By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami

MIAMI � Her talent, she says, is management. Her passion is religious life.

Sister Ana Margarita Lanzas will be combining both in her new duties as vicar for religious in the Archdiocese of Miami, a post to which Archbishop Thomas Wenski appointed her this month.

A religious for 24 years, Sister Lanzas is one of the founding members of her congregation, the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

�If I were to be born again I would have gone into the convent earlier than I did,� she said. �Because I love my vocation. Religious life is one of the most beautiful jewels in the crown of the Church.�

The reference to jewels, she noted, is not by happenstance. Before she entered the community, Sister Lanzas worked as a supervisor for a chain of jewelry stores, managing outlets in south Florida, Memphis, Tenn., and Toledo, Ohio.

�I didn�t study management. It�s an infused gift,� she said. �But my expertise is religious life. I have a passion for it.�

Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Sister Ana Margarita Lanzas, of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, has been appointed vicar for religious of the Archdiocese of Miami.

A native of Managua, Nicaragua, Sister Lanzas came to Miami in 1981, at age 18. She attended Miami-Dade College before entering the Servants at age 21 � one of the first three women who followed the foundress, Mother Adela Galindo, into the community.

Sister Lanzas has worked as director of religious education at St. Raymond Parish in Miami, then as novice mistress for the Servants, and since 2000 as vicar general of her community. For the past three years, she has been traveling to Rome to attend classes at the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum in Rome.

�So far what I�ve been doing is serving my community,� she said, �anything that has to do with the life of the sisters.�

She will continue in that role while assuming her new responsibilities, which will be very similar: �Anything that has to do with religious life, I�ll be taking care of,� she said, in addition to being the person that �faithfully represents� the archbishop to the religious.

The position of vicar for religious was last held by Oblate Missionary Father John Madigan. When he left a few years ago to serve his community in Illinois, the responsibility fell to Bishop John Noonan.

Sister Lanzas is part of the six-member Commission for Religious that met once a month with the bishop to plan activities for men and women religious throughout the archdiocese.

�We need to increase that,� she said of the number of commission members.

She also wants to plan more educational and social get-togethers for the 431 religious currently serving in the archdiocese � 48 brothers, 289 sisters and 94 priests.

�We need to re-gather all the religious that are serving the archdiocese in certain times of the year � in important moments, liturgical moments; to come to Christ and to grow in our vocation, to receive sound teaching about religious life and to put a fire in our life,� Sister Lanzas said.

Speaking of fire: She comes from a community that, unlike many others today, has an abundance of vocations: 25 professed religious, five postulants, three novices and four in discernment. They work at St. Mary Cathedral, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Raymond, Blessed Trinity and St. Agatha parishes in Miami-Dade County, as well as Catholic Hospice.

Known in Spanish as Siervas de los Corazones Traspasados de Jesus y Maria, the Servants began in Miami 25 years ago as a diocesan congregation. Seven of them also serve now in the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., where they operate a retreat center, direct Catholic Charities and do campus ministry at Illinois State University.

The community�s apostolic charism is �to be ardent witnesses of the power and fecundity of love to form hearts, to build a new civilization of love, truth and life,� Sister Lanzas said. �We are at the service of the New Evangelization, and want to enflesh the teachings of John Paul II in our lives. That�s why we are serving in everything and everywhere, according to the needs of the Church and the gifts of the sisters.�

Her priority as vicar for religious will be �assuring that every community that is serving in the archdiocese has what it needs to have,� she said. �I will do all I can to serve them and to provide for whatever they need in their service for the archdiocese.�

While it is not in her job description, Sister Lanzas does see a need to promote religious life, noting that the best people to do that are religious themselves. She sees life in community � praying and living together � as one of the key elements that distinguish religious life from the lay vocation.

�Religious life is about being, not doing,� she said. �Of course we have to bring Jesus to people. But we also have to be with Jesus Christ. He�s the center of our lives.�