ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II
TO THE SISTERS ADORERS 
FOR THEIR 27th GENERAL CHAPTER

15 October 1999

Dear Sisters,

1. It gives me great joy to be able to share this meeting with you, the Sisters Adorers, Servants of the Blessed Sacrament and Charity, who in these days are holding your 27th General Chapter on the theme:  "Community of consecrated women, rooted in Christ the Eucharist, called to a liberating mission, facing the challenges of the new millennium". With this statement you have summed up the essence of the integral charism of St María Micaela of the Blessed Sacrament and expressed your intention to live it faithfully as you meet the demands of the years to come, which, as I wrote in my Letter Tertio millennio adveniente, must be a "new springtime of Christian life" (n. 18).

I greet Mother Emilia Orta, your Superior General, and all of you; through you I would like to greet each of your sisters who is carrying out the institute's mission in various countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and America.

2. To answer the call to devote herself to serving socially maladjusted youth, your foundress knew how necessary is the strength that comes from above, from Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist, and this is why she wished to join charitable work with Eucharistic adoration. This, as you know well from experience, strengthens the Christian life, especially the consecrated life, since comfort, firm hope and encouragement for charity can be found in it, flowing from the Lord's mysterious and hidden but real presence. He, who promised to be with us always until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28: 20), makes himself present in this wondrous sacrament in the very reality of his risen body, which the angels and saints contemplate in heavenly glory.

3. I therefore encourage you, in fidelity to your Eucharistic spirituality, to continue the apostolic work to which you are committed by helping the many young women who are needy in body or mind and subject to various forms of oppression, proclaiming the truth to them and offering them the new life that Christ brings us, while at the same time fostering their human and Christian advancement in your formation centres.

May you be encouraged in this effort by my Apostolic Blessing, which I gladly impart to you and am pleased to extend to all the religious of the congregation, to your benefactors and to everyone you help.