Day for Consecrated Life
Posted by Vincent on February 9, 2009
At the invitation of Bishop Brendan Kelly, the Religious of the diocese of Achonry gathered in The Cathedral of The Annunciation and St. Nathy, Ballaghaderreen on Thursday February 5th, 2009. This gathering took place to celebrate Consecrated Life and to acknowledge the contribution of the Religious to the ongoing Pastoral Ministry within the diocese. Representatives of all Religious Orders working in the diocese were in attendance – Sisters of Mercy, John of God Sisters, Louis Sisters, Marist Sisters as well as members of other congregations who are currently in the diocese. Below you will find the text of Bishop Brendan’s Homily as well as a few “photos” from the evening.
Today is the feast of St Agatha. She was martyred in Sicily around the middle of the third century. There are many legends about her, but it is impossible to glean any actual facts. We just have her name, Agatha, which means ‘good’, and she is mentioned in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer 1). And we know, as the late Fr Gerard McGinty OSB says in his book on the Saints of the Roman Calendar, Agatha died because ‘she loved God supremely and solely’
So it suits well that we are celebrating consecrated life on her feast day, for what else is consecrated life but ‘to love God supremely and solely’
We are here to celebrate you, my sisters, and the witness that is the lives you have chosen. We are here to invite you to joyfully choose again today this witnessing, this martyrdom that is the loving of God supremely and solely. Your consecration, your calling is an essential part of the Christian family, which without you would limp.
We are here also to pray for ‘many new vocations to consecrated life’ as our Holy Father said on Monday last in Rome. And all of us here this evening, let us pray with all our hearts for a new flowering of vocations to the consecrated life within our own diocese. And let us do that every day during this month of our year of Vocation.
It was 50 years ago, on the feast of The Conversion of St Paul, 25 Jan 1959, that Pope John astonished the Church by announcing the holding of an Ecumenical Council. Amongst the decrees to emerge from that Council was one on the Religious Life, or to give it its proper title, On the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life. Many of you have lived through that process of adaptation and renewal and are still living it. It has been a process full of excitement initially and new life, but also a process fraught with pain and even crucifixion and death. What is worth noting today is the title of that document. There were decrees on the ministry and life of priests, on the church in the modern world, on Ecumenism etc etc, but the only document from the Second Vatican Council to contain the words ‘renewal’ and ‘adaptation’ in its very title was the document on Religious Life. Clearly something essential, the core of Religious Life was unchangeable, but the expression and living out of this life in our day demanded something new, a new fire, a new spirit. So the searching began, and the pain soon followed…
Today however lets remember the foundation, the core, the heart of this vocation:
the joyful embracing of Chastity, Poverty and Obedience together in community. It is the calling given, for example, to St Paul, to St John, and above all to Mary. It is the way chosen by Jesus himself. It is a way that lives amongst us still, for you are here, amongst us: carrying us all in prayer and consecration, loving us all in your chastity, poor with Jesus and with all who know poverty, in any of the myriad forms that it touches our human lives. Above all, perhaps, you by vows and solemn promises of obedience, are listeners in a world of too much noise and talk, where words are too often debased and over-used. You are listeners to us all and to the people of our times in that unique and healing way that comes from those who listen to God all the time and to Jesus in silence, and who have in that deep sense become more and more his living Temple amongst us.
A couple of points from the Readings we have just heard. Both the First reading and the Gospel today mention the firstborn son as ‘consecrated to the Lord’. Jesus is firstborn in this sense, and so is every woman and man who is consecrated to the Lord. And the Church as Mother, just like Mary, presents her firstborn constantly to the Lord. As we do today. With deep gratitude and joy. With Jesus the firstborn, by your very lives you save our world…
And then we have Anna. ‘She never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer’
What fasting at 84 years of age? Surely this ‘fasting’ means her saying yes each day to all that growing beyond girlhood entails, all the fasting that’s in the loss of her life’s companion and the slow-or sudden- decline of faculties and strength, of ‘úth na gcos is na lámh’ and eyesight, and all the other loss that is part of being four score and more..
And then prayer. Prayer is the dedication of the onset of one loss or weakness after another to God in peaceful trust, and in union with Jesus who emptied himself in the greatest prayer ever lived on Calvary.
Anna became a prophetess…she saw the child Jesus for who he is…because her consecration, renewed each day, gave her sight and insight for the truth and for the love of God at the very same time as her outer faculties faded.
And prophetess above all maybe because she reacts to the sight of the infant with praise of God.
So this evening we praise God too with all our hearts for the prophetic witness that consecrated life is, and we give thanks to God for each and every one of you , Sisters. Let us redouble our prayers now for a new flowering of Vocations to the Religious Life amongst the people of this Diocese. May that be God’s gift to us in this Year of Vocation.
A quiet chat
Entrance Procession - Each congregation represented by a carried and lighted candle
Gathered and at prayer
Some of the priests who attended
Catching up - before leaving the Cathedral
Altar Display - representing the work of all Religious in diocese and beyond
A few of the faces ...
From St. Louis Community, Kiltimagh
Enjoying the moment
Srs. Ann and Nancy
