PRAY FOR AN INCREASE IN VOCATIONS TO RELIGIOUS LIFE
by Sr. Alicia Torres, FE
Religious sisters were the architects of some of my most joyful experiences, including canoeing at summer camp with Sr. Mary-Elizabeth, singing praise-and-worship with Sr. Elizabeth at Youth2000 or walking through the Bronx with the Sisters of Life.
The deepest desire of our feminine hearts is to learn our irreplaceable role in the world and experience selfless love and intimate union with the Beloved. This desire is at odds with worldly standards of success and happiness, and poses a distinct problem for women in discerning vocations. The emphasis on working outside the home as a means to human fulfillment truncates feminine possibilities. Household tasks can be part of the irreplaceable role for some women. Our individual vocations cannot be discovered through cookie-cutter reductionism. Despite social hurdles of derision and family opposition and economic hurdles of college debts and tempting career options, women of all ages are answering the Lord’s invitation.
Religious life is a counter-cultural call to a radical life of love. It is giving up everything to become all in the Lord, to become a visible symbol of the Kingdom for all women. What a gift! Just as surely as the priest stands “in the place of” Jesus for us, serving our needs, so too do our religious sisters literally model for us the receptivity of the Church, being continually presented to Christ as a bride fashioned wholly for His love. Thank you, sisters!
List of blogs by religious/nuns, compiled by Sr. Julie Vieira, IHM (profiled in our February 2007 issue)
National Religious Vocation Conference Has a vocation match service, articles on religious life and discernment, and links.
Unveiled, by Cheryl Reed A journalist explores the lives of modern nuns across the U.S. (2008)
Lord, We Pray:
For all women who feel the call to religious life, that they will find the community God is leading them to find;
For all families of religious sisters, that they would support and cherish the great gift of a religious vocation, and receive the religious order as part of their extended family;
For parishes, that through their parish life and ministries, all Catholics might encourage and support women exploring religious life;
For priests, bishops and cardinals, that they would encourage women to service in the Church by their examples of humble servanthood, thus deepening a culture of vocation within the Catholic community;
For religious communities, that they may stay faithful to their particular charisms and be blessed with women to carry on their work in the Lord’s vineyard;
That in the spirit of Edith Stein, who gave up success in the world for the Cloister of Carmel, women of accomplishment may not be afraid to find a new life in the generosity of God;
That, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, that the world would find in the lives of religious women the seeds of the joy of transformation in Christ, that the Kingdom is indeed within our midst.
Amen
