A year to thank God in prayer for the gift of consecrated life
Year of Consecrated Life
Monday, December 1, 2014
*Sr. Ana Margarita Lanzas, SCTJM
Our Holy Father Pope Francis has called us to celebrate a year dedicated to consecrated life from Nov. 30, 2014 (the First Sunday of Advent) until Feb. 2, 2016 (World Day of Consecrated Life). This year also marks the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Perfectae Caritatis, the decree on the adaptation and renewal of religious life, as well as the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, of the Second Vatican Council. A year “to wake up the world,” as the pope has said, and to rediscover the value and beauty of this sublime vocation. Together as a Church, we will give thanks to God for so many men and women who, leaving everything, have embraced the consecrated life to dedicate themselves in an exclusive and total way to God and the service of the Church and of every man of good will. It is a year which invites us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with joy, and to look towards the future with renewed hope.
We can recall how much good we have received from consecrated men and women. We gratefully remember their presence in the life of the Church and of society, in schools educating children and young people for the good of the Church and the world; in hospitals, nursing homes and centers for the disabled, where they serve those who suffer with an abnegated love, and give themselves to them in generous service imbued with charity for the most defenseless. We find them providing assistance to the poor and needy, bringing them hope in God and the consolation of love and the presence of the Church; we see them in universities guiding young people and forming them to be the future of society; in their labor in parishes supporting priests in their ministry and educating so many in the faith so they can receive divine life through the sacraments. Those who are imbued with apostolic zeal go through the whole world extending the Kingdom of God.
In each area of the life of mankind, those who have consecrated themselves to God in poverty, chastity and obedience are present to be light in the midst of a world that walks in the shadows, to encourage those who bear the weight of suffering and pain; to make the future realities present in the contemporary world, giving testimony by their lives that there is hope which lies in new and eternal life, conquered by the redemption of Christ Our Lord.
We cannot stop remembering and being grateful for the gift that the Holy Spirit has given throughout history, inspiring so many founders and foundresses of religious families that have given rise to the different charisms and so have opened a school of spirituality in which so many faithful have encountered their path to reach Christian maturity.
As we read in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council: “The religious state clearly manifests that the Kingdom of God and its needs, in a very special way, are raised above all earthly considerations. Finally it clearly shows all men both the unsurpassed breadth of the strength of Christ the King and the infinite power of the Holy Spirit marvelously working in the Church. Thus, the state which is constituted by the profession of the evangelical counsels, though it is not the hierarchical structure of the Church, nevertheless, undeniably belongs to its life and holiness.” (LG, 44)
Yes, brothers and sisters, every man and woman consecrated to God is inserted into the life and holiness of the Church, thus being a living testimony of the power of redemption and the grace that is permanently present in the Church. What a great gift we have in those who testify with their lives and in their lives to the Absolute who is God and who call us by their example to see our today with our eyes and hearts fixed on the future…on eternal life.
In this year of grace, let us join together in prayer so that the Lord may awaken in the hearts of our young people the desire for a vocation to the consecrated life, that they might be able to listen to the voice of God who calls them in their interior and that they may be generous in responding to that voice who says to them, “come and follow me.”
Let us also pray with gratitude for all consecrated men and women, who throughout our lives have left a footprint in our hearts. Let us pray so that the number of men and women who give their lives to God in this way may increase and that the splendor of the consecrated life may shine in the Church and adorn Her with holiness.
St. John Paul II in Vita Consecrata tells us: “the consecrated life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission, since it manifests the inner nature of her identity and mission.”(Vita Consecrata # 3)
May this year be one of prayer for vocations and a year to thank God for the gift of consecrated life.
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