Saturday morning, Feb. 4 

In a couple of minutes I'll be leaving to attend the Archdiocese's annual mass honoring Consecrated Life. Since this is my 60th year in vows as a monk, I figure I should go, right? But anniversary celebrations are always very ambiguous for me: Whose faithfulness and steadfastness are we celebrating anyway?  My monastic vocation is, as far as I'm concerned, a gift from God. Even my "faithfulness" of sixty years is the Lord's gift to me. Now I have to leave to go the celebration. When I get back I'll let you know if I learn anything to change my perspective on this question. 

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Sunday morning, Feb. 5

The mass was beautiful. Just the right balance of simplicity and solemnity. As for my hesitancy about congratulating people for what God has done for them, that got cleared up within the first few minutes.  Cardinal Archbishop Tobin in his opening remarks said that this mass was meant to be an encouragement, a milestone for us to encourage us on our way. The oration was a prayer asking God to continue to bless and strengthen all the jubilarians in their ministries and in their religious commitment. With my hesitation out of the way, I got to enjoy the rest of the lovely mass, and then the luncheon afterwards where I kept bumping into religious sisters I hadn't seen in years or even decades. 

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Now let me share an excerpt from the weekly message of Cardinal Tobin, CSSR, himself a religious.

February 3, 2023

Vol. 4. No. 11

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

 

Cardinal Tobin

Yesterday, February 2, the Church celebrated the annual World Day for Consecrated Life. Instituted by St. John Paul II in 1997, this celebration is meant to be a day of special gratitude to God for those consecrated to God by the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. I thank God for the many ways consecrated women and men enrich the Archdiocese of Newark.

 

All baptized Christians are called to observe the virtues of chastity, poverty and obedience, the three evangelical (or Gospel) counsels. Purity of heart, poverty of spirit, and openness to God’s will are fundamental to Christian life. They enable us to live unselfishly and, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to follow Jesus as missionary disciples committed to carrying out the mission He has entrusted to us.

 

Throughout  Christian history, some women and men have experienced a particular call to consecrate their lives to an intense, focused pursuit of these virtues. As noted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#916):

 

The state of consecrated life is thus one way of experiencing a "more intimate" consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God. In the consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come.

 

All are called to holiness, and in this respect no state of life in the Church is better than any other. And yet, our Church is enriched by a wonderful diversity of ways to live the Gospel and give witness to the Light of Christ, which Scripture calls “A light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel” (cf. Lk 2:29–32). The Catechism (#917) describes the Consecrated Life as “one great tree with many branches,” and it speaks of this tree as “branching out into various forms of the religious life lived in solitude or in community…. in which spiritual resources are multiplied for the progress in holiness of their members and for the good of the entire Body of Christ."

 

In spite of the fact that relatively few Christians are called to dedicate themselves to this more radical form of baptismal witness, Consecrated Life exists for the good of the whole Church. Those who have taken vows of poverty, obedience  and chastity are signs of Christ’s presence in our world. And in the midst of all the struggles and frustrations of daily life, Consecrated Women and Men provide hope for the future by their joyful witness to the personal encounter with Jesus that is at the heart of Christian life. 

The entire message is found on the Archdiocesan website.

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In the spirit of yesterday's celebration, I ask that you pray for me and for all of my sisters and brothers in the consecrated religious life.