AAS 80 - La Santa Sede

Acta Ioannis Pauli Pp. II 805
Christ and his Church. The Second Vatican Council speaks to us
those remarkable and inspiring words: "In the Bishops... our Lord
Jesus Christ, the supreme High Priest, is présent in the midst of those
who believe". 29 These words teli us so much about who we are and
what we are about, They speli out our identity. And because of
this identity we are called to holiness and to daily conversion. In
speaking to you eight years ago in Chicago I stated : "The holiness
of personal conversion is indeed the condition for our fruitiul ministry
as Bishops of the Church. It is our union with Jesus Christ that
determines the credibility of our witness to the Gospel and the super­
natural effectiveness of our activity". 30 May God give us ali this great
gift of union with Jesus and allow us to live it together in strength
and joy, in the communion of the Church of God.
* * *
Franciscopoli, ad Religiosos Religiosasque coram admissos.*
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Dear Religious of the United States of America,
1. In their deepest spiritual significance, the Vespers that you
have prayed together are the voice of the Bride addressing the Bride-
groom. 1 They are also the voice of the Bridegroom, "the very prayer
which Christ himself, together with his body, addresses to the Father". 2
With one and the same voice the Bride and the Bridegroom praise
the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
In this liturgical song of praise you gave expression to "the real
nature of the true Church"—"both human and divine, visible and yet
invisibly endowed, eager to act and yet devoted to contemplation,
présent in the world and yet not at home in it". 3 It is precisely
the présence of God in human life and human affairs that you proclaim
through your religious consécration and the practice of the evangelical
29 Lumen Gentium, 21.
30 Discourse of October 5, 1979.
• Die 17 m. Septembris a. 1987.
1 Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 84.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 2.