VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis asked consecrated men and women not to let their spirits “doze off” while waiting to encounter the Lord but to keep their hearts awake in anticipation “like an eternal flame,” on February 2 in his homily for Candlemas—the feast of the Presentation of the Lord—which also marks the celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life, at St. Peter’s Basilica.
“We must recognise at times that we have lost the ability to wait,” the pope said, adding that “the Christian life and apostolic mission need the experience of waiting.”
The pope’s Mass began with him blessing with holy water the candles used for the entrance procession, praying that the people of God “may join the light that has no end.” Some 50 consecrated men and women led the candlelit procession while the lights in the basilica remained dimmed, and many of the 5,000 people that filled the church held lit candles as well.
While Pope Francis presided over the Mass, João Braz Cardinal de Aviz, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, was the main celebrant at the altar. Some 335 priests concelebrated with the pope.
Religious attend a Mass with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 2. The Mass concluded the Year of Consecrated Life. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See POPE-CONSECRATED-MASS Feb. 2, 2016.
Priests hold candles as they wait for Pope Francis to arrive for Mass with consecrated women and men marking the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the World Day for Consecrated Life in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 2. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters) See POPE-CONSECRATED-MASS Feb. 2, 2018.
Consecrated women and other members of the congregation hold candles during Pope Francis’ Mass on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the World Day for Consecrated Life in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Pope Francis gives his homily during Mass on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the World Day for Consecrated Life in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2024. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Candles are lighted around the main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica before Pope Francis celebrates Mass on Candlemas, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord Feb. 2, 2024. The Mass also marked the Vatican celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
People light each other’s candle’s at the beginning of Mass with Pope Francis on Candlemas, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2024. The Mass also marked the Vatican celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)Pope Francis told the hundreds of consecrated men and women gathered in the basilica that the practice of waiting that is essential to religious life is impeded by a “neglect of the interior life” and the temptation to adapt “to a worldly lifestyle.”
Interior life is neglected when “weariness prevails over amazement, when habit takes the place of enthusiasm” and when people give way to bitterness in their lives, he said.
“It is not good to ruminate on bitterness,” the pope said, “because in a religious family, as in any community and family, bitter and ‘sour-faced’ people are deflating.” He urged consecrated persons to instead be “nourished by adoration” and prayer, which can “reawaken that flavour of waiting.”
…weariness prevails over amazement when habit takes the place of enthusiasm…
Pope Francis
Still, “ours is a world that often runs at great speed” and “seeks to exorcise life’s fears and anxieties in the pagan temples of consumerism or in entertainment at all costs,” Pope Francis noted.
Given this context where silence is banished and lost, the pope noted, “Waiting is not easy,” observing that Christian mystics, such as the French mystic and philosopher Simone Weil, demonstrate the need for Christians to free themselves from the “myth of efficiency” and “the obsession with performance” to find God in even the most unexpected circumstances.
Pope Francis warned consecrated men and women to be careful “that the spirit of the world does not enter our religious communities, ecclesial life and our individual journey, otherwise we will not bear fruit.”
Among those celebrating the World Day of Consecrated life with Pope Francis were more than 300 religious-order priests, brothers, sisters, members of secular institutes and consecrated virgins who came from 62 countries for a four-day conference on being “pilgrims of hope” and promoters of peace.
