Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

171 prayer, a truly spiritual person. Without a strong spiritual substance, he will not find enough strength to perform his service for a long time. Moreover, he must learn from Christ that life is not about self-fulfillment and success. [...] The overworking, fatigue, and frustration of today’s priests result from some persistent search for success. Faith then becomes too heavy a burden which is hard to carry.” 6 Let’s summarize: “At the heart of the consecrated persons’ life is assim- ilating to Christ through an intimate bond with Him and through a total dedication to imitate Him on the path of the evangelical counsels; not only to make Christ the whole meaning of their lives, but to strive to reproduce in themselves, as far as possible, that form of life which he, as the Son of God, accepted in entering this world ” (VC 16). The work of sanctification and redemption carried out only in unity – deep communion – with Christ is the indispensable mission of the religious in the Church and in the world. It is achieved not through some individual- ized or collective activism, but by imitating Christ, His way of life and what He stood for: being obedient to the Father, He “emptied himself taking the form of a slave” (Phil 2:7). Jesus nurtured a wish that His disciples open themselves to the power of the evangelical life, to the Gospel – Himself (cf. Mk 1:1), which has value in itself, even if stripped of many earthly means and values, i.e., spectacular signs and wonders. In this way, the religious life becomes a sign and a witness because it has in itself sanctifying and redemptive values. Saint John Paul II said: “ The first duty of the conse- crated life is to make visible the marvels wrought by God in the frail humanity of those who are called. They bear witness to these marvels not so much in words as by the eloquent language of a transfigured life, capable of amazing the world ” (VC 20). Center of Life The Holy Spirit imparts to a founder and his disciples a specific under- standing and love of the mystery of Christ (cf. Eph 3: 5), which becomes the center of life of a given religious community and its members. This is 6 NB: the reference is given for the Polish-language quote: Joseph Ratzinger, Opera omnia , tome XII: Głosiciele Słowa i słudzy waszej radości , Ed. Krzysztof Góźdź, Marzena Górecka, transl. Marzena Górecka, Monika Rodkiewicz, Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2012, p. 47., the text in English is a translation from Polish.