Eye on The Pope
Song of beauty
The Holy Father invited them to be a visible sign of Christ's beauty and a "laboratory of dialogue with the world."
"And your lives should be a song of this beauty so that your existence in the world is a sign of your existence in Christ."
The Holy Father told them: "Your passion is born of having discovered the beauty of Christ, his unique way of loving, of meeting others, of healing life, of making it joyful and of consoling it.
He also mentioned the "commitment to building a society that recognizes in the different realms the dignity of the person and the imperative values for his or her fulfillment: from politics to economics, from education to commitment to public health, from management of services to scientific research."
The Holy Father continued: "Every pain, every injustice, every search for the truth of beauty and goodness must challenge you, not because you have the solution to all problems, but because every circumstance in which the human being lives and dies is for us an opportunity to witness to the salvific work of God."
"To conform one's life with Christ's" not only calls for a "profound change of mentality" and "a different way of relating to Christ," but for "concrete commitments and gestures of 'mountain climbers of the spirit,'" he said.
In the world
Benedict XVI explained: "The place of your apostolate, therefore, is everything human, whether within the Christian community, or within the civil community in which the relationship is applied in the search for the common good, in dialogue with all."
In this way, .......you.. will be able "to witness that anthropology which is a proposal of meaning in a disoriented and confused society because of the multicultural and multireligious climate that characterizes it."
The Pope urged them: "Be seekers of truth, of the human revelation of God in life. Proclaim the beauty of God and of his creation. Following the example of Christ, be obedient to love, men and women of meekness and mercy, capable of going on the paths of the world doing only the good.
"May the beatitudes be the center of your lives, contradicting human logic, to express unconditional trust in God who wills that the human being be happy."
"The Church is also in need of you," the Holy Father added. "Be seeds of holiness sown generously in the furrows of history."
(Secular institutes result from and favor the ecclesial recognition of the laity's vocation and mission proposed by the Second Vatican Council.
Of the 215 secular institutes in the Church, the great majority are feminine.)