La vita religiosa a servizio della missione: La saggezza di Sant’Arnoldo Janssen applicata alla trasformazione di un istituto missionario in una congregazione religiosa
Religious Life in Service of the Mission: The Wisdom of St. Arnold Janssen Applied in the Transformation of a Missionary Institute Into a Religious Congregation

Summary/Abstract: The transformation of a missionary institute into a religious congregation called the Society of the Divine Word (abbr. SVD) had a profound justification in the pedagogical conclusion of its founder. The rules of religious life became the basis both for the sanctification of its members and for more effective service in the field of missionary work. For the foundation of religious life, according to Arnold Janssen, was to consist in a love capable of sacrifice and in the personal effort of each member to follow Jesus Christ in a concrete form. Conformity to Christ ensured coherence between what missionaries proclaimed and what they lived. Religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience were to be instrumental to this purpose because they followed the manner and logic of the life of Jesus. Therefore, their interpretation was based on a theology of sacrifice. The vocation to the religious-missionary life is, on the one hand, a gift of God, on the other, a free response of man to the gift of God’s love and grace. Religious formation has gradually become the basis of missionary and the means of self-sacrifice to God, of the transformation of the person seeking conformity to God, but also of the effectiveness of missionary work. Life in conformity with the ideals of religious life offers a missionary ideal supported and animated by a solid and genuine asceticism on the path of perfection and integral maturity at the human, spiritual and professional levels.

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