“Prophecy of Presence and Seed of Peace” in the historical context, consecrated men and women from all over the world are the recipients of the letter **signed** on Wednesday, January 28, **by Sister Simona Brambilla**, Consolata missionary and prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; by the prefect, Cardinal **Angel Fernández Artime**, Salesian; and by the secretary, **Tiziana Merletti**, of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor.
The letter, titled “Prophecy of Presence: Consecrated Life where Dignity is wounded and Faith is tested,” for the XXX World Day of Consecrated Life, which will be celebrated this Monday, February 2nd, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, and will conclude with Mass presided over by León XIV in St. Peter’s Basilica this afternoon at 5:00 p.m.
A presence that remains
The officials of the dicastery write that, during the last year, during their **travels and pastoral visits**, they have had the gift of touching and being touched by the lives of many consecrated people, encountering the faces of many of them called to share complex situations: contexts marked by conflicts, social and political instability, poverty, marginalization, forced migration, religious minorities, violence and tensions, all elements that test the dignity, freedom, and sometimes, faith itself of the people.
However, these continue to be experiences that simultaneously reveal the strong and prophetic dimension of **consecrated life** as a presence that endures: alongside wounded peoples and individuals, **in places where the Gospel is lived in conditions of fragility and trial**.
Signs of a God who does not abandon
A “staying” that assumes different faces and challenges, just as the complexities of societies vary depending on whether everyday life is marked by fragility and institutional insecurity, or whether religious minorities experience pressures and restrictions, but also where prosperity coexists with loneliness, polarization, new forms of poverty, and indifference. This includes **contexts where migration, inequality, and widespread violence challenge civil coexistence.**
In many parts of the world, “the political and social situation puts trust to the test and erodes hope,” the letter states, so the “faithful, humble, creative, and discreet” presence of consecrated persons becomes a “sign” that “God does not abandon his people.”
“Remaining” according to the Gospel
Furthermore, the document delves into the concept of “evangelical permanence,” which is never “immobility”, let alone “resignation,” but rather “active hope” capable of generating “peaceful actions and gestures” through “words that disarm” where the wounds of conflict seem to erase fraternity, and “relationships that bear witness” to the desire for dialogue between cultures and religions. This includes “options that protect” the vulnerable even when standing by them demands a price; “patience” in processes, even within the ecclesial community; “perseverance” in the search for paths to reconciliation; and “courage” in denouncing situations and structures that deny human dignity and justice.
In light of all these elements, this “permanence” is not merely a personal or communal option, they emphasize, but becomes a “prophetic word for the whole Church and the world.”
Many expressions of a single prophecy
Precisely “like a seed that accepts death so that life may flourish”, the prophecy of all consecrated life, in its diverse and complementary forms, is expressed in the ability to remain: the apostolic life, for example, makes visible a working closeness that sustains wounded dignity; the contemplative life safeguards, through intercession and fidelity, hope when faith is tested. Furthermore, the letter continues to enumerate the states of life: secular institutes bear witness to the Gospel as “discreet leaven” in social and professional contexts; the Ordo virginum manifests the power of generosity and fidelity that “opens up to the future”; eremitical life recalls “the primacy of God and the essential that disarms the heart.”
In the diversity of all these forms, the letter emphasizes, “a single prophecy is configured: to remain with love, without abandonment, without silence, making one’s own life the Word for this time and for this history.”
Floreciendo como semillas de paz
And within this “prophecy of permanence,” a testimony of peace unfolds, understood—as the document affirms—as **an “exigente and daily path” of listening, dialogue, patience, conversion of mind and heart, and rejection of the logic of the oppressor.** Therefore, the document explains, consecrated life, by remaining close to the wounds of humanity “without yielding to the logic of conflict,” but “without renouncing the truth of God about humanity and history,” becomes “an artisan of peace.”
The document concludes with a thank you to the consecrated for their perseverance, an invitation to remain, after the Jubilee dedicated to them on October 10th, as pilgrims of hope on the path of peace, and a commendation to the Lord so that He may allow us to “remain,” “console,” and “restart,” and thus be, in the Church and in the world, “prophecy of presence and seed of peace.”
Lorena Leonardi / Vatican News
Religión Digital
English version translated with AI