Strong bond with God is defining quality of religious life, Pope says

(February 03, 2012) Strengthening one's relationship with God must be the highest priority and most defining quality of religious life, said Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday. He was speaking to men and women religious during an evening Vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica, on the Catholic Church’s World Day for Consecrated Life, which is marked on the Feb. 2^nd feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. The Pope noted that the annual observance was a way of bringing greater attention to the witness of faith of religious men and women worldwide. He said the day was also an important occasion for religious to renew their intentions and rekindle the feelings that inspire the giving of self to God. The evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, he said, "strengthen faith, hope and charity," and bring people closer to God. "This profound connection to the Lord, which must be the overriding and defining element of your existence, will renew your bond to him and will have a positive influence on your particular presence and form of apostolate," the Holy Father said. He said he hoped the Year of Faith that starts in October would be a fruitful time for inner renewal, which is always needed, and for growing closer to God. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, he said, will help promote and make suggestions for the special year "so that all consecrated men and women will pursue, with enthusiasm, new evangelization."