2015 - Year of Consecrated Life

Pope Francis Has Declared 2015 the Year of Consecrated Life

"They (the consecrated) are men and woman who can awaken the world. Consecrated life is prophecy. God asks us to fly the nest and to be sent to the frontiers of the world, avoiding the temptation to 'domesticate' them. This is the most concrete way of imitating the Lord."

 - Pope Francis

Catholic Herald UK

Francis announces year of consecrated life in 2015

by Staff Reporter

posted Friday, 29 Nov 2013

Pope Francis thanked the religious for their 'testimony' (AP)

Pope praises 'spirit of faith' of religious orders

Pope Francis has announced that 2015 will be a year dedicated to the promotion of consecrated life.
He made the announcement today in an address to the heads of men’s religious orders, who were taking part in the 82nd general assembly of the Union of Superiors General in Rome.
During the three-hour meeting the Pope held an impromptu question-and-answer session.

He later thanked the religious, saying: “Thank you, for what you do and for your spirit of faith and your quest for service. Thanks for your testimony, and also for the humiliations you have to endure.”

Wake up the World! - Quotes from Pope Francis Catholic News Service

• Today’s religious men and women need to be prophetic, “capable of waking up the world,” of showing they are a special breed who “have something to say” to the world today.
• “The church must be attractive. Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, acting, living! (Show) it’s possible to live differently in this world.”
• They need to live and behave in a truly different way, recognizing one’s weakness and sins, but acting with “generosity, detachment, sacrifice, forgetting oneself in order to take care of others.”
• “It’s necessary to spend time in real contact with the poor. For me this is really important: it’s necessary to know from experience what’s real, to dedicate time going to the periphery to truly know the situation and the life of the people.”
• Without firsthand experience with people’s lives, “then one runs the risk of being abstract ideologues or fundamentalists, and this is not healthy.”

•  Year of Consecrated Life FB

Thank you, Sheryl. You are already a living example of a consecrated life. I hope to share in this life with you intimately - a consecrated life together. God Bless you.

The Heart of the Family is the Heart of a Nation

This post is for all the fatherless and orphan children in the world. Please take a moment and pray to St. Joseph, stepfather of Jesus, for all the fatherless children out there. Consider sponsoring or mentoring a child who needs you. Sheryl, I praise you for your love and work for the orphans. This article made me think of you and all your dedication to make the world a better place and give hope to the children.  I hope to talk to you soon.

Family Breakdown is Dividing Societies

Top British Rabbi Tells Vatican Conference Family Breakdown is Dividing Societies

by Austin Ruse 17 Nov 2014 4 post a comment

A top British rabbi told a Vatican conference on marriage today that Great Britain is developing into the most divided society than at any time in the last 150 years.

Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, says the problem stems from a number of factors including that almost half of children born in the United Kingdom are born out of wedlock, people are marrying later and that 42 percent of marriages end in divorce.
He pointed out that women head 92 percent of single-parent families and that “in Britain today more than a million children will grow up with no contact whatsoever with their fathers.”
Sacks said, “Those who are privileged to grow up in stable loving association with the two people who brought them into being will, on average, be healthier physically and emotionally. They will do better at school and at work. They will have more successful relationships, be happier and live longer.”
He said that cohabitation is not a substitute for marriage since cohabiting relationships end on average after less than two years, far shorter even than those marriages that end in divorce.
He said these developments are “creating a divide in societies the like of which has not been seen since Disraeli spoke of ‘two nations’ a century and a half ago.”
Sacks is one of many speakers at a Vatican sponsored conference on the “complementarity of men and women” and the importance of marriage and family.
This morning Pope Francis said that children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother.
A common statement on man-woman marriage from more than 14 faith traditions will be released on Wednesday.

National Vocation Week - Catholic Vocations

The first week of November is Vocation Awareness Week for Catholic Vocations. In honor of my girlfriend, Sheryl, I have posted the following from the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. St. Francis took a vow of poverty and believed in good works towards all beings, including animals. He believed all of God's creation to be his brothers and sisters. This week is to honor all those who have consecrated themselves to the work and call of God on their life.

http://franciscanizedworld.fscc-calledtobe.org/2014/11/vocation-awareness-week-hopes-to-wake-up-the-world-to-consecrated-life/

Vocation Awareness Week Hopes to Wake Up the World to Consecrated Life

by Sister Julie Ann on November 2, 2014

Vocation Awareness Week is all about discernment of God’s call. This includes Consecrated Life.  Anticipating the Year of Consecrated Life proclaimed by Pope Francis, Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity and other religious from the Diocese of Green Bay began this week November 2, 2014 with a prayer service at St. Francis of Assisi Parish on Grand Avenue, Manitowoc, WI.
Mentioning many holy men and women by name, all present  invoked the intercession of the saints, sang inspirational songs, proclaimed the Word of God and recalled words of Pope Francis for this year of joy.

Are you discerning your own call from God? The world needs you. God calls you. We invite you. Listen to our Sisters share more about our unique call from God.