The love of Christ has gathered a great number of disciples to become one, so that, like him and thanks to him, in the Spirit, they might, throughout the centuries, be able to respond to the Love of the Father, loving him "with all their hearts, with all their soul, with all their might" (cf. Dt 6:5) and loving their neighbours "as themselves" (cf. Mt 22:39). Among these disciples those gathered together in religious communities, women and men "from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues" (Rv 7:9), have been and still are a particularly eloquent expression of this sublime and boundless love. Born not "of the will of the flesh," nor from personal attraction, nor from human motives, but 'from God" (Jn 1:13), from a divine vocation and a divine attraction, religious communities are a living sign of the primacy of the Love of God who works wonders, and of the Love for God and for one's brothers and sisters as manifested and practised by Jesus Christ.