Dear sisters,

1. During my apostolic journeys, I experience a profound and ever new happiness when I meet women religious, whose consecrated existence through the three evangelical vows "belongs inseparably to the life and holiness of the Church" (Lumen Gentium, 44). Let us together bless the Lord who has made this meeting possible! Let us bless him for the fruits that will follow in your personal lives, in your congregations, in the People of God! Thank you for coming in such great numbers from all parts of Paris and the Paris region, and even from the provinces! I am happy to express to you who are here, as to all the religious of France, my esteem, my affection, my encouragement.

This gathering, almost rural, makes me think of those moments of pause and respite that Jesus Christ reserved for his first disciples on their return from certain apostolic journeys. You too, my dear sisters, come from your places and tasks of evangelisation: dispensaries or hospitals, schools or colleges, catechetical or youth care centres, parish services or insertion in poor environments. I am happy to repeat to you the words of the Lord: "Come away ... and rest a while" (cf. Mk 6:31). Together we shall meditate on the mystery and the Gospel treasure of your vocation.

2. Religious life is not your property, just as it is not the property of an institute. It is the "divine gift which the Church has received from her Lord and by his grace always faithfully preserves" (Lumen Gentium, 43). In short, religious life is an inheritance, a reality lived in the Church for centuries, by a multitude of men and women. And the profound experience that they have had of it transcends the socio-cultural differences that may exist from one country to another, transcends even the descriptions that they have left behind, and is beyond the diversity of the achievements and research of our time. It is important to respect and love this rich spiritual heritage. It is important to listen to and imitate those who have best embodied the ideal of evangelical perfection and who so numerous have sanctified and ennobled the land of France.

Until the end of your lives, remain in awe and gratitude for the mysterious call that resounded one day in the depths of your hearts: "Follow me" (cf. Mt 9:9; Jn 1:43), "Sell what you possess, give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me" (Mt 19:21). You first carried this appeal as a secret, then submitted it to the discernment of the Church. It is indeed a great risk to leave everything to follow Christ. But you already felt - and then you experienced - that he was able to fill your heart. Religious life is a friendship, an intimacy of a mystical order with Christ. Your personal journey must be almost a re-enactment of the famous poem of the Song of Songs. Dear sisters, in the "heart to heart" of prayer, which is absolutely vital for each of you, as well as on the occasion of your various apostolic appointments, listen to the Lord murmuring to you the same invitation: "Follow me". The ardour of your response will keep you in the freshness of your first oblation. You will thus walk from faithfulness to faithfulness!

3. To follow Christ is more than the mere admiration of a model, even if you have a good knowledge of holy scripture and theology. To follow Christ is something existential. It is wanting to imitate him to the point of allowing oneself to be configured to him, assimilated into him, to the point of being - in the words of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity - 'an additional humanity'. And this in their own mystery of chastity, poverty and obedience. Such an ideal surpasses understanding, surpasses human strength!

It can only be realised through strong times of silent and ardent contemplation of the Lord Jesus. So-called 'active' religious must at certain times be 'contemplatives', following the example of the nuns I will address in Lisieux.

Religious chastity, my sisters, is truly a desire to be like Christ; all other reasons that can be advanced vanish before this essential reason: Jesus was chaste. This state of Christ was not only the overcoming of human sexuality, such as to prefigure the future world, but also a manifestation, an "epiphany" of the universality of his redemptive oblation. The Gospel never ceases to show how Jesus lived chastity. In his human relationships, singularly broad in relation to the traditions of his environment and age, he perfectly reaches the profound personality of the other. His simplicity, his respect, his goodness, his art of arousing the best in the hearts of the people he met, shocked the Samaritan woman, the adulterous woman and so many others. May your vow of consecrated virginity - deepened and lived out in the mystery of Christ's chastity - and which already transfigures your persons, drive you to truly reach out to your brothers and sisters in their humanity, in the concrete situations proper to each one! So many people in our world are as if led astray, crushed, in despair! In fidelity to the rules of prudence, make them feel that you love them in the manner of Christ, drawing from his heart the human and divine tenderness that he reserves for them.

You have also promised Christ to be poor with him and like him. Certainly the productive and consumerist society poses complex problems for the practice of evangelical poverty. This is not the place or the time to talk about it. It seems to me that every congregation must see in this economic phenomenon a providential invitation to give a response, at once traditional and entirely new, to the poor Christ. By contemplating him often and at length in his radically poor life, by assiduously frequenting the humble and the poor who are also his face, you will be able to give all that you are and all that you have. The Church needs to be as affected by your witness. Measure your responsibility.

As for the obedience of Jesus, it occupies a central place in his redemptive work. You have often meditated on the pages in which St Paul speaks of the initial disobedience, which was like the gateway to sin and death in the world, and speaks of the mystery of Christ's obedience that triggers humanity's ascent to God. Self-denial, humility, are more difficult for our generation tickled by autonomy and even fantasy. However, one cannot imagine a religious life without obedience to superiors who are guardians of fidelity to the ideal of the institute. St Paul emphasises the link of cause and effect between Christ's obedience to the death of the cross (cf. Phil 2:6-11) and his glory as risen Lord of the universe. In the same way, the obedience of every religious - which is always a sacrifice of the will made out of love - bears abundant fruits of salvation for the whole world.

4. You have therefore accepted to follow Christ and to imitate him closely, to manifest his true face to those who already know him as well as to those who do not. And this through all the apostolic activities to which I alluded at the beginning of this meeting. On the level of commitments to be undertaken, without prejudice to the particular spirituality of your institute, I strongly urge you to integrate yourselves into the immense network of pastoral tasks of the universal Church and dioceses (cf. Perfectae Caritatis, 20). I know that some congregations, for lack of subjects, cannot respond to all the appeals that come to them from Bishops and priests. However, do what you can to ensure the vital services of parishes and dioceses. How many duly trained women religious collaborate in the pastoral care of the new realities that are numerous! In a word, invest your natural and supernatural talents to the utmost in contemporary evangelisation. Be always and everywhere present to the world without being of the world (cf. Jn 17:15-16). Never be afraid to let your identity as women consecrated to the Lord be clearly recognised. Christians and those who are not have a right to know who you are. Christ, the master of us all, made his life a courageous manifestation of his identity (cf. Lk 9:26).

Courage and confidence my dear sisters! I know that for years you have been reflecting a great deal on religious life, on your constitutions. The time has come to live in fidelity to the Lord and to your apostolic tasks. I pray wholeheartedly that the witness of your consecrated life and the face of your religious congregations will awaken in the hearts of many young people the plan to follow Christ as you do. I bless you and all the women religious of France who work on the soil of your homeland or on other continents. And I also bless all those you carry in your hearts and in your prayers.

[Pope John Paul II, to the Religious, Rue de Bac 31 May 1980]