On Thursday, February 2, the Religious of the Archdiocese, graced by the presence of Archbishop Edward J Gilbert, gathered at Rosary Monastery for the annual celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life.

At 4.30 p.m. to the strains of music from the Benedictine monks played on CD, the religious came into the chapel and greeted one another. At 5.00 p.m. Sr Ann of the Rosary Monastery welcomed everyone, then Abbot John Pereira, and cantors Bros Marius and Kevin OSB led Vespers.

Archbishop Edward Gilbert, in his spirited address acknowledged the important role religious have played in the history of the archdiocese and exhorted us to be even more alive in our vocation. (See Archbishop's Column).

Abbot John Pereira OSB leads Vespers.

Religious pray Vespers at Rosary Monastery. Photos: Fr Vincent Pazhukkakulam, O Carm

At the end of Vespers, Sr Imelda of Rosary Monastery, thanked the gathering and invited everyone to the next item for the evening – the sharing. Sr Adriana O Carm also announced that Fr Vincent Pazhukkakulam, O Carm would do his magic tricks immediately as he had to leave early.

Indeed, Fr Vincent was performing especially for the Sisters of Rosary Monastery who had never seen him in action. Fr Vincent is a professional magician and we were delighted with the modest, but effective sample of his capabilities in magic. The comment was “He is really good!”

A point of interest was that Fr Vincent used Scripture quotations to highlight the spirituality of his magic. The fusing of the two tweaked our imagination to appreciate how all-embracing are the basics of our faith. Thank you, Fr Vincent.

Each religious group brought simple “goodies” for the sharing and with lovely weather and a relaxed garden setting the religious had their various tete-à-tetes. Vocations and the future were topics of conversation.

There is strength in unity, and may we learn to profit from meetings of this kind to be of better service to the archdiocese.