The Catholic Church calls all the faithful to an-ever closer encounter with Christ through a commitment to prayer and loving service to God and all people.
Those Catholic women and men who have made consecrated their lives to that calling will gather on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 11 a.m. in the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul to observe the World Day for Consecrated Life.
The celebration, which began in 1997, coincides with the liturgical Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
That feast, explained Father Dennis Gill, rector of the Cathedral Basilica, “commemorates the offering of the Lord to his Father on the part of Mary and St. Joseph, on their part giving over the Lord, and also recognizing that the Lord is truly the light of the world,” he said.
In establishing the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life on the same day, “Pope St. John Paul II saw a happy correspondence there between those who are (in) the consecrated life, which is a much larger category than just those in the religious life,” he said.
Many Catholics may not well understand who the Church recognizes as living a consecrated life.
“As baptized individuals, we all are consecrated to be priest, prophet, and king, and that baptismal calling is a great gift and one that we can ever grow, no matter what state of life we’re in, deeper and deeper in union with God,” said Sister of Mercy Marie Faustina Wolniakowski, the delegate for consecrated life for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
“For those who are living consecrated life in the state of religious life, or consecrated virginity or are part of secular institutes, there’s a deepening that occurs in the consecration. It’s a radical way in which the Lord calls you to live out that consecration in a fuller expression.”
She said that within consecrated life, men and women living the religious life are chosen by God take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Consecrated virgins are women who are consecrated to a life of perpetual virginity as a bride of Christ.
Finally, secular institutes invite people who, as the Holy See explains, “follow Christ by undertaking to observe the three evangelical counsels by means of a sacred commitment, and they dedicate their life to Christ and to the Church, by devoting themselves to the sanctification of the world, particularly by working within the world.”
“In freedom, we’ve responded to that call. And it is a call to true freedom,” Sister Marie Faustina said.
“For those in consecrated life, we are proclaiming in a joyous but often radical way that we’re free for Christ … to say, ‘I choose God above all.’”
For each person there is a unique vocation story of how they received and understood the call to consecrated life. For Sister Marie Faustina, the sacramental life of the Church helped her to hear the call of the Lord.
“It’s through the sacraments, through the reception of his grace, that I came to a greater knowledge and understanding that God had a particular call, a particular plan for my life, and that he continues, just as he did when he first called, to provide the grace to respond, to say ‘yes’ to his call,” she said.
“When the Lord calls us to something, he always will provide the grace. So even if we don’t feel like we’re adequate or worthy or have a skill set, he provides the grace for it.”
The Mass on Sunday will include a blessing of candles and a procession, and it will commemorate all those in consecrated life, explained Father Gill, who invited anyone in consecrated life to join the celebration.
“We especially love to see as many religious come as possible, men and women who belong to the many different religious orders in the Archdiocese,” he said. “And all priests who come are welcome to come celebrate the holy Mass. (It’s a) pretty wide celebration of this.”
All Catholics are invited to support in prayer those consecrated women and men who open themselves wide to living God’s will in a deeper way.
“Just like any individual life, we are made in the image and likeness of God. We bear much dignity and we ourselves are a gift, so each expression of consecrated life is a gift for the Church and for the world,” said Sister Marie Faustina.
She suggested that people could use this day “as a reminder to pray for consecrated people” and to consider if they themselves “have not come to an understanding of their vocation in their own life,” that they take the opportunity “to really ask God if he’s calling them to live out consecrated life.”
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