Pope: Church needs a Eucharistic spirituality of unity in love
By Devin Watkins
Pope Leo XIV met on Saturday with several members of the Perpetual Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament, also known as the Sacramentine Nuns.
Founded in Rome in 1807 by Blessed Maria Maddalena of the Incarnation, the contemplative nuns devote their lives to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament Day and night and follow the rule of St. Augustine.
Those who met with the Pope form part of the Federation of the Holy Spirit, a group of around 30 convents, mostly in Mexico, which was founded 50 years ago and includes roughly half of the congregation’s convents spread across the globe.
In his address, Pope Leo called the Sacramentine Nuns’ presence “a radiant testimony to the gratuitousness of God, who sows within the human heart the desire to seek and contemplate His face.”
Their devotion to Eucharistic adoration, he said, offers a response to the profound longing for God written deep in the human heart.
“This constant search for the face of God, which particularly characterizes monastic life, takes on a special dimension in the vocation you have received,” he said. “It is expressed in a life devoted entirely to the continuous and silent adoration of God who has made Himself bread and who invites us to unite ourselves with Him in the sacrifice of the altar, so as to form one body.”
Pope Leo pointed to St. Augustine’s explanation that the bread and wine upon the altar are the “sacrament of the unity of the faithful in Christ.”
“For this reason,” he said, “we need a Eucharistic spirituality, that is, a spirituality of ecclesial unity in love.”
In their daily lives devoted to adoration, the contemplative nuns “radiate throughout the world the beauty of the face of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.”
“By manifesting within the Church the specific charism you received from your foundress,” he said, “you are called to be weavers of communion with the threads of prayer and work, Eucharistic adoration, and fraternal sharing within the monastery.”
In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV invited the Sacramentine Nuns to live their consecration to God with renewed hope and a desire for holiness.
Remember, he urged, “that fidelity to the ancient and ever-new wisdom of the Gospel is the best path for those who, guided by the Holy Spirit, dedicate themselves to loving God and their neighbor.”
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