What happens is "we start to demand our own space, our own rights, we let ourselves get dragged into gossip and slander, we take offence at every small thing that does not go our way, and we pour forth litanies of lamentation: about our brothers, our sisters, our communities, the Church, society," he explained.
"We no longer see the Lord in everything, but only the dynamics of the world, and our hearts grow numb," he continued, encouraging religious to ask God for the ability to see his grace at work in the world.
"If consecrated life remains steadfast in love for the Lord, it perceives beauty," he said. "It sees that poverty is not some colossal effort, but rather a higher freedom that God gives to us and others as real wealth. It sees that chastity is not austere sterility, but the way to love without possessing. It sees that obedience is not a discipline, but is victory over our own chaos, in the way of Jesus."
Pope Francis also spoke about the vow of poverty, saying the devil focuses his temptations on the poverty of religious sisters and brothers, encouraging thoughts such as: "In all these years you haven't got any better, you haven't achieved what you could have, they haven't let you do what you were meant to do, you haven't always been faithful, you are not capable…"
He pointed to words found in Night Prayer: "Lord, my salvation comes from you, my hands are not empty, but are full of your grace."
"Knowing how to see grace is the starting point," the pope said. "Let us thank God for the gift of the consecrated life and ask of him a new way of looking, that knows how to see grace, how to look for one's neighbor, how to hope. Then our eyes too will see salvation."
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.