【慈幼通訊社
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2016 年
2
月
3
日梵蒂岡訊】
─「繼續走下去！我們每人都有在教會內的位置及職份。請別忘記第一次的召叫。請記著！今天，上主以第一次召叫你們時，那份同樣的愛，繼續召叫你們。」教宗方濟各於2月2日，向在梵蒂岡大殿參與獻主節彌撒的男女修會會士，說了這一番話。這感恩祭禮儀亦標誌著獻身生活年的結束。
教宗在講道中，講述了當天的慶節，並向在場修會人士發表一些意見。第一個是「耶穌來到我們那裡，我們要去與祂會面。」他說：「因此，獻身的兄弟姊妹是被召叫，最主要的是要成為與耶穌會面的男女。」
接著，他指出耶穌並非以「外在的方式救贖我們。祂不願處於我們的困境之外，卻願意分擔我們的生命。」因此獻身的兄弟姊妹，都被召叫成為眾人之中，「與天主保持親密關係的先知性標記。」
接著，他促請他們在聖神內，成為「奧蹟的守護者」，懷著一份奧蹟的精神，猶如聖母與若瑟對講及有關耶穌的話所懷有的同樣的精神。
最後，他邀請他們生活在「對與耶穌相遇、對獻身生活聖召恩賜的感恩之中。」他把這份感恩聯繫到感恩祭中，這就是真正的「感恩」，以及所有基督徒，尤其獻身人士神修生活的重點。
Pope Francis to Consecrated Persons: "Carry on!"
(ANS - Vatican – Vatican City, 3 February 2016) – "Carry on! Every one of us has a place and a job in the Church. Please, do not forget the first vocation, the first call. Remember it! The Lord continues to call you today with the same love with which you were first called." These are the words Pope Francis addressed to the men and women religious who, on 2 February, attended the Eucharist in the Vatican Basilica for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. The event also marked the closure of the Year of Consecrated Life.
In the homily of the Mass, the Pope referred to the feast of the day and made some observations to the religious present. The first is that "Jesus comes to us and we go to meet him.” “Therefore” he said, "consecrated men and women are called first and foremost to be men and women who meet Jesus."
Then he noted that Jesus did not work our salvation "from the outside. He did not stay outside our tragedy, but wanted to share our lives". Consequently men and women religious are called to "be a concrete prophetic sign of this closeness of God" among the people.
Then he urged them to be "guardians of wonder" in the Spirit, with the same spirit of wonder that Mary and Joseph had about what was said of Jesus.
And finally he invited them to live in "gratitude for their encounter with Jesus and the gift of a vocation to consecrated life." He related this gratitude directly to the Eucharist, the true "thanksgiving" and the focus of the spiritual life of all Christians and especially of consecrated persons.