Day 127: Consecrated Life (914-924)

• It’s Day 127!!

• THE CONSECRATED LIFE

• EVANGELICAL COUNSELS, CONSECRATED LIFE

• Poverty

• Chastity

• Obedience

• Every one of us who is a baptized Christian is called IN SOME WAY to live poverty, chastity, and obedience

• Those who are in consecrated life PROFESS THEM

• They aren’t just called to live up to those virtues and embrace them

• Paragraph 915 says, “It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.”

• This would be a PERMANENT state of poverty, chastity, or obedience

• Paragraph 916 says, “The state of consecrated life is thus one way of experiencing a ‘more intimate’ consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God.”

• This person has recognized a CALL IN THEIR LIFE that God has placed on them

• We all receive that call to live in union with Jesus 

• To have that poverty, chastity, and obedience

• To unite our hearts and our lives to the heart and the life of Jesus

• THEY recognize that in a UNIQUE way

• There are many communities that have done this

• IN FACT…

• They are happening RIGHT NOW

• There are communities that date back hundreds of years

• And there are some communities that date back a handful of years

• THE EREMITIC LIFE

• This is essentially the call to be SEPARATE FROM THE WORLD IN A UNIQUE WAY

• It typically refers to the life of a hermit

• Paragraph 920 says, “Without always professing the three evangelical counsels publicly, hermits ‘devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance.’”

• The hermit does this in response to a call to serve the world by removing themselves from the world

• In that removal they have dedicated themselves to the praise of God and the salvation of the world by entering into silence, penance, and prayer

• They are not leaving the world because they HATE the world

• They are leaving the world because they believe, and we believe as Catholic Christians, that it is actually DOING SOMETHING through God’s Grace in a mysterious way

• CONSECRATED VIRGINS AND WIDOWS

• Those who have committed their WHOLE LIVES

• They have committed their heart, body, and spirit to live those counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience

• Whether it is before they are ever married and never get married

• OR…

• After they are married and their spouse passed away

• What an incredible opportunity we have to talk about this reality in the Church

• So many people don’t get to experience this

• Because we don’t always see religious sisters and brothers walking around

• We rarely see hermits because they have left the world

• So let’s pray not only for them but ourselves so that the Lord guides this time we have together

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, thank you so much. Thank you for the gift of your Church, which has so much variety. Thank you for the gift of your Church that honors the great gift, the great call of marriage and family. We thank you for your Church that honors the great call of chastity for the sake of the Kingdom. We thank you for the great gift of your Church that just meets every one of us in whatever state of life we find ourselves. Because you, Lord God, you want to meet us in every state in life we find ourselves. Every circumstance we find ourselves, we know that you can find us. So we ask you right now, for the sake of all religious sisters, all consecrated virgins, right now all widows, right now we ask you for all religious brothers, we ask you to please find them and meet them with your Grace today. For all those who have dedicated their lives in this unique profession of the evangelical counsels we ask that you please give them your Holy Spirit and give them your Grace right now that they can continue to bear witness to you in the world even if they are separated from the world. And bless all of us, Lord God. Help us to recognize and to regularly pray for these sisters and these brothers of ours.  Help them help us and be with us this day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• EVANGELICAL COUNSELS, CONSECRATED LIFE

• POVERTY

• CHASTITY

• OBEDIENCE

• Paragraph 915 says, “Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience.”

• It might be helpful to make a distinction

• CHASTITY is living sexuality correctly ordered

• A married couple that follows chastity will enter into the sexual embrace in a particular way

• THEIR call to chastity would not mean CELIBACY

• CELIBACY means forsaking sexual activity for the sake of the Kingdom

• CHASTITY is entering into or refraining from that sexual activity according to one’s state in life

• For a CONSECRATED VIRGIN that would mean CELIBACY

• For a PRIEST that would mean CELIBACY

• For a MARRIED COUPLE that would mean entering into the sexual embrace with their spouse

• So keep that in mind

• Hopefully that makes sense

• Paragraph 915 continues, “It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.”

• PROFESSION means they are taking a VOW or OATH or PROMISE of these counsels

• All of us are called to follow the three evangelical counsels in accord with our state in life

• The consecrated folks are doing this in a very INTENTIONAL, SPECIFIC, and LIFE-LONG way

• ONE GREAT TREE, WITH MANY BRANCHES

• Paragraph 917 says, “‘From the God-given seed of the counsels a wonderful and wide-spreading tree has grown up in the field of the Lord, branching out into various forms of the religious life lived in solitude or in community. Different religious families have come into existence in which spiritual resources are multiplied for the progress in holiness of their members and for the good of the entire Body of Christ.’”

• Let’s look at some different families

• St. Benedict and St. Scholastica founded the BENEDICTINE ORDER

• We have the CARMELITE ORDER

• We have the JESUITS

• We have FRANCISCANS

• We have DOMINICANS

• All these people who live in a certain kind of community

• They all have a different SPIRITUAL CHARACTER to them

• So the Benedictines are different from the Franciscans

• The Franciscans are different from the Dominicans

• The Dominicans are different from the Jesuits

• All of those different families bring a NEW UNIQUENESS, GIFTEDNESS, and VARIETY to the Church

• Whereas Benedictines have a vow of stability and all that they have done throughout history

• They have maintained culture in this powerful way by simply living FAITHFULLY to work and to prayer and to the Gospels and to this call of poverty, chastity, and obedience

• So there is some stability there

• Franciscans have brought about RENEWAL as they go out into the world 

• They bring the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ TO ALL

• From the richest person to the poorest person

• We have the MISSIONARY SISTERS OF CHARITY

• They bring the Gospel of Jesus, the love of Jesus, and the Body of Christ to those the rest of the world has forgotten

• All these different families have different characters 

• This big tree with different branches

• Not only the members themselves grow in holiness by living out these counsels

• BUT…

• The world becomes sanctified through them living out these counsels

• WHICH IS REMARKABLE!!

• THE EREMITIC LIFE

• Paragraph 921 says, “They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is, personal intimacy with Christ.”

• We can see the EXTERIOR ASPECT of the mystery of the Church

• Which is the structure, teaching, and going out into the world and bringing the Gospel and healing through medicine, bringing science, bringing education, etc. 

• BUT…

• The INTERIOR ASPECT of the mystery of the Church is ALWAYS going to be PERSONAL INTIMACY WITH CHRIST

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!

• No matter what we do EXTERNALLY there is always going to be the NECESSITY of PERSONAL INTIMACY WITH CHRIST

• That is what hermits do

• They manifest through everyone this core of belonging to Jesus

• Paragraph 921 continues, “Hidden from the eyes of men, the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he has surrendered his life simply because he is everything to him. Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One.”

• OH MY GOSH!!

• THIS IS SO GOOD!!

• JESUS IS EVERYTHING TO HIM!!

• There is an incredible book that Fr. Mike has never read the whole thing

• It is called “THE HERMITAGE WITHIN”

• It’s written by a monk

• When you go into the desert of Mt. Sinai or the desert of the Promised Land or the desert of Gethsemane

• All these different DESERTS

• If you can get a copy of that book you will probably have enough to pray with for the rest of your life

• IT IS SO SO RICH!!

• So why do hermits go there?

• Simply because Jesus is EVERYTHING to them

• CONSECRATED VIRGINS AND WIDOWS

• Paragraph 922 says, “From apostolic times Christian virgins and widows, called by the Lord to cling only to him with greater freedom of heart, body, and spirit, have decided with the Church’s approval to live in the respective states of virginity or perpetual chastity ‘for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.’”

• This doesn’t mean that people who are married can’t love Jesus freely

• It means there is someone else you are responsible for when you are married and that is a very good thing

• Marriage is a GREAT GIFT

• Marriage is a SACRAMENT

• Marriage is a means to becoming a SAINT

• St. Paul says it is a tough road

• All those married couples listening to this have discerned a PHENOMENAL CALL TO HOLINESS

• It is challenging

• Not to say that becoming a consecrated person is not challenging

• But all the roads to follow Jesus are roads to pick up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow after Jesus

• So how do consecrated virgins and widows do this?

• Paragraph 923 says, “‘Virgins who, committed to the holy plan of following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical rite, are betrothed mystically to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of the Church.’”

• So they don’t just say they are consecrating themselves to Jesus right now

• They have to go through a rite that is presided over by a diocesan bishop

• They stand as an IMAGE of the Church, the Bride, to Christ, the Bridegroom

• Paragraph 923 continues, “By this solemn rite (Consecratio Virginum), the virgin is ‘constituted…a sacred person, a transcendent sign of the Church’s love for Christ, and an eschatological image of this heavenly Bride of Christ and of the life to come.’”

• That person is meant to be a sign for us when we see her

• We will realize there is MORE to this life than just this life

• Their whole life becomes a witness to that

• Married couples are meant to be an IMAGE of the Holy Trinity

• The husband pours out his whole self to his wife in love and she receives that love and pours that whole life back out to him and the love between them is so real that you have to name it 9 months later

• We can be so preoccupied and obsessed with romantic relationships and sex 

• Those consecrated virgins who forsake marriage for the sake of the Kingdom

• Not because marriage is bad

• BUT…

• They do it because they are pointing out for us that there is more to this life even than the best human love

• Human love is incredible

• Human love in marriage is a sacrament because of Jesus

• There is another call and it is to forsake the GOOD THING for the sake of Jesus Christ

• YOU might be called to that

• YOU might be called to marriage

• YOU might be called to another vocation

• BUT…

• The reality is the Church has VARIETY

• We want to acknowledge the goodness of all the various ways of following after Jesus in the Church

• Married life, through family, through priesthood, through consecrated life, through religious life

• All of these have to do with ONE GREAT TREE, WITH MANY BRANCHES

• Where all of the birds of the air can find a home

• We are grateful for all of the religious sisters and brothers

• All the consecrated virgins and widows

• All of those who have left the world for the sake of the world

• They are praying, doing penance, and are a sign to us of God’s UNFAILING AND UNSTOPPABLE LOVE FOR ALL OF US

• Let’s hope we can ALL see that

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow