{"id":122605,"date":"2026-02-03T11:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/?p=122605"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:38:25","slug":"pope-to-religious-even-where-weapons-roar-you-are-witnesses-to-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/pope-to-religious-even-where-weapons-roar-you-are-witnesses-to-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope to religious: Even where weapons roar, you are witnesses to Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThrough your commitment to follow Christ more closely \u2014 sharing in his self-emptying and in his life in the Spirit\u00a0\u2014 you can show the world the way to overcome conflict, sowing fraternity through the freedom of those who love and forgive without measure\u201d. Pope Leo gave this powerful reminder during the Mass he celebrated on Monday for the World Day for Consecrated Life, an annual observance that was instituted in 1997 by Pope Saint John Paul II which is celebrated on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 2 February.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Offering everything to God\u00a0<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

Your founders and foundresses, docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, offer you wonderful models of how to fulfil this mandate faithfully and effectively. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Living in constant tension between earth and heaven, Pope Leo marveled how \u201cthey allowed themselves to be guided with faith and courage\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cSetting out from the Eucharistic table, some were led to the silence of the cloister, others to the demands of the apostolate; some to the classrooms of schools, others to the destitution of the streets or the toil of the missions\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

A prayerful presence in often hostile environments<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

This same faith, he said, moved them to return, \u201ctime and again, humbly and wisely\u201d, to the foot of the Cross and to the Tabernacle, \u201cwhere they offered everything and discovered in God both the source and the goal of all their actions\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through the power of grace, he said, they also embarked on perilous undertakings.\u00a0 \u201cThey became a prayerful presence in hostile or indifferent environments; a generous hand and a friendly shoulder amid degradation and abandonment; and witnesses of peace and reconciliation in situations marked by violence and hatred\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Prepared to go against the current<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

\u201cThey were ready\u201d, Pope Leo stressed, \u201cto bear the consequences of going against the current, becoming, in Christ, a ‘sign of contradiction,’\u00a0sometimes even to the point of martyrdom\u201d. \u201cToday, we honor our brothers and sisters who have gone before us as protagonists of this \u2018prophetic tradition\u2019, and do so above all by carrying forward their legacy\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are called to testify that the young, the elderly, the poor, the sick and the imprisoned hold a sacred place above all else on God\u2019s altar and in his heart\u201d, the Pope said, while observing, \u201cat the same time, each of them is an inviolable sanctuary of God\u2019s presence, before whom we must bend our knee, in order to encounter him, adore him and give him glory\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Religious communities do not abandon their people<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

He pointed out that evidence of this can be seen in the many \u201coutposts of the Gospel\u201d that their communities have established in a wide variety of challenging contexts, even in the midst of conflict. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese communities\u201d, he underscored, \u201cdo not abandon their people, nor do they flee; they remain, often stripped of all security, as a living reminder \u2014 more eloquent than words \u2014 of the inviolable sacredness of life in its most vulnerable conditions\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven where weapons roar and arrogance, self-interest and violence seem to prevail\u201d, Pope Leo observed, \u201ctheir presence proclaims the words of Jesus: ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones, for… in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pope recalled that the Second Vatican Council reminds us that \u201cthe Church… will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven… At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself… will be perfectly established in Christ\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that this prophetic vision concerns them as well, as \u201cmen and women firmly rooted in the realities of the present, yet ‘always attentive to the things that are above’ Christ died and rose in order to ‘free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pope Leo concluded by reiterating the Church’s gratitude to the Lord for the presence of consecrated men and women, saying, \u201cShe encourages you to be leaven of peace and signs of hope wherever Providence may lead you\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

* Article published in Vatican News. Written by: Deborah Castellano. Photos: Vatican Media.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":122600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3386,3367],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-see","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122606,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122605\/revisions\/122606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}