Our committee had a great meeting this past weekend (Oct. 25-26, 2014). Creativity and energy are definitely not lacking in the members of this group, and soon, you will be receiving material from us. In the letter that accompanies the mailing, we will tell you more about the Year of Consecrated Life that Pope Francis has declared for 2015. You will also find a new prayer for vocations and a sample of our new brochure. In the meantime, we invite you to ponder the question of “vocation” and the meaning that a year dedicated to Consecrated Life might have for you.
On Tuesday, November 2, Sisters Peggy and Mary Ann are driving to Chicago for the National Religious Vocation Conference. We will be staying with Sisters Darleen, Regina and Janet. While there, we hope to connect with Congregation of Notre Dame Associate Father Patrick Marshall, a College Chaplain who moderates a weekly discernment group with his students. We are eager to learn what Patrick can share with what these young adults are looking for as they discern a vocation to Religious life and priesthood. The workshops look good: effective ways of using media in vocation work, preparing for candidates who are from cultures unlike our own, issues of civil, canon and immigration law, screening for formation and more! We hope to learn to sing the hymn composed for the Year of Consecrated life. “Wake the World with Dawning Joy” is based on the words of Pope Francis. The opening lines: “Wake the world with dawning joy! Wake it with your gladness” have a Visitation ring about them!
Certain elements of Marguerite Bourgeoys’s message are as relevant as the Gospel: they were true yesterday, are still true today and will be always. The same applies, for instance, to the emphasis she placed on the great commandment to love. Other elements particularly stand out because of the context in which we live. What follows are some examples:
Human Dignity
Marguerite had an acute sense of human dignity and of equal dignity for all persons: each person is loved by God; for each one Jesus gave his blood.
This certainty led her to help everyone without exception. She spoke of teaching as a mission which must be fulfilled without distinction between the poor and the rich, between relatives and friends and strangers, between the pretty and the ugly, the gentle and the grumblers, looking upon them all as drops of Our Lord's blood.
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Respect for Creation, Listening and Dialogue