, example and attentive social action. In this way, we will be ready to respond to its needs. In this regard, your charismatic witness and your work as consecrated women can accomplish much.”
He invited the sisters to reflect on what their Institutes have already offered to countless families over the years, and to renew their service: “so that, as the liturgy describes, the same virtues and charity that characterize the Holy Family may flourish in our homes.”
“Continue the works entrusted to you by ‘being family’ and by remaining close to those you serve – with prayer, listening, counsel, and assistance – so as to cultivate and spread, in the various contexts where you work, the spirit of the home of Nazareth.”
Concluding his address, Pope Leo XIV thanked the Sisters for their witness “in so many parts of the world” before entrusting each of them to the intercession of the Mother of God and of Saint Joseph.
