Consecrated Life

Dear Parishioners,

Greetings in Christ. I wanted to write to you again in regards to the Year for Consecrated Life, which Pope Francis has established, that we would pray for those who are living a consecrated life. I would have told you more about this in the last letter, but it was long and I thought that it would be better to save it for the next letter. Thus, I will try to explain more about this subject and answer some of the questions that some of you may have. Such as, why do we have to pray for members of “the consecrated life”, or what are the differences between a religious priest and a diocesan priest? And what can we learn from them?

I am so grateful that our Pope fosters the prayer for the special vocation of “the consecrated life”. It is a great gift that God has given us in the Church. These men and women are the bride of the Church. I know that some of you still wonder what it means to be a consecrated brother or sister. The answer is clearly found in Vita Consecrata, the 1996 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation. Pope John Paul II wrote that the church has “many branches which sinks its roots into the Gospel and brings forth abundant fruit in every season of the Church’s life.” These diverse forms include: contemplative monks and cloistered nuns, religious brothers and sisters in education, health care and charity, members of secular institutes living out their consecration in the midst of the world, members of societies of apostolic life, missionaries spreading the faith, consecrated virgins, hermits, consecrated widows and so many new expressions by which our consecrated brothers and sisters are devoting their lives to God (cf. Vita Consecrata, 6-12).

Each form is described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The reason why we have many different forms of consecrated life may be because many people do not want to take the easy way. Some want to have a deeper devotion to God and to distance themselves from the world.

I am part of the apostolic religious life, which falls into one of the categories of the “consecrated life”. We have a community life, we pray, eat, and work together. We share with and support one another in working in parishes or at the convent. We do not have to live our life like the contemplative monks. We live and work in the midst of the world to evangelize and as the leaven of the dough; we live our lives based on standards of the society which we live in. For example, I may show up in front of your house with a BMW car because most of the people in the parish are rich and drive luxury cars. But, I may drive a moped when I have to live and work in Vietnam or in another third world country.

So, this is different than the diocesan priest who doesn’t have the community life and the vow of poverty. The diocesan priest is working in a parish as the co–worker of the Bishop of a diocese. He pretty much lives by himself and he would often be able to visit his parents or his family members. The religious priest is different; his community is his family, he is rarely able to be home with his parents on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even some of the big events in his blood family.

It would be tempting to you who are not in consecrated life to ignore this year because it may not have anything to do with you. However, our Pope, in his letter which he released last week, urged laity “to live this Year for Consecrated Life as a grace” because it “concerns not only consecrated persons, but the entire Church.” He urged the “whole Christian people to be increasingly aware of the gift that is the presence of our many consecrated men and women” and to “draw close to these men and women, to rejoice with them, to share their difficulties and to assist them, to whatever degree possible, in their ministries and works, for the latter are, in the end, those of the entire Church.”

Let us ask the Lord, Jesus for the grace to learn during this Year for Consecrated life, that it is a good model for all of us to live our lives. That no matter what stage of our life, or whatever vocation that we live, we need to live out our vocation as a faithful Christian, and Love the Lord above everything else.

May the Lord draw our hearts closer to Him every day, and give us the grace to be holier, that one day we may be worthy to be with Him forever in heaven.