CV NEWS FEED // Hopeful perseverance through this life, exemplified by those consecrated to God, is a source of great joy, Lansing, Michigan, Bishop Earl Boyea said in a Jan. 29 press release anticipating the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life on Feb. 2.
“Joyful hope marks the life of a person consecrated to God, and these men and women remind the Church of the joy which can be found through persevering in hope in the midst of earthly struggles,” he said.
Bishop Boyea, chairman of the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocation for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB), expressed the importance of the consecrated in society.
“Consecrated virgins, religious, members of secular institutes and societies of Apostolic life remind us of the deep desire of the human heart to see the face of God,” he said, “and this is evidenced in the report by their experience in Eucharistic Adoration and service of the poor.”
Pope John Paul II intentionally arranged for the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life to fall on the same day as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, according to the release.
Christening the annual celebration in 1997, the Pope expressed his wish for the whole church to celebrate the consecrated on Feb. 2, so consecrated men and women would gather “together with other faithful in order to sing with the Virgin Mary the marvels which the Lord accomplishes in so many of his sons and daughters, and to manifest to all that being a ‘people consecrated to himself’ is the condition of all those who Christ redeems.”
Every year, the USCCB works with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University to produce a report regarding the family background, demographics, education, work and ministry, and vocational discernment of newly consecrated men and women.
The study found that of 194 religious surveyed, the average age was 37, with half of the class being aged 34 or younger. The youngest age recorded was 25, and the oldest was 69.
The study also found that 96% of those who consecrated this past year had siblings. About a third have two or three siblings, and 37% have at least four.
CatholicVote previously reported on Bishop Robert Barron’s column in Word on Fire that explained how consecrated men and women “witness the truths of the Gospel to a world consumed with idolatry.”
The Bishop said consecrated religious provide an antidote to this worldliness because they
“are like trees whose roots go deep, deep into the ground, reaching all the way to the waters that bubble up to eternal life.”
