"Called to Love: Common Vocation, Uncommon Joy"

Getting Beyond a Hope-Killing Culture

By Carl Anderson

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, SEPT. 14, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A couple of years ago, when Benedict XVI visited with some students, two of them asked him a question that could have come from anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic alike.

They asked: "Is there someone or something by means of which we can become important? How is it possible to hope when reality negates every dream of happiness, every project of life?”

I think many people share these questions. The poor, the elderly, the sick, the immigrant, the stay-at-home parent or the 9-to-5 worker -- nobody wants to be dispensable or to feel worthless or trapped. Unfortunately, many people feel that way in different areas of their life. And I think it’s a dangerous symptom that we can’t overlook. It’s a symptom that something about our culture is so unhealthy that its people lose hope.

But although the two students asked what seemed to be a secular question, the only good cure is returning to one’s original vocation: the call to love.

Often, when speaking about youth and the future of the Church, people bring up the “vocation crisis.” However, in order to respond to the crisis it is vital that we respond in a way that underscores the underlying sameness of the vocations.

However different each vocation is -- priesthood, marriage, consecrated life -- they each have the same goal. All are different manifestations of the vocation we all have in common: the vocation to love.

Each vocation requires a total gift of self. Each vocation endures for a lifetime. Each is a path on a journey by which we become more like God who is love. Each has a component that is loving toward each other, manifesting God’s love.

Of course, the reality of this isn’t always clear.

This is especially true looking at the state of Catholic marriage.

Hypothetically speaking, if 23% percent of priests left the priesthood, would we believe we had given them adequate formation for the priesthood? So when in the United States 23% of adult Catholics divorce, is this adequate formation for marriage?

When three out of five failed Catholic marriages are between two Catholics, what does Catholic marriage mean?

When 69% of Catholics between 18 and 25 years of age believe that “marriage is whatever two people want it to be,” what obstacles has their Catholic education faced? And when there is still a paucity of people entering priesthood and religious life, we need to ask ourselves, “What is the future of our vocations?”

Now, this may seem like a hopelessly dire situation. But there is good news. We were created for love, and nothing -- not even secular culture -- an eradicate the call to love from our sensibilities.
The fact is, we cannot dismiss the avoidance of vocational commitment as a result of rampant immaturity. It is also in part due to the fact that people are questioning the authenticity of the love they experience.

Inauthentic love has a name: hypocrisy.

It speaks the language of love, but not its meaning. It offers a unique, unrepeatable gift, but then is quick to take it back. It can be seen in a loveless or careless marriage, a self-centered or apathetic priest, a religious sister or brother without compassion.

The consequence of seeing only inauthentic love is this: Love is seen as something that doesn’t belong to the structures created for love. When families are separated from love, then love is seen as something to be separated from family. When the Church family becomes unloving, then loving becomes something to be found outside the Church.

But there is more good news: Living our own vocations well helps other people live their own vocation.

It helps those already in a vowed vocation to be true to it. It helps those who have not yet given themselves through a specific vocation to be open and to have the courage to say yes to their vocation. A vocation well lived restores trust in love.

The answer is, in Pope Benedict’s words, to have a “harmony between what we say with our lips and what we think with our hearts.”

Another facet of authentic love is perseverance. The witness each of us can give is to continue to love through one’s vocation even during times of spiritual aridity, like Mother Teresa experienced, and St. John of the Cross and many other saints. Such an experience shouldn’t simply be looked on as a step in the spiritual journey of life. It is an experience by which we can relate to all of those who feel disconnected from the love of God in some way.

In a way, this type of spiritual aridity, this failure to “feel” the power of love, is exactly what so many young people feel today. In other’s perseverance, they can find and see the strength of love, the strength of a heart that does not simply feel but a heart that sees and loves according to the truth.

And for many, a litmus test of this authenticity is joy -- and rightly so. And perhaps the greatest obstacle to the reputations of each vocation is not scandal but joylessness -- or what we might call the scandal of joylessness. For this reason, too, before becoming Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger said the Church doesn’t have “such urgent need” for reformers, but rather what the Church really needs are “people who are inwardly seized by Christianity, who experience it as joy and hope, who have thus become lovers. And these we call saints.”

Each vocation offers a particular answer to the questioning of authentic love. And thus all vocations are necessary.

Additionally, Christ’s transformation of the vocations of marriage and religious life is only made possible -- and fulfilling -- through something else: the establishment of the Church. We are relatives not by our own blood but by Christ’s blood.

In Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, family -- in the eyes of God -- was broadened to everyone. God redeemed and involved himself with not just a Chosen People, a people defined by bloodline, but with all people, a people defined by a common origin, the Creator, the one who instilled in us all that common call: that vocation to love.

As Pope Benedict wrote in "Sacramentum Caritatis," “Communion always and inseparably has both a vertical and a horizontal sense: it is communion with God and communion with our brothers and sisters.” We can’t have communion with our fellow human beings unless we have a proper communion with Jesus Christ.

This is why Ratzinger described the whole of human history as a yes or no to Love. And we can only say yes to love with a complete gift of self, first to God, then to neighbor, but to both always in love.

"Pope Benedict XVI to Consecrated People: Imitate the Life of St. Paul"

From Vatican Information Service:

VATICAN CITY, 3 FEB 2009 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon in the Vatican Basilica Benedict XVI met with members of religious congregations, institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, at the end of a Mass marking the thirteenth Day of Consecrated Life, an annual celebration established by John Paul II.

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, presided by Cardinal Franc Rode C.M., prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Holy Father greeted those present.

In this year dedicated to St. Paul the Pope focused his remarks on the Apostle "who", he said, "has always been recognised as father and master of those who, called by the Lord, have chosen to dedicate themselves unconditionally to Him and His Gospel. ... Imitating him by following Jesus is the best way to respond fully to your vocation of special consecration in the Church", he said.

St. Paul's lifestyle "expresses the substance of a consecrated life inspired by the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. In the life of poverty he saw a guarantee that the Gospel would be announced gratuitously. At the same time, such a life is an expression of real solidarity towards brothers and sisters in need".

"Accepting God's call to chastity", noted the Holy Father, the Apostle of the Gentiles "gave his heart entirely to the Lord in order to be able to serve his brethren with greater freedom and dedication. Moreover, in a world in which the values of Christian chastity enjoyed little popularity, he offered secure guidelines of behaviour".

On the subject of obedience, Benedict XVI recalled how St. Paul was "under daily pressure because of his anxiety for all the churches'', and how this "inspired, shaped and consumed his life, making it a sacrifice agreeable to God".

"Another fundamental aspect of Paul's consecrated life was that of mission. He was entirely for Jesus in order to be, like Jesus, for everyone. ... In him, so closely bound to the person of Christ, we recognise a profound capacity to unite spiritual life and missionary activity. In him, these two dimensions support one another".

The Pope told the consecrated people of his hope that the Pauline Year may "give you further encouragment to welcome the witness of St. Paul, meditating daily upon the Word of God through the faithful practice of 'lectio divina', and singing 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts'. May the Apostle help you to accomplish your apostolic service in and with the Church, with an unreserved spirit of communion, making a gift of your charisms to others and bearing witness to the greatest charism of all, which is charity".

'Sponsa Christi' on Consecrated Virginity

Below is a post written by Sponsa Christi for this blog. I am very grateful to her for taking the time to share some thoughts about Consecrated Virginity, the Rite of Consecration (and pictures) and her life as a Consecrated Virgin. I pray that it will be of some assistance to those of you who may be discerning this vocation, and enlightening for those of you who know little about it. If you would like to know more visit the links on the sidebar for Consecrated Virgins. Please keep them all, and their witness in the world, in your prayers!

On January 3, 2009, to my great joy I was solemnly consecrated to a life of virginity in the Archdiocese of New York. That is, I as a virgin was wholly dedicated to God as a “spouse of Christ,” through my reception of an ancient Rite of Consecration by the authority of the local bishop.

Consecrated virginity is actually the oldest form of consecrated life in the Catholic Church, predating religious life by centuries. There are references to consecrated virgins in the Church during Apostolic times, and the central prayer of the Rite of Consecration has been traditionally ascribed to St. Matthew the Evangelist. Before it was historically possible for a woman to enter a religious Order and become a nun, she could offer her life to God as a consecrated virgin. Well-known consecrated virgins from the early Church include St. Agnes, St. Agatha, St. Cecilia, and St. Lucy.

With the rise of monasticism beginning in about the fourth century A.D., the practice of consecrating women living “in the world,” or outside of monasteries, gradually fell into disuse until it was formally discontinued around the year 1000. However, the rite was preserved by certain religious Orders, who continued to use the ritual for their solemnly professed nuns. Then in the later half of the twentieth century, with the decree of the second Vatican Council Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity was revised and the vocation of consecrated virginity in the world was reinstituted in the modern Church.

In my own life, I was twelve years old when I first felt called to dedicate my life exclusively to Christ. At the time, I assumed that I would eventually enter a convent and become a nun or a religious sister. But when at age eighteen I first began to visit various religious communities and discern my vocation more seriously, I started to sense that God was calling me to something other than religious life. This confused and upset me until several months later, when providentially I was able to read the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity for Women Living in the World. Almost at once I knew that I had found my vocation, although it was not until this January, at age twenty-three, that I was able to receive consecration.

The Rite of Consecration always takes place within the context of a Mass. Because I live in a large archdiocese, for pastoral reasons my consecration was delegated to the auxiliary bishop who serves as the Episcopal Vicar for my county. The consecration Mass took place in the parish where the bishop is stationed, about a ten-minute drive from my home parish.

(Photo above) This is the very beginning of the entrance procession. I walked just behind the cross-bearer, followed by the two women whom the Rite of Consecration directs to accompany the candidate (almost like bridesmaids), then by the concelebrating priests and deacons, and finally by the consecrating bishop.

(Photo above) From the introductory rites through most of the Liturgy of the Word, the candidate is seated in the body of the Church. Then, after the Gospel, she is called by the bishop into the sanctuary—this is what constitutes a “vocation” in an official sense.

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(Photo above) After I was called, I entered the sanctuary as I made the liturgical response: “Now with all my heart I follow you, I reverence you and seek your presence. Lord, fulfill my hope; show me your loving kindness, the greatness of your mercy.”

Then I sat in the sanctuary while the bishop preached a homily on the nature and purpose of consecrated virginity.

After the homily, I stood before the bishop and affirmed that I was willing to accept my vocation with all its attendant responsibilities.

(Photo above) Following this, as I prepared to offer my life to God, I lay prostrate in the sanctuary while the Litany of the Saints was chanted.

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(Photo above) At the conclusion of the Litany, I knelt before the bishop and made a public declaration of my resolve to remain a virgin for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. The technical term for this is a propositum—which is similar, but not identical to, a promise or vow made in religious profession.

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(Photo above) Then, I knelt while the bishop prayed the ancient and beautiful consecratory prayer. This prayer is actually the effective element of the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity; unlike religious profession, where a person is consecrated by the promises he or she actively makes, a virgin is consecrated through her passive reception of this solemn blessing and prayer of the Church. Because of this, there is no possibility of dispensation from a life of consecrated virginity.

(Photo above) After the consecratory prayer, I receive a veil, a ring, and a breviary. Here, I am receiving the Liturgy of the Hours, with the commission to pray.

(Photo above) After the Consecration Rites, I returned to my place in the sanctuary before the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The rest of the Mass continued as usual, but with the special additions to the Eucharistic prayer as indicated in the Sacramentary for a Mass of Consecration.

(Above photo) After the Consecration Mass, we had a simple (but big!) reception with my family and friends in the parish hall. Here, I am standing with three seminarian-friends whom I met in college (including, at the far right, Don Maloney from the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C.). All of them here served at the Mass.

In my new life as a consecrated virgin, I am called to spend my life in prayer and service to the Church. Presently, I am full-time graduate student studying for a Master’s degree in Catholic Theology. Eventually I hope to earn a doctorate in either Theology or Canon Law and teach at a university level—but as my main priority is serving the Church, I would be open to using my education in other, perhaps non-academic ways if the needs of the Church suggested this.

But more importantly, every day I attend Mass, pray the full Divine Office, and spend other time in personal prayer. My primary intention is for the needs of the bishops, clergy, and people of the Archdiocese of New York, though the Rite of Consecration also calls me to “pray without ceasing for the salvation of the world.”

"A Prayerful Advocate"

From Catholic New York
By JOHN WOODS

Like many of you, I occasionally ask someone to keep me or a member of my family in their prayers. And when someone makes a similar request of me, I take it seriously.

This week, I made such a request of someone the first time I spoke to her, and I have a good hunch that she'll follow through.

Her name is Jenna Marie Cooper. She is 23 years old and a graduate student in theology at Ave Maria University in Florida. On Saturday, Jan. 3, she will be consecrated to a life of virginity at an 11:30 a.m. Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Newburgh to be celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Dominick J. Lagonegro, co-vicar for Orange County and pastor of Sacred Heart.

As a consecrated virgin, the oldest form of consecrated life in the Church, Ms. Cooper will spend much of her time in prayer. (A Vatican II document called for a revision and revival of the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity for Women Living in the World, restoring the ancient vocation in the life of the modern Church.) It will not be a great departure from her current daily life, which includes praying the Liturgy of the Hours five times, attending Mass and spending other time in prayer.

Chief among her intentions are the Church and people of New York. Cardinal Egan granted permission for Ms. Cooper to be consecrated and she will remain directly under his authority as Archbishop of New York.

She said she felt privileged to be invited to attend the Mass for clergy and religious that Pope Benedict XVI celebrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral in April. "That was such a wonderful and awesome experience. I couldn't talk about anything else for a week afterward," she said.

When the Holy Father thanked those present for their prayers on his behalf, it made a firm impression on her. "That sense that prayers were needed and appreciated was very meaningful to me," she said.

She will be the youngest person in the United States living as a consecrated virgin, and one of four active in the archdiocese, according to Father Bartholomew Daly, M.H.M., who as co-vicar for religious is in charge of their oversight and meets with them regularly.

During our phone interview, Ms. Cooper said she had felt a religious calling since she was about 12. She is part of a devout Catholic family that includes her parents, Douglas and Judith, and two younger siblings, Joseph and Tess. They are parishioners of St. Thomas of Canterbury parish in Cornwall-on-Hudson. She assumed that she would eventually join a religious congregation. She met with several during her undergraduate days (she holds a bachelor's in philosophy from Seton Hall University), but didn't feel like that was the right choice for her. Still, she continued to feel a call to serve the Church in a special way.

In 2004 she met Father Luke Sweeney, now the vocation director for the archdiocese who was then serving at Sacred Heart in Newburgh, where Ms. Cooper at times attends Mass. He gave her information about different religious orders and showed her a copy of the rite for consecrated virgins. She said that she was familiar with the lives of some of the consecrated virgins of the early Church, including some who were martyred for their faith.

"The courage they had to live a Christian life in such a hostile culture made me realize what a foundation they were for the Church," she said. "I wanted to be able to imitate that courage and love in my own life."

Eventually Father Sweeney arranged for her to meet with Father Daly. Last year, she began meeting with him on a more regular basis in pursuing her vocation. She had to formally request Cardinal Egan's permission for her consecration, which was given shortly before the papal Mass.

The prayer request I made of Ms. Cooper was for Catholic New York and its readers. It's only fair that we return the favor as she enters consecrated life.

"Woman is first consecrated virgin in Richmond diocese"

From the Virginia-Pilot

By Steven G. Vegh
Photo by Dolores Johnson


RICHMOND, Va. - Fresh-faced and vivacious, Bernadette Snyder says she grew up in Virginia assuming Catholic girls like her either became nuns or found a man.

At 29, she is still single, and assuredly not a nun.

"I mean, do you see this in a convent?" Snyder said, glancing at her flowered skirt, peasant blouse and jewelry. "It just doesn't happen. I mean, really!"

Instead, Snyder chose a little-known third path with a long tradition in Catholicism: She became a consecrated, perpetual virgin - the first in the 188-year history of the Richmond diocese, which includes Hampton Roads.

Wearing a white sundress and big pink earrings, Snyder knelt in May as Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo laid hands on hers in the rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity of Women Living in the World.

He also slipped onto her ring finger a gold band - a symbol of her spousal relationship with Jesus Christ.

"He completes me," Snyder said. "I don't even know if marriage is the proper term; I feel like he's my husband."

To the Catholic Church, Snyder's calling is as much a formal vocation as the priesthood or religious orders of nuns.

Christian celibacy extends to the church's earliest years. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul spoke approvingly of virginity. "The unmarried woman and the virgin are anxious about the affairs of the Lord, so they may be holy in body and spirit," he said. "The married woman is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please her husband."

The early church regularly consecrated virgins who didn't lead monastic lives, but the rite fell into disuse by the eighth or ninth century. The Vatican restored it in 1970.

In a 1996 treatise, "Consecrated Life," Pope John Paul II wrote that celibacy manifests the virginal life of Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary.

Constant celibacy, he said, reflected "dedication to God with an undivided heart," while virginity was a source of "mysterious spiritual fruitfulness."

The pope called it "a source of joy and hope to witness in our time a new flowering of the ancient Order of Virgins."

The U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins, which formed in 1996, estimates there are 200 consecrated virgins nationwide. Most of those consecrations have come in the last 10 years, said Judith Stegman, the group's president.

She was among 500 consecrated virgins from 52 countries who met in Vatican City in May to discuss how to promote the order, and how virgins should live out their vocation.

Pope Benedict XVI told the gathering their chastity benefited all people, even though the world may consider it "unintelligible and useless."

Read the rest of the article HERE.

H/T Deacon's Bench

A New Consecrated Virgin in the Diocese of Richmond

The following story is a slight reworking of the original UPI story:

For the first time in its 188 year history, a young Virginia woman has made her vows as a consecrated , perpetual virgin in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond.

Bernadette Snyder, 29, made her vows before Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo in the rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity of Women Living in the World, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday.

As a part of the ceremony in May, Bishop DiLorenzo gave her a gold band as a symbol of her spousal relationship with Jesus Christ.

"He completes me," Snyder told the newspaper. "I don't even know if marriage is the proper term; I feel like he's my husband."

According to the article, the rite fell into disuse by the eighth or ninth century. The Vatican restored it in 1970.

The U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins estimates there are 200 consecrated virgins nationwide. Most of those consecrations have come in the last decade, said Judith Stegman, the group's president.

"Consecrated Virginity a Gift for the Church, Says Pope"

A special thank you to the author of the "Sponsa Christi" blog for bringing this article to my attention. If you are interested in learning more about a vocation as a consecrated (vowed) virgin in the world, please visit her blog. Unfortunately, as she points out, there is little information out there about this vocation. Ithink her blog could be a very big help in this regard.

"Calls Charism Luminous and Fruitful"

VATICAN CITY, MAY 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The call to consecrated virginity has roots in the beginnings of evangelical life, and the Virgin Mary was its first fulfillment, affirmed Benedict XVI.

The Pope stated this today when he greeted 500 consecrated virgins today who have gathered in Rome for an international congress.

In his remarks to the members of "Ordo Virginum," or the Order of Virgins, the Holy Father, quoting the theme chosen for the congress, pointed out that consecrated virginity is "a gift in the Church and for the Church." He invited the women "to develop, from day to day, their understanding of a charism which is as luminous and fruitful in the eyes of the faith as it is obscure and futile in the eyes of the world."

"The Order of Virgins represents a particular form of consecrated life which flowered anew in the Church after Vatican Council II," the Pontiff explained. "However, it has ancient roots that go back to the beginnings of evangelical life when, in an unprecedented novelty, the hearts of certain women began to open to a desire for consecrated virginity: in other words, the desire to give one's entire being to God, which had had its first extraordinary fulfillment in the Virgin of Nazareth and her 'yes.'"

"Your charism must reflect the intensity, but also the freshness, of its origins," said the Pope, noting how, "when it came into being, the charism did not involve a particular way of life. Little by little, however, it was institutionalized, finally becoming a full public and solemn consecration conferred by the bishop through an inspirational liturgical rite that made the consecrated woman 'sponsa Christi,' an image of the Church as bride."

"Your vocation is profoundly rooted in the particular Church to which you belong," he told the women. "From the diocese, with its traditions, its saints, its values, limits and difficulties, you open up to the scope of the universal Church, sharing particularly in her liturgical prayer."

"In this way your prayerful 'I' progressively broadens out," the Holy Father continued, "until in the prayer there is nothing more than a great 'we.' In your dialogue with God, open yourselves to dialogue with all creatures."

"The choice of virginal life," the Pope concluded, "is an allusion to the transitory nature of earthly things and an anticipation of future good. Be witnesses of vigilant and industrious hope, of joy, of the peace that belongs to those who abandon themselves to the love of God. Be present in the world, yet pilgrims on the journey to the kingdom."