In the name of the Father, and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you!

Good morning everyone, and thank you for your patience.

Dear Sisters, and also the Brother who is accompanying you, welcome!

I am pleased to meet with you this morning on the occasion of your General Chapters. These are moments of grace, a gift for the Church as well as for your Congregations. I greet the Superiors General present here, those who are new and those who have already completed their service, and are counting the days until they are able to rest a bit.

You are holding your assemblies during this year, the Jubilee of Hope. This hope, as Saint Paul says, does not disappoint; it is the fruit of proven virtue and is animated by the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5). These words aptly describe the richness you bring here today, in this hall. You bring the charismatic gift that the Paraclete once bestowed upon your Foundresses and Founders, a gift that continues to be renewed. You bring the faithful and providential presence of the Lord in the histories of your Institutes. You bring the virtue with which those who came before you — often enduring severe trials — responded to God’s gifts. All this makes you, in a special way, witnesses of hope, especially of that hope which constantly urges us toward the good things yet to come, and of which, as religious, you are called to be a sign and a prophecy (cf. Phil 3:13–14; Lumen Gentium, 44).

Your foundations have diverse origins, linked to the lives of men and women of God who, with courage, said “yes” to their call: Josep Manyanet, María Encarnación Colomina, Maria Luigia Angelica Clarac, Giuseppe Guarino, Carmela Auteri, Teresa Ferrara, Agostino di Montefeltro. The Holy Spirit granted to all of them particular gifts for the common good. He did so also through the inspiration of great schools of spirituality such as those of the Franciscans and the Salesians. Yet there is an aspect that unites many of you: the desire to live and to transmit to others the values of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the hearth of prayer, forge of love and model of holiness. I would like to reflect for a moment on this point.

Saint Paul VI, during his journey to the Holy Land, speaking to the faithful in the Basilica of the Annunciation, expressed the hope that, by looking to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we might come to understand ever more deeply the importance of the family: its communion of love, its simple and austere beauty, its sacred and inviolable character, its gentle pedagogy and its natural and irreplaceable role in society (cf. Address at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, 5 January 1964).

Still today, there is great need for all of this. More than ever, the family needs to be supported, promoted and encouraged, through prayer, example and attentive social action. In this way, we will be ready to respond to its needs.  In this regard, your charismatic witness and your work as consecrated women can accomplish much. I invite you, then, to reflect on all that your Institutes have done over time for so many families — children, mothers, fathers, the elderly, young people — and to renew your commitment, so that, as the liturgy describes, the same virtues and charity that characterize the Holy Family may flourish in our homes (cf. Roman Missal, Mass for the Family). Continue the works entrusted to you by “being family” and by remaining close to those you serve — with prayer, listening, counsel, and assistance — so as to cultivate and spread, in the various contexts where you work, the spirit of the home of Nazareth.

Dear Sisters, I thank you for the work you carry out in so many parts of the world. I prayerfully commend you to the Lord, entrusting you to the intercession of the Mother of God and of Saint Joseph. I impart to you my heartfelt blessing. Thank you!

After the blessing

Thanks to all of you. Have a good Chapter.