#28 Starting Afresh From Christ 

If “the spiritual life must therefore have first place in the program of families of consecrated life,” (VC 93) it should be above all a spirituality of communion suitable for the present time.  To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.   

The whole Church expects a clear contribution to this undertaking from consecrated life because of its specific vocation to a life of communion in love.  In Vita Consecrata #46, we read, “Consecrated persons are asked to be true experts of communion and to practice the spirituality of communion as witnesses and architects of the plan for unity, which is the crowning point of human history in God’s design.” 

Moreover, we are reminded that one of the tasks of consecrated life today is that of spreading the spirituality of communion, first of all in their internal life and then in the ecclesial community, and even beyond its boundaries, by opening or continuing a dialogue in charity, especially where today’s world is torn apart by ethnic hatred or senseless violence (VC #51). This is a task that requires spiritual persons interiorly shaped by God, by loving and merciful communion and by mature communities where the spirituality of communion is the rule of life. 

#29 

But what is the spirituality of communion?  With incisive words, capable of giving new life to relationships and programs, John Paul II teaches: “A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart’s contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the faces of the brothers and sisters around us.  A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as ‘those who are a part of me…Some consequences of feeling and doing derive from this principle with convincing logic: sharing the joys and sufferings of our brothers and sisters; sensing their desires and attending to their needs; offering them true and profound friendship.

 The spirituality of communion also implies the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and to prize it as a gift from God, and to know how to make room for others, sharing each other’s burdens.  Unless we follow this spiritual path, the external structures of communion serve very little purpose (NMI #43)

 The spirituality of communion, which appears to reflect the spiritual climate of the Church at the beginning of the third millennium, is an active and exemplary task for consecrated life on all levels. It is the principal highway for the future of life and witness. Holiness and mission come through the community because in and through it Christ makes himself present.  Brother and sister become sacraments of Christ and of the encounter with God, and even more, the unsurpassable necessity in carrying out the commandment to love one another and bring about Trinitarian communion.