“If we were to ask ourselves the question as to what is the soul of each secular institute, or what inspiration gives it life and makes it grow, we would have to answer that it is a profound need for synthesis, a way of Life that would take into account two specific aspects of its way of life: 1) a total consecration according to the evangelical counsels and 2) a total responsibility of a presence and of a transforming action in the world in order to mould it, to lead it to perfection and to sanctify it.”

Paul VI, “A presence and an action that transforms the world from within.”
In Secular Institutes. Documents, 3rd Edition, Rome, CMIS 1998, p. 84.

“You are standing at the junction of two powerful rivers of Christian life… you are lay people, consecrated as lay people by baptism and confirmation, but you have chosen to focus your consecration to God through the profession of evangelical counsels… you remain lay people, committed to the secular values of the lay state of life but for you, it is a question of ‘consecrated secularity’; you are both secular, living as lay people in the world and you are consecrated.”

Paul VI, “A new and original form of consecration”, op, cit. p. 92.

“If Secular Institutes remain faithful to their specific vocation, they will become, so to speak, ‘an experimental laboratory’ by which the Church can verify, in a concrete way, its way of being in relation to the world. This is the reason why they must pay special attention to the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, as though it was addressed to them in particular: ‘Their own field of evangelizing activity is the vast and complicated world of politics, society and economics, but also the world of culture, of the sciences and the arts, of international life, of the mass media.’ (no. 70)”

Paul VI, “A living presence at the service of the world and of the Church.” Op. cit. PP. 97-98.