The bishops of the Commission for Consecrated Life of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference underscored the importance of the contemplative life in a message issued on the occasion of Pro Orantibus Day (“for those who pray”), which will be observed on May 31, the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.
The celebration was instituted by Pope Pius XII to foster awareness of and prayer for those who consecrate their lives to prayer and contemplation in cloistered convents.
Under the theme “Vida contemplativa, ¿por quién eres?” (“Contemplative Life, for Whom Do You Exist?”), the bishops said this observance invites the faithful “to turn our attention toward those who, called by the Lord, have consecrated their lives to prayer, praise, and constant intercession for the people of God and for all of humanity.”
The question “For whom do you exist?” is intended as a call to “return to the origin and center: the One from whom contemplative life flows, is configured, and sustained.” In other words, the bishops said this involves “reflecting on God, who is love, who takes the initiative, calls, draws people in, and consecrates them” as well as “recognizing the ecclesial and missionary fruitfulness” of this form of consecrated life.
“In a time and cultural context marked by being in a hurry,” the bishops said, “interior distractedness and the temptation to measure life by immediate efficacy along with a thirst for spirituality on many levels, the contemplative life reminds the entire Church that the decisive question is not merely what we can do and hope for but also and above all for whom we exist, live, and act, for whom we lift up our eyes.”
The bishops also emphasized that “an existence dedicated to contemplation proclaims just by the entire dedication of one’s life that God is worthy of being sought and loved for his own sake and that placing one’s life before him represents in and of itself a profound and silent service both to the Church and to humanity as a whole, a humanity often lost in the depths of hatred and destruction. It is a service and a mission that the Church and men and women of all times need.”
Of God, for God, for the world and in community
The bishops of the Commission for Consecrated Life presented four distinctive characteristics of contemplative life: to be of God, for God, for the world, and in community.
This means that it “is born of a divine initiative that precedes any human response and takes concrete form in a total consecration, lived out in stability, silence, listening to the Word, and persevering praise.”
This consecration “for God” means that “contemplative persons order their days, renounce other good and legitimate projects, and remain faithful even amid aridity, trials, and anonymity.”
This “radical orientation toward God” is the reason why the contemplative life “exists for the Church,” the prelates noted, because “the personal and communal prayer of contemplatives sustains communion, strengthens the faith of the people of God, and serves as a reminder that all pastoral and missionary action is born of and returns to listening to the Spirit and to one’s brothers and sisters, as the synodal journey highlights.”
The bishops said that “the contemplative life is also for the world, even when the world neither knows nor understands it,” insofar as “its constant intercession reaches men and women of every walk of life, and becomes a hidden source of hope for a wounded humanity in need of meaning, reconciliation, and a profound joy of living.”
Pro Orantibus Day is an ecclesial act of gratitude, reciprocity, and co-responsibility, the prelates said, one that should help “to rediscover, value, and sustain the contemplative life, to pray for vocations, and to learn in the light of your witness that mission begins on one’s knees and is sustained by daily fidelity to the Lord.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.