Verginità Beata
The monastic life is an offering
of self for Someone;
it is a profession of faith,
a public confession,
like a creed publicly proclaimed.
It states that it is worthwhile to give one’s life for the Lord because he gave his life for us, and that we wish to give it in this way, in asceticism, in prayer, in fraternal communion, in the life of charity. It is like an arrow that indicates to others where to find the greatest good that everyone should seek.
By sharing the world’s anxieties and expectations, we keep watch in prayer as sentinels who scan the horizon, and wish to hasten the birth of a new world. Our life becomes a prophecy of the future world, a transparent sign of the last realities, that is, of the Kingdom of Heaven, the sacrament of the very Presence of God among peoples.