Contemplate. To consecrated men and women on the trail of Beauty: this is the theme of the third circular letter of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life for the Year of Consecrated Life.
The Letter invites all consecrated persons to live the contemplative dimension in the many occupations of daily life; to deepen their relationship with God so as to gaze with his eyes on humanity and all creation.
“The contemplative dimension is indispensable in the midst of our most urgent and heaviest commitments,” Pope Francis said in a homily in the Domus Sanctae Marthae chapel. “And the more our mission calls us to go out toward the ‘existential peripheries,’ the more keenly our hearts feel the need to be united to the heart of Christ, full of mercy and love.”
After the two Letters Rejoice, and Keep Watch, this third Letter continues the process of reflection on the consecrated life, following the golden thread of the Canticle of Canticles.
As we begin the Jubilee Year, the text reminds each of us to seek Jesus, the Face of the Father’s mercy, and sketches out the path to follow: “Each and every consecrated person is called to contemplate and bear witness to the face of God, who understands our weaknesses (cf. Ps. 102), so as to pour out the balm of benevolence on the wounds of humanity, countering the cynicism of indifference” (Contemplate, 59).