Vatican City, Oct 10, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Pope John Paul II received seventy participants in the 11th General Chapter of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame and urged them to examine and renew the particular charism received by their foundress, Sister Maria Aloysia, and to joyfully seek holiness.
“Continue to embrace joyfully your call to holiness in the perfection of charity and to cherish, according to your own traditions, that asceticism proper to consecrated persons," the Pope counseled
"Your foundress, Sister Maria Aloysia," he said, "gave life to a new Religious Institute wholly inspired and sustained by God's providential love. After some time of generous service to her neighbor, she came to understand that the compassionate love of God for His children could shine ever more brightly in a life totally consecrated to the Lord. She saw from the beginning that both personal holiness and mission are inseparable aspects of the radical commitment to follow Christ."
The Pope said that the General Chapter is "an opportunity to examine and to renew your allegiance to that same vision and to the particular charism of your foundress expressed in your spirituality and living traditions.”
“This examination,” he continued, “undertaken in prayerful openness to the Holy Spirit, will assist you in determining those aspects of your Institute which should be strengthened so as to give an even clearer witness to God's unfailing love."
"Preach the Good News effectively by being fully what you are, and by bringing that realty to all peoples," exhorted the Holy Father in conclusion.
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