They are driven to "making such a demanding choice" by "having understood, as taught by the Gospel, that the Kingdom of Heaven is ‘a treasure’, for which it is really worth giving up on everything". According to the Pope, "these brothers and sisters of ours silently prove that, amidst the daily events, sometimes very frantic, the only unwavering help is God, an unshakeable rock of faithfulness and love". "Before the widespread need that many people feel, of getting out of the daily ‘routine’ of the big urban areas, in search of appropriate spaces for silence and meditation added the Pontiff the monasteries of contemplative life act as ‘oases’ in which man, a pilgrim on earth, can better draw from the springs of the Spirit and quench his thirst along the way". These places, therefore, that "are seemingly useless", are instead "indispensable", like the green ‘lungs’ of a city: they do good to everyone, even those who do not go there and maybe do not even know they exist". Hence his invitation to never fail to give to the enclosed orders of priests and nuns "our spiritual as well as material support so that they can accomplish their mission, of keeping alive in the Church the fervent wait for the return of Christ".
