Today, Sunday, February 2nd, Pope Francis celebrated the 18th World Day for Consecrated Life! In 1997, Pope John Paul II instituted a day of prayer for women and men in consecrated life to be celebrated on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Therefore, too, those in consecrated life are called to reflect light of Jesus Christ to all peoples. Let us celebrate with the 911,827 religious sisters, brothers, and priests around the world. Pope Francis shared this reflection: Dear Brothers and Sisters, in the light of this Gospel scene, let us look to consecrated life as an encounter with Christ: it is He who comes to us, led by Mary and Joseph, and we go towards Him guided by the Holy Spirit. But the centre is Him. He moves everything, He draws us to the Temple, to the Church, where we can meet Him, recognize Him, welcome Him, embrace Him. Jesus comes to us in the Church through the foundational charism of an Institute: it is nice to think of our vocation in this way! Our encounter with Christ took its shape in the Church through the charism of one of its witnesses. This always amazes us and makes us give thanks. And in the consecrated life we live the encounter between the young and the old, between observation and prophecy. Let’s not see these as two opposing realities! Let us rather allow the Holy Spirit to animate both of them, and a sign of this is joy: the joy of observing, of walking within a rule of life; the joy of being led by the Spirit, never unyielding, never closed, always open to voice of God that speaks, that opens, that leads us and invites us to go towards the horizon. Let us pray that many more young men and women will hear and respond to the call to lives of service in the Church and in particular to the Dominican way of life in following Christ as Priest, Brother, Nuns and Sisters!
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 22:55:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015