The post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the consecrated life and its mission in the Church and in the world, following the 1994 Synod of Bishops. Its three chapters are built on the Transfiguration: consecration as a confession of the Trinity, communion as a sign of fraternal life in the Church, and mission as service to God and humanity. It treats the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience as a living memorial of Christ's own way of life, surveys the forms of consecrated life from monasticism to secular institutes and new communities, and calls religious to prophetic witness, formation and fidelity.