{"id":7218,"date":"2017-01-19T10:10:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T16:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legionariosdecristo.org\/?p=7218"},"modified":"2025-08-12T19:52:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T19:52:37","slug":"card-fernando-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/subdir.legionariosdecristo.org\/en\/blog\/2017\/01\/card-fernando-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"<Card. Fernando Sebasti\u00e1n: \"The essential of consecrated life is the following and imitation of Christ\" \/>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cardinal Fernando Sebasti\u00e1n gave a course to the Legionaries of Christ living in Spain focused on the present and future of consecrated life, as well as the fundamental aspects that should characterize this type of life in the Church. The meeting took place on January 3 and 4, in Salamanca, and during those days, Cardinal Sebasti\u00e1n also delivered some lectures on the situation of the Church in Spain from the Transition to the present day.<\/p>\n<p>Father Justo G\u00f3mez, LC, territorial prefect of studies of the Legion of Christ in Spain, considers this encounter with the Cardinal a \u201cgift from God\u201d because \u201cit helped us to continue deepening our understanding of our consecrated life and, more importantly, of the primacy of the theandric life, the life of imitation and following of Christ, and the eschatological vision of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Need for an Eschatological Vision<\/h4>\n<p>After a theological introduction to consecrated life, Don Fernando presented some lines about the future of consecrated life. Among other aspects, he pointed out that the decline in vocations is due, among other reasons, to the decline in birth rates, and therefore in family environments where \u201can attraction to ascetic, generous, and demanding life\u201d is lost. Or, as also happens in other cases, there is no experience of \u201can intense and effective faith.\u201d From such environments, vocations usually do not arise.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7220\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7220\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a ref=\"magnificPopup\" href=\"http:\/\/legionariosdecristo.org\/es\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/01\/Cardenal-Sebasti\u00e1n-en-la-Misa.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7220\" src=\"http:\/\/legionariosdecristo.org\/es\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/01\/Cardenal-Sebasti\u00e1n-en-la-Misa-300x211.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"211\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7220\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cardinal Fernando Sebasti\u00e1n at a Mass in the Novitiate of Salamanca.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, for Cardinal Sebasti\u00e1n, one of the major deficiencies is the lack of \u201ceschatological vision of faith and Christian life: Christian hope is hope for eternal life.\u201d Currently, there is a very secularized view of life, even of Christian life itself. The apparent healing that the Church seems to provide appears to lose its eschatological perspective. And this is where consecrated life has a special role, because if there is something that characterizes it, it is that consecrated life should be an \u201canticipation of eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Following and Imitating Jesus Christ<\/h4>\n<p>Cardinal Sebasti\u00e1n\u2019s proposal, as he explained to the legionaries, necessarily involves a family and youth ministry: vocational ministry begins with a \u201csincere and effective family ministry,\u201d and also with a demanding youth ministry where the follow of Jesus is lived out. And this is because the essential element of consecrated life is the \u201cfollowing and imitation of Jesus Christ,\u201d along with a \u201cpassionate and impatient faith\u201d and \u201cthe urgency to attain and live the goods of the Kingdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Don Fernando was very clear: \u201cOur institutes do not have their roots in the founders and in the constitutions themselves, but in Jesus Christ, as well as in the lives of the apostles and in the counsels and models of Gospel life.\u201d \u201cMay consecrated life \u2013 he continued \u2013 be a way of life in which the theandric life predominates. Not discipline or uniformity. A life in which faith, hope, and charity take precedence.\u201d<\/p>\n<h5><em>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/lomasrc.blogspot.com.es\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lo+RC<\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cardinal Fernando Sebasti\u00e1n gave a course to the Legionaries of Christ living in Spain focused on the present and future of consecrated life, as well as the fundamental aspects that should characterize this type of life in the Church. The meeting took place on January 3 and 4, in Salamanca, and during those days,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[311,263,312,170],"class_list":["post-7218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cardenal","tag-lifelong-learning","tag-noviciado-de-salamanca","tag-vowed-life"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Card. 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