At the school of Christ the teacher

“The consecrated life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit. By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus - the chaste, poor and obedient one - are made constantly 'visible' in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in history, even as it awaits its full realization in heaven.” The aim of the consecrated life is “conformity to the Lord Jesus in his total self-giving, “so that every consecrated person is called to assume “his mind and his way of life,” his way of thinking and of acting, of being and of loving.

Identity of consecrated life

The direct reference to Christ and the intimate nature of a gift for the Church and the world, are elements that define the identity and scope of the con- secrated life. In them the consecrated life finds itself, its point of departure, God and his love, and its point of arrival, the human community and its requirements. It i s through these elements that every religious family traces its own physiognomy, from its spirituality to its apostolate, from its style of community life to its ascetic plan, to the sharing and participation in the richness of its own charisms.

At Christ’s school to have his mind

The consecrated life can be compared in some ways to a school, that every consecrated person is called to attend for his
whole life. In fact, having the mind of the Son means to attend his school daily, to learn from him to have a heart that is meek and humble, courageous and passionate. It means allowing oneself to be educated by Christ, the eternal Word of the Father and, to be drawn to him, the heart and centre of the world, choosing his same form of life.

Allowing oneself to be educated and formed by Christ, to be similar to him

The life of a consecrated person is therefore an educational-formative rise and fall that educates to the truth of life and forms it to the freedom of the gift of oneself, according to the model of the Easter of the Lord. Every moment of consecrated life forms part of this rise and fall, in its double educational and formative aspect. A consecrated person does in fact gradually learn to have the mind of the Son in him and to reveal it in a life that is increasingly similar to his, both at individual and community level, in initial and permanent formation. Thus the vows are an expression of the lifestyle chosen by Jesus on this earth that was essential,chasteandcompletelydedicatedtotheFather.Prayerbecomes a continuation on earth of the praise of the Son to the Father for the salvation of all mankind. Community life is the demonstration that, in the name of the Lord, stronger bonds than those that come from flesh and blood can be tied. These are bonds that are able to overcome what can divide. The apostolate is the impassioned announcement of he by whom we have been conquered.

(From Consecrated Persons and their Mission in Schools, Rome 2002)