Pope Francis has proclaimed
2015 a Year of Consecrated Life, beginning the First Sunday of Advent. This year
also marks the 50th anniversary of Perfectae Caritatis, the decree on religious life, and Lumen
Gentium, the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Church. During this Year the Church wishes to “make a grateful remembrance of the recent past” while embracing “the future with
hope.”
As a fitting way to begin this Year of Consecrated Life, the Abbot has invited us monks to gather in Chapter and respond to the question: Why have you come here? Or in other words: What brought you to the monastery? What attracted you? What drew you to write that first letter of enquiry? Or make that first phone call? Or come for that first visit? It has been moving and edifying to listen to each other tell the story of his vocation. The Lord is gentle, sometimes insistent even perhaps charming as He draws us to Himself.
O God, throughout the ages
you have called
women and men to pursue
lives of perfect
charity through the
evangelical counsels of
poverty, chastity, and
obedience. During this
Year of Consecrated Life,
we give you thanks
for these courageous
witnesses of Faith and
models of inspiration.
Their pursuit of holy
lives teaches us to make a
more perfect offering
of ourselves to you.
Continue to enrich
your Church by calling
forth sons and daughters
who, having found the pearl
of great
price, treasure the Kingdom
of Heaven above
all things. Through our
Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son, who lives and
reigns with you in
the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God, for
ever and ever. Amen.To open this Year dedicated to the Consecrated Life which begins
on this First Sunday of Advent. Prayer for the Year of Consecrated Life
