LIFE OF SPECIAL

COMMUNION OF LOVE
W I T H T H E FAT H E R
 INTRODUCTION

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and
James and John his brother, and led them up a high
mountain apart. And he was transfigured before
them, and his face shone like the sun, and his
garments became white as light. And behold, there
appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with
him. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that
we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths
here, one for you and one for Moses and one for
Elijah". He was still speaking, when lo, a bright
cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the
cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I
am well pleased; listen to him". When the disciples
heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled
with fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
"Rise, and have no fear". And when they lifted up
their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
 INTRODUCTION

“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well

pleased, listen to Him. “

These words heard by the three disciples, were a call from God
the Father to listen to Christ, to place all their trust in him, to
make him the centre of their lives. These words from on high
give new depth to the first invitation by which Jesus himself, at
the beginning of his public

life, called them to follow him, to leave their ordinary lives

behind and to enter into a close relationship to him.
It is precisely this special grace of intimacy which, in the
consecrated life, makes possible and even demands the total gift
of self in the profession of the evangelical counsels. The
counsels, more than a simple renunciation, are a specific
acceptance of the mystery of Christ, lived within the Church.
 1. TRINITARIAN CHARACTER OF CONSECRATED
LIFE

Embracing virginity, he makes Christ's virginal love his own and

confesses him to the world as the only-begotten Son, one with the
Father (cf. Jn 10:30; 14:11); imitating his poverty, he confesses
him as the Son who receives all things from the Father and
returns all things in love (cf. Jn 17:7, 10). 10); by clinging, with
the sacrifice of his own freedom, to the mystery of filial
obedience, he confesses him as infinitely loved and lover, as the
One who delights only in the will of the Father (cf. Jn. 4:34), to
whom he is perfectly united and on whom he depends in
everything.

With such a "conforming" identification with the mystery of

Christ, consecrated life realizes by a special title that confessio
Trinitatis which characterizes the whole Christian life,
recognizing with admiration the sublime beauty of God the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
 1. TRINITARIAN CHARACTER OF CONSECRATED LIFE

This special communion of the Trinity, which characterizes the consecrated

life, is above all a special communion with the Father about which speaks
the exhortation Vita Consecration when speaking of the fidelity to the
charism says it has a "triple relationship" or orientation:

to the Father in the desire to filially seek His will through a process of
continuous conversion....

to the Son, leading us to cultivate with him an intimate and joyful

communion of life, in the school of his generous service of God and of our
brothers and sisters....

to the Holy Spirit since He disposes the person to allow himself to be led
and sustained by Him, both in his own spiritual journey and in the life of
communion and apostolic action (cf. VC 36).

The consecrated person is linked to the Trinity not only because of

sanctifying grace and the gifts received in baptism, but also because of the
"grace of vocation. It is the Lord of the harvest who arouses, who calls
from among his children some who will announce with their lives the
kingdom of heaven, who will give themselves totally and generously to the
cause of the Gospel.
 2. GOD THE FATHER, EFFICIENT CAUSE OF
CONSECRATED LIFE

Filial trust of the consecrated person with God in the following of

Christ.

Father Pardilla explains that this relationship of special

communion must be understood, in the first place, as the fruit of
the generous and gratuitous initiative of the Father, that is, as the
effect of God's paternal action. The covenant of communion is
also the fruit of the docility and commitment of the human
person, that is, the result of the filial action and response.

In order to describe the characteristics of the paternal and filial

aspects of communion between the Father and the consecrated
person, he proposes to focus on the relationship between the
Father and Jesus, because "the consecrated life is a living
memory of Jesus' way of existing and acting as the Incarnate
Word before the Father ".
 2. GOD THE FATHER, EFFICIENT CAUSE OF
CONSECRATED LIFE

The long history of men and women who, since the beginning of
the Church, have followed Christ in the manner of the Apostles,
have done so because they have felt "touched by the love of God.
Their "decision of total consecration is the fruit of divine love"

As an expression of a special love, the Father proposes to the

person called to the consecrated life the same form of life of his
beloved Son. In his plan of love, the Father proposes to Christ,
and proposes to the person called to a life of special consecration,
the "chaste, poor and obedient form of life ". Such a form of life
is, on the one hand and above all, a splendid initiative of the
Father's love. Under the action of the Spirit, consecrated persons
have "the intimate certainty of having been chosen to love, praise
and serve ". To live in the form of Christ's life, to make "an
offering of self, in communion with Christ who offers himself to
the Father for the salvation of the whole world ".
 2. GOD THE FATHER, EFFICIENT CAUSE OF
CONSECRATED LIFE

To the extent that the consecrated person lives a life uniquely given to
the Father (cf. Lk 2:49; Jn 4:34), sustained by Christ (cf. Jn 15:16; Gl
1:15-16), animated by the Spirit (cf. Lk 24:49; Acts 1:8; 2:4), he
cooperates effectively in the mission of the Lord Jesus (cf. Jn 20:21),
contributing in a particularly profound way to the renewal of the
world; where the first missionary task of the consecrated person is to
himself, and he carries it out by opening his own heart to the action of
the Spirit of Christ. Their witness helps the whole Church to remember
that in the first place is the gratuitous service of God, made possible by
the grace of Christ, communicated to the believer through the gift of
the Spirit.

Consecrated persons will be missionaries first of all by continually

deepening their awareness of having been called and chosen by God,
to whom they must therefore direct their whole life and offer all that
they are and have, freeing themselves from the impediments that could
hinder their total response of love. In this way they can become a true
sign of Christ in the world. Their lifestyle should also make
transparent the ideal they profess, proposing themselves as a living
sign of God and as an eloquent, though often silent, preaching of the
 3. THE CONSECRATED PERSON'S RESPONSE TO THE
FATHER'S INITIATIVE

Responding to the invitation "this is my beloved Son, listen to him "

and to the interior attraction produced by God's call, the consecrated
person entrusts himself to the love of God who wants him in his
service, and consecrates himself totally to Him and to his plan of
salvation. "The experience of this gratuitous love of God is so
intimate and strong that the person experiences that he must respond
with the unconditional surrender of his life, consecrating everything,
present and future, into his hands ". For this reason, consecrated life
"is an announcement of what the Father (...) accomplishes with his
love, his goodness and his beauty ".

That is why we say with Pope St. John Paul the Great: "To you,
Mother... we raise our supplication. You who have done the will of
the Father, available in obedience, fearless in poverty and hospitable
in fruitful virginity, obtain from your Divine Son that those who
have received the gift of following him in the consecrated life may
know how to witness him with a transfigured life ".
Mary Queen of Heaven Prado,
SSVM
Missionary in Papua New Guinea