Pope: Everyone needs help living the faith — no one can do it alone
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Pope: Everyone needs help living the faithĀ — no one can do it aloneĀ
On Saturday, Pope Francis stressed the importance of having a solid guide in the spiritual life since no oneĀ — neither laity nor consecrated persons themselvesĀ — can stay faithful for long without help.
āAll of us consecrated, the young and those not so young, need adequate help for the human, spiritual and vocational moment we are living,ā the pope said Jan. 28. āWe will never emphasize this need too much.ā
He honed in on the need for adequate preparation of spiritual guides, since itās āhard to stay faithful walking alone, or walking with the guidance of brothers or sisters who arenāt capable of attentive and patient listening, or who donāt have adequate experience of consecrated life.ā
Using the image of Jesus and the disciples of Emmaus as an example, the Pope said there is a need for spiritual guides who are āexperts in the ways of Godā and are capable of accompanying people through life, pointing them to the Eucharist and Confession in times of hardship or confusion.
āThis is the delicate and demanding task of a spiritual guide,ā he said, and warned against ways of accompanying that create dependencies, false protections or that are too āchildish.ā
Instead, āwe cannot resign ourselves to walking alone,ā and need āa close, frequent and fully adult accompaniment,ā he said, adding that having this will help in knowing how to constantly discern the will of God.
Discernment, for both the guide and the person accompanied, requires āa fine spiritual sensitivityā and complete detachment from āprejudice and from personal or group interest,ā Francis said, adding that true discernment isnāt choosing ābetween the good and the bad.ā
Above all, it means choosing ābetween the good and the better, between what is good and that which leads to identification with Christ.ā
Pope Francis spoke to participants in the annual plenary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which this year reflected on the theme of fidelity and those who have abandoned consecrated life.
In his speech, the Pope noted that fidelity is often āput to the testā in todayās social and cultural context, saying we are currently facing āa hemorrhageā that weakens both the Church and consecrated life itself.
The number of people who leave consecrated life is concerning, he said, noting that while some leave after a serious discernment showed that they never had a vocation, others become less faithful as time passes by, āmany times only a few years after their perpetual profession.ā
The reasons for this, he said, have to do with the fact that we live in a time āwhich is a change of era and not only an era of change, in which it becomes difficult to assume serious and definitive commitments.ā
āWe live immersed in the so-called āculture of the fragment,ā of the provisionary, which can lead to living āa la carteā and to being a slave of fashions,ā he said, noting that this mentality feeds unhealthy trends such as a heightened sense of consumerism that ends up āprovoking a great existential emptiness.ā
In this context, the Pope stressed that itās important for a person to let himself be evangelized before committing to evangelize others.
Francis pointed to the many youth who offer solidarity and commit at both a social and religious level, saying āthere are marvelous youth and they are not few,ā but also cautioned that young people are particularly susceptible to āthe logic of worldliness.ā
Summarizing the mentality as āthe search for success at whatever price, of easy money and easy pleasure,ā he noted that the temptation seduces many of todayās youth, and because of this, they need someone to stand beside them and ācontaminate them with the joy of the Gospel.ā
The Pope then pointed to a third factor he said affects vocational fidelity and which comes from within consecrated life itself: the ācounter-witnessā of some members of the community.
While there is a lot of holiness inside many communities, there is also sin, he said, noting that particularly challenging situations for consecrated persons are when things become routine, when members get tired and the weight that comes with managing different structures.
Difficulties also arise from internal divisions, the search for power, a worldly mentality in governing institutes and āa service of authority which at times becomes authoritarianism and at other times a ālaissez-faire.āā
āIf consecrated life wants to maintain its prophetic mission in the world,ā he said, āit must maintain the freshness and the novelty of the centrality of Jesus, the attractiveness of the spirituality and the strength of the mission, showing the beauty of following Christ and radiating joy and hope.ā
Pope Francis also pointed, as he often does, to the importance of fraternal life in the community, which he said is fueled by daily prayer, Mass, the reading of Scripture, fraternal correction, dialogue and mercy toward those who sin.
āAll of this accompanies an eloquent and joyful witness of life beside the poor and by a mission that the privileges the existential peripheries,ā he said in a Catholic News Agency report, explaining that to maintain this depends on the quality of vocational pastoral ministry.
āBecause when a brother or sister is not supported in their consecrated life inside of the community, they seek it outside, with everything that this brings.ā