New England Province » discernment http://cmnewengland.org Congregation of the Mission Sat, 06 Jul 2024 12:28:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.40 Day for Consecrated Life – resources http://cmnewengland.org/2011/02/resource-for-day-for-consecrated-life/ http://cmnewengland.org/2011/02/resource-for-day-for-consecrated-life/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:14:19 +0000 http://cmnewengland.org/?p=1229 The celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life invites all the Church to reflect on the role of Consecrated Life within the Christian community. Those who choose to live a consecrated life do so for the sake of the gospel. In 1997, Venerable Pope John Paul II called February 2, the feast of [...]]]> The celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life invites all the Church to reflect on the role of Consecrated Life within the Christian community. Those who choose to live a consecrated life do so for the sake of the gospel. In 1997, Venerable Pope John Paul II called February 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, to be observed as World Day for Consecrated Life. He explained, because “the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple is an eloquent icon of the total offering of one’s life for all those who are called to show forth in the Church and in the world, by means of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus — the chaste, poor and obedient one.” (In the United States, when February 2 is not on a Sunday, we celebrate on the Sunday after the Presentation.)

Some Christian women and men respond to God’s call to become followers of Jesus through profession of vows and a life dedicated to prayer and service. They live out the consecrated life in different ways. Religious sisters, nuns, brothers, religious priests, and monks consecrate their lives through their profession of the evangelical vows and live as part of a community. Single lay people may choose to be consecrated virgins and make private vows to the local bishop as they live out their vocation in various walks of life. Secular institutes are another form of living the consecrated life as single people. Those who become followers of Jesus through the consecrated life bless the Church.

In John Paul II’s message for the 1st World Day of Consecrated Life, the Pontiff explained that the day has three purposes:

In the first place, it answers the intimate need to praise the Lord more solemnly and to thank him for the great gift of consecrated life, which enriches and gladdens the Christian community by the multiplicity of its charisms and by the edifying fruits of so many lives totally given to the cause of the Kingdom …

In the second place, this day is intended to promote a knowledge of and esteem for the consecrated life by the entire People of God … The third reason regards consecrated persons directly. They are invited to celebrate together solemnly the marvels which the Lord has accomplished in them, to discover by a more illumined faith the rays of divine beauty spread by the Spirit in their way of life, and to acquire a more vivid consciousness of their irreplaceable mission in the Church and in the world.

Immersed in a world which is often agitated and distracted, taken up sometimes by the press of responsibilities, consecrated persons also will be helped by the celebration of this annual World Day to return to the sources of their vocation, to take stock of their own lives, to confirm the commitment of their own consecration.

If you want to learn more about Day for Consecrated Life you may visit some of these resources:

Prayer for Consecrated Persons

God our Father, we thank you for calling men and women to serve in your Son’s Kingdom as sisters, brothers, religious priests, consecrated virgins, hermits, as well as members of Secular Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life. Renew their knowledge and love of you, and send your Holy Spirit to help them respond generously and courageously to your will. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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