Transcript 基督徒如何 在生活中成聖？

Apostolic Exhortation
Vita Consecrata
《奉獻生活》勸諭
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9th World Synod of Bishops
Time：2-29 October 1994
Participants：245
Theme： The Consecrated Life and its Mission
in the Church and in the World
On 30 December 1991 Pope John Paul II called
a world Synod of Bishops on consecrated life.
National and international communities of
consecrated persons and apostolic life,
exchanged ideas with the local churches and
different congregations of the Church.
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• Most of the clerical participants belonged
to religious communities. A religious sister
and a brother were the assistant
secretaries. There were also many male
and female consecrated persons who sat
in as experts
• After the world Synod of Bishops, the
Apostolic ExhortationVita Consecrata was
promugated on 25 March 1996.
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Aim of the Apostolic Exhortation
• 4﹒In response to the desire expressed by the
Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops who met to discuss the theme “The
Consecrated Life and its Mission in the Church
and in the World”, I (the Pope) intend to set forth
in this Apostolic Exhortation the results of the
Synod process and to point out to all the faithful
– Bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated
persons and laity, and to any others who might
be interested – the wondrous things which today
too the Lord wishes to accomplish through the
consecrated life.
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Aim of the Apostolic Exhortation
• 13﹒Gathering together the fruits of the
labours of the Synod, in this Apostolic
Exhortation I (the Pope)wish to address
the whole Church in order to offer, not only
to consecrated persons but also to the
Bishops and the faithful, the results of a
stimulating exchange, guided by the Holy
Spirit with his gifts of truth and love.
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The Theological Anthropology
of Karl Rahner
• Let me talk about the theological
anthropology of Karl Rahner, and then
base on this, explain the Apostolic
Exhortation “Vita Consecrata”.
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Human Beings,
Spirits in the World
• Karl Rahner, the theologian, states that
human being is a spirit in the world，a
limited spiritual being
• Human being fully realize the limitation of
oneself, in himself there is no fullness. For
this he is continuously longing for the
infinite being (God).
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Men Longs for God
Continuously
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• Stamped and determined by grace, human
nature longs for God’s self-communication
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• God’s self-communication motivates
man’s self-transcendence
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Man as Listener of the Word
• Because of grace, man is endowed with
the a priori conditions of the possibility of
listening to God’s Word and experiencing
His mystery
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Man as Listener of the Word
• Because of man’s unlimited
transcendental nature, he is able to stand
before God, listen to God who speaks in
human language, expressing His own
mystery. Man is indeed the listener of the
Divine Word. He is able to understand it
and experience God’s mystery, and be
united to him.
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God’s Self-communication
• Two modes of God’s self-communication:
• 1. Bestowal of grace
• 2. Christ’s incarnation
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Christ the Perfect Realization of
Humanity
• Our Lord Jesus has eminently fulfilled the
transcendence of his being
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Self-transcendence of Man
• What is self?
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The Illusion of Face-changing
The illusion of face changing in Peking
opera：
• No matter how many faces he changes, at
the end he will reveal his true face to the
audience
Face-changing in the actual world：
• At times we are so successful that we
forget our own true face.
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Self
• Authentic self
and
• Unauthentic self
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Unauthentic Self
(constructed self)
• Constructed Self：the “self” constructed
by external conditions
• External Conditions：money、fame、
social position、power、achievements、
human relationships…
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Authentic Self：”Image of God”
• Authentic self：”Image of God”(Gen 1:27）
• Because God created me, I am invaluable；
• Because God loves me, I am amiable.
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Knowing Oneself
The Importance of knowing oneself：
• When I know my authentic self I don’t need to waste
time and energy to construct an unauthentic self
• When I don’t know my authentic self I waste my whole
life to construct an unauthentic self. At the end I am
nothing.
• Knowing oneself is the foundation of personality
development
• Difficulty in knowing oneself：unwilling to face suffering,
unable to really know oneself
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Process of Knowing Myself
• Face oneself with sincerity（light and
darkness）
• Accept everything of
oneselfconversionself transcendence
（sanctification）
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Two Modes of
Self-transcendence
• Self-transcendence in knowledge
• Self-transcendence in freedom
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Self-transcendence in
Knowledge
1. Self-transcendence in knowledge
• from (intellectual) confirmation of our
limited being, to (intellectual) confirmation
of the absolute being (God)
• Knowing oneself, one comes to know the
meaning of life, the meaning of being
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Self-transcendence in Freedom
• 2. Self-transcendence in freedom
• In every ethical choice and practice, good
acts and avoidance of evil, man gains
experience of self-transcendence;
• In loving the creation, others, man loves
God implicitly;
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Self-transcendence
• Grace urges us to experience selftranscendence continuously in the course
of our life, i.e. sanctification. The
incarnation of Christ is the aim and the
end of self-transcendence. The ultimate
aim is to be united with Him.
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Let us introduce St Ignatius through
• the discernment of spirits of St Ignatius
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Discernment of Spirits
• Ignatius believes that the heart of men is
affected by 3 aspects：
• 1. Oneself (authentic self/unauthentic self)
• 2. Evil spirits
• 3. Good spirits
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Desolation
• Desolation—the evil spirit urges man to go
against the will of God, so that his heart is
far away from God, caught in darkness,
confusion, hopelessness, and is pleased
with despicable things
• Desolation urges man to construct an
unauthentic self
• and fall into all kinds of sin
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Consolation
• Consolation—the good spirit gives man
light, consolation, courage, strength,
peace, joy
• to help man discern the will of God
• to fulfil the will of God
• to experience self-transcendence
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• The self must discern the important
experience of the heart：
feelings, emotions, inclinations, desolation,
consolation…etc
• discern their sources, refuse
determinately when it is from the evil spirit,
and accept with joy when it comes from
the good spirit
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• Let us look at the Apostolic Exhortation
”Vita Consecrata”
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Lord Jesus is the Image of the
Heavenly Father
• Introduction
• 1﹒The consecrated life, deeply rooted in
the example and teaching of Christ the
Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his
Church through the Holy Spirit.
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Source & Foundation of
Vowed Life
• The radical mode of God’s self
communication—Christ became man
• Christ became man is the source and
foundation of vowed life
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Lord Jesus Practiced Vowed Life
by Continuous Self-transcendence
• Poverty：self empting (kenosis), became
man, born in a poor condition, grew up,
completed the human journey
• Chastity：consecrated chastity as the sign of
the coming of heavenly kingdom
• Obedience：obeyed till death, accomplished
the economy of salvation
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Introduction
• 1. By the profession of evangelical
counsels, the characteristic features of
Jesus—the chaste, poor and obedient
one—are made constantly “visible” in the
midst of the world and the eyes of the
faithful are directed towards the mystery of
the Kingdom of God already work in
history, even as it awaits its full realization
in heaven.
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Consecrated Life
a Gift to the Church
• One of the mode of God’s self
communication: bestowing of grace
consecrated life is God’s gift to the Church
•3.The consecrated life is at the very heart of the
Church as a decisive element for her mission,
since it “manifests the inner nature of the
Christian calling” and the striving of the whole
Church as Bride towards union with her one
Spouse.
•
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Self Transcendence of
Consecrated Persons
• 5. I felt the need to stress this permanent
element in the history of the Church: the host of
founders and foundresses, of holy men and
women who chose Christ by radically following
the Gospel and by serving their brothers and
sisters, especially the poor and the outcast.
• Such service is itself a sign of how the
consecrated life manifests the organic unity of
the commandment of love, in the inseparable
link between love of God and love of neighbour.
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Christ & the Trinitarian Mystery
The Source of Consecrated Life
• 14. The evangelical basis of consecrated
life is to be sought in the special
relationship which Jesus, in his early life,
established with some of his disciples. He
called them not only to welcome the
Kingdom of God into their own lives, but
also to put their lives at its service, leaving
everything behind and closely imitating his
own way of life.
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The Transfigurated Image of Christ
• Many of the baptised throughout history have
been invited to live such life “in the image of
Christ”. But this is possible only on the basis of
a special vocation and in virtue of a particular gift
of the Spirit.
• For in such a life, the baptismal consecration
develops into a radical response in the following
of Christ through acceptance of the evangelical
counsels, the first and essential element of
which is the sacred bond of chastity for the sake
of the Kingdom of Heaven.
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• This special way of following Christ, at the
origin of which is always the initiative of
the Father, has an essential Christological
and pneumatological meaning: it
expresses in a particular vivid way the
Trinitarian nature of the Christian life and it
anticipates in a certain way that
eschatological fulfilment towards which the
whole Church is tending.
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Different Types of
Consecrated Life
• 16. Sacred ministers, for their part, are
living images of Christ the Head and
Shepherd who guides his people during
this time of “already come but not yet
fulfilled”, as they await his coming in glory.
•
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Different Types of
Consecrated Life
• 16. By professing the evangelical
counsels, consecrated persons not only
make Christ the whole meaning of their
lives but 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.”
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Respond with Whole Heart & Mind
• By this profound “configuration” to the mystery of
Christ, the consecrated life brings about in a special
way that confessio Trinitatis which is the mark of all
Christian life; it acknowledges with wonder the
sublime beauty of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and bears joyful witness to his loving concern for
every human being.
•
• 17. This is the meaning of the call to the
consecrated life: it is an initiative coming wholly
from the Father (cf. Jn 15:16) who asks those
whom he has chosen to respond with complete
and exclusive devotion.
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“Per Filium”
In the Footsteps of the Son
• 18﹒The Son, who is the way which leads to
the Father (cf. Jn 14:6), calls all those whom
the Father has given to him (cf. 17:9) to make
the following of himself the whole purpose of
their lives.
• But of some, those called to the consecrated
life, he asks a total commitment, one which
involves leaving everything behind (cf. Mt
19:27) in order to live at his side and to follow
him wherever he goes (Note 30).
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Self Transcendence of
Consecrated Person
• 19. By allowing themselves to be guided by
the Spirit on an endless journey of
purification, they become, day after day,
conformed to Christ, the prolongation in history
of a special presence of the Risen Lord.
• The Holy Spirit is like the GPS of human
beings, guiding Christian on their pilgrimage.
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Reflection of Trinitarian Life in the
Evangelical Counsels
• 21. Chastity of celibates & virgins：
• as a manifestation of dedication to God
with an undivided heart (cf. 1 Cor 7:32-34),
as a reflection of the infinite love which
links the three Divine Persons in the
mysterious depths of the life of Trinity.
•
•
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Reflection of the Trinitarian Life in
the Evangelical Counsels
• 21. Poverty：
• Proclaims that God is man’s only real
treasure, when poverty is lived according
to the example of Christ who, “though he
was rich … became poor” (2 Cor 8:9)
•
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Reflection of the Trinitarian Life in
the Evangelical Counsels
• 21. Obedience：
• When practised in imitation of Christ,
whose food was to do the Father’s will (cf.
Jn 4:34), it shows the liberating beauty of
a dependence which is not servile but filial
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Witness to Christ in the World
• 25. Consecrated persons will be
missionaries above all by continually
deepening their awareness of having been
called and chosen by God, to whom they
must therefore direct and offer everything
that they are and have, freeing themselves
from the obstacles which could hinder the
totality of their response.
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Eschatological Dimension of the
Consecrated Life
• 26. Consecrated life is a foreshadowing of
the future Kingdom.
• The Second Vatican Council proposes this
teaching anew when it states that
consecration better “foretells the
resurrected state and the glory of the
heavenly Kingdom.”
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Consecrated Life as a Sign of
Communion in the Church
• 42. In community life, then, it should in
some way be evident that, more than an
instrument for carrying out a specific
mission, fraternal communion ia a Godenlightened space in which to experience
the hidden presence of the Risen Lord (cf.
Mt 18:20).
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Difficulties of Consecrated Life
• 70. It should be added that, independent of
different stages of life, any period can present
critical situations due to external factors – such
as a change of place or assignment, difficulties
in work or lack of success in the apostolate,
misunderstandings and feelings of alienation • or resulting from more directly personal factors
such as physical or mental illness, spiritual
aridity, deaths, difficulties in interpersonal
relations, strong temptations, crises of faith or
identity, or feeling of uselessness
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Difficulties of Consecrated Life
• The ultimate desire of Man：
• To search for the unlimited God, with
limited humanity
• natural inner emptiness
• external possession cannot feel the
inner emptiness
• constant emptiness
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Difficulties of Consecrated Life
• The desire of this life：to confirm the value
of self (authentic self)
The biggest crisis：
unable to confirm self-worth by taking the
unauthentic self as authentic self through
the use of external possessions (power,
fame, human relationship…) to define selfworth (unauthentic self)
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Difficulties of Consecrated Life
• When fidelity becomes more difficult, the
individual must be offered the support of greater
trust and deeper love, at both the personal and
community levels.
• it is important to have the concern of a
superior that is approachable
• the care, concern, and closeness of confreres
will be of great consolation, helping to rediscover the meaning of the covenant which is
established by God, and which the person by no
means wants to destroy.
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Discernment in the
Light of Consecrated Life
• The life of consecrated person (through
constant prayer
• continuous discernment
• 1. continuous discernment of the authentic
and the unauthentic self
• 2. continuous detection of the tricks of the
devil
• 3. continuous discernment of the will of
God
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Pearls of Consecrated Life
Wisdom & Charity
• Wise discernment
foundation of decision-making
• Implementation of decision
so as to have fruits of charity
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• Thank you！
• God bless！
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