February
2015
Reflection on Consecrated Life
OPENING HYMN: Sing a New Church ~Dolores Dufner, OSB
Leader: O God,Creator of all things,
welcome us into your presence..
All:
Where we will sing your praise here and forever!
Leader: Send you Spirit to free our hearts,
All: to take away all hesitation and fear in following your
call.
Leader:
Help us recognize the hunger you have created in us,
All: to be faithful to
your call to mission and justice.
Psalm 63:
O God,
you are my God; at dawn I seek you;
for you my soul is thirsting.
For you my flesh is pining,
like a dry, weary land without water.
I have come before you in the sanctuary,
to behold your strength and your glory.
Your loving mercy is better than life;
my lips will speak your praise.
I will
bless you all my life;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul shall be filled as with a banquet;
with joyful lips, my mouth shall praise you.
For you have been my strength; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.
your right hand upholds me.
for you my soul is thirsting.
For you my flesh is pining,
like a dry, weary land without water.
I have come before you in the sanctuary,
to behold your strength and your glory.
Your loving mercy is better than life;
my lips will speak your praise.
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul shall be filled as with a banquet;
with joyful lips, my mouth shall praise you.
When I remember you upon my bed,
I muse on you through the watches of the night. For you have been my strength; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.
your right hand upholds me.
My soul clings fast to you;
Glory
to the Father...
SCRIPTURE
READING: Mt
9: 35-38 The harvest is rich but the
laborers are few
35 And Jesus went about all the cities
and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. 36 When
he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his
disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 pray
therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Hymn:
Come with me into the Fields Dan Shutte
READINGS
FOR REFLECTION:
REJOICE! A letter to consecrated men and
women; A message from the teachings of Pope Francis
5. Consecrated life is in fact a
continuous call to follow Christ, and to be made like him. “Jesus’s whole life,
his way of dealing with the poor, his actions, his integrity, his simple daily
generosity, and finally his complete self-giving, all this is precious and relates
to our personal lives.”
36. Many traditional and new foundations bring consecrated men and women
to places where others usually cannot go. In recent years consecrated persons
were able to leave the security of the known to thrust
themselves into unknown places and works. Thanks to their total consecration
they are in fact free to step in wherever there are critical needs. This has
been witnessed in the recent foundations in new countries which present
unique challenges, involving many provinces at the same time and creating
international communities. With discerning eyes and generous hearts121 they
have responded to the call of many who suffer in a concrete service of charity.
Wherever they are, they have constituted a link between the Church and
marginal groups and those not reached by ordinary pastoral ministry.
VITA
CONSECRATA APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION VITA
CONSECRATA (1996)
104. Many people today are
puzzled and ask: What is the point of the consecrated life? Why embrace this
kind of life, when there are so many urgent needs in the areas of charity and
of evangelization itself, to which one can respond even without assuming the
particular commitments of the consecrated life?
These
questions are asked more frequently in our day, as a consequence of a
utilitarian and technocratic culture which is inclined to assess the
importance of things and even of people in relation to their immediate
"usefulness". But such questions have always existed, as is
eloquently demonstrated by the Gospel episode of the anointing at Bethany:
"Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet
of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the
fragrance of the ointment" (Jn 12:3). When Judas, using the needs
of the poor as an excuse, complained about such waste, Jesus replied:
"Let her alone!" (Jn 12:7).This is the perennially valid
response to the question which many people, even in good faith, are asking
about the relevance of the consecrated life: Could one not invest one's life
in a more efficient and reasonable way for the betterment of society? This is
how Jesus replies: "Let her alone!"
Those who have been given the
priceless gift of following the Lord Jesus more closely consider it obvious
that he can and must be loved with an undivided heart, that one can devote to
him one's whole life, and not merely certain actions or occasional moments or
activities. The precious ointment poured out as a pure act of love, and thus
transcending all "utilitarian" considerations, is a sign of unbounded
generosity, as expressed in a life spent in loving and serving the Lord,
in order to devote oneself to his person and his Mystical Body. From such a
life "poured out" without reserve there spreads a fragrance which
fills the whole house. The house of God, the Church, today no less than in
the past, is adorned and enriched by the presence of the consecrated life.
RULE OF LIFE:
Article
1: Our Lord had very much at
heart the creating of a spirit, a missionary spirit, an
Evangelical burning that would sweep over the whole world. He came to
cast a fire on the earth, and he willed that it would be enkindled (Lk 12:49). The Holy Spirit has enkindled this fire in our hearts. This is our
heritage: an apostolic spirit, a Gospel spirit, a Catholic spirit. The
Missionary Cenacle Spirit is charity, charity aflame.
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You must determine to do some big thing
for Him. And that big thing must mean that more and more you are going to put
on Christ; more and more you are going to show forth His spirit which will
effect that your brothers will recognize in you more generosity, more
devotion to your Missionary Cenacle and its duties, more forgetfulness of
self, more detachment from worldly things, worldly ways; more self‑sacrifice
P. 29
I wish that during this (meditation) you would, as it were, take your
own temperature. How is that fire within me? Is it at white heat, is it
intense, or is it a dull glow; or is it next to being extinguished? When the
smith plunges the metal into the fire, if his fire be at its proper
temperature, there is a fusion; but he might plunge that iron many times into
the fire and it would be futile unless the fire was at white heat. P 183
Question posed by Pope
Francis to consecrated men and women
“ Look into the depths of your
heart, look into your own inner depths and ask yourself: do you have a heart
that desires something great, or a heart that has been lulled to sleep by
things? Has your heart preserved the restlessness of seeking or have you let
it be suffocated by things that end by hardening it? God awaits you, he seeks
you; how do you respond to him? Are you aware of the situation of your soul?
Or have you nodded off? Do you believe God is waiting for you or does this
truth consist only of “words”?
Faith Sharing:
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