Men and women of every age and nation, scattered by the thousands throughout the world, offer their lives for love of Jesus, freely, passionately, and without fanfare in many areas of ecclesial, social, educational, charitable, missionary, and contemplative life.
Often, in the most unexpected and controversial situations, friars and nuns know how to reach people with their faith, sensitivity, and perseverance, opening doors and building bridges.
Why consecrated life?
Yet many people ask themselves: “Why consecrated life? Why embrace this kind of life?” “Priests celebrate Mass and the other sacraments, but what do friars do?” “Being a nun or a nun in a monastery is an absurd choice; ultimately, isn't it ‘wasting’ and throwing away one's life?” These phrases about consecrated persons, born of stereotypes and prejudices, are often heard, and it is difficult to bring the precious reality of consecrated life to light.
In volume 22 of “Council Notebooks – Jubilee 2025”, entitled “Consecrated Life,” Veronica Berzosa, a religious with a strong charism and deep spirituality, founder of Iesu Communio, helps us understand the value and meaning of consecrated life in the Church in the light of the Second Vatican Council. Indeed, what may appear to us as waste is instead, for the consecrated person, captivated by the Lord's beauty and goodness, a response of love.
Consecrated life, a gift to the Church
The Second Vatican Council also represents a major event for consecrated life, giving rise to profound renewal. Indeed, for the first time, an ecumenical council addressed consecrated life, recognizing it as a living and fruitful part of the Church's life of holiness and communion. This is what the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium states in chapter VI.
First of all, it highlights its value as a form of life that “more faithfully imitates and continually represents in the Church the form of life that the Son of God embraced when he came into the world to do the Father's will” (LG 44). It concludes by saying that “the state of life constituted by the profession of the evangelical counsels, while not concerning the hierarchical structure of the Church, nevertheless belongs inseparably to her life and holiness” (LG 44).
Far from being a renunciation, consecrated life is therefore embraced as an incomparable gift: those who surrender themselves to God are certain that no joy compares with the happiness of making Christ's light shine.
