(World Day of Consecrated Life was celebrated on February 2)

A vocation to the Consecrated Life is in a sense a vocation within a vocation. Vocation (“calling”) is a biblical word with a theological content even though today it has evolved to mean a profession or trade.

For the spiritual life of the Christian, it is very important to be able to endorse one's “secular” vocation as a task for one's spiritual life having a meaningful content, to recognise one's secular calling as a divine vocation – as task and adventure in the Holy Spirit.

If one then further experiences a call to religious life, the consecrated life of the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, then one's vocation becomes more a “mission” and structured, with the “profession or trade” given by God to be used in a way determined within the charism of the particular order or congregation to which one is being called.

We should note at this point that all vocations, “callings”, are means to an end, the end for which we are created, to praise and serve God and to work for the good of our brothers and sisters, and so come to our eternal destiny with God.

Called to the consecrated life?

Some young persons still believe that to be called to religious life involves a clear divine revelation, something very special and out of the ordinary. Yet if one experiences an attraction to a particular religious congregation, and prays about it and feels a sense of challenge, and considers himself/herself to have the aptitude needed to meet such a challenge, then one can be fairly sure that one has a vocation.

Clearly in arriving at an assessment about aptitude, one may seek out the help of a priest and even a professional psychologist in order to cover as much as possible all that is implied in aptitude – intellectual, psychological, spiritual, etc.

Further one must also examine one's motives carefully and prayerfully since one should not enter a religious congregation for selfish motives, since to be called to the consecrated life is to be called to service of God and the people.

Many times one is attracted to a particular congregation either because one is familiar with the work of the congregation in the Church, or one happens to know quite well a member of the congregation and is attracted to how he/she works and his/her whole way of dealing with people and situations.

This sort of base of attraction should, however, be fleshed out by taking time to discover more about the congregation, its founder, its organisational structure, its charism, in order to understand better the possible tasks and adventure in the Spirit, which may eventually await one.

Fr Henri Brenon, FMI addresses the Religious of the archdiocese on consecrated life- Feb 2004

However most congregations today are conscious that we live in very different times and circumstances than when the congregation was actually founded and so there is a conscious discernment within most congregations to discover what the Spirit is calling them to in this new millennium, in a globalised world marked by dreadful inequalities and violence.

Thus in November 2004 there was in a Congress on Consecrated Life in Rome attended by 847 religious from all the continents of the world in which the participants focused on what the Spirit is saying today to Consecrated Life.

While no definitive statement emerged from the congress, the participants recognised that their discernment of the signs of the times calls them “ to insert themselves into the reality of their time, into the life and mission of the people of God, with a new creativity in charity”.

They also recognised certain attitudes which the following of Christ today demands of them; these attitudes they designated as “seven contemporary virtues”, which characterize “the new face of consecrated life as the sacrament and parable of the Reign of God.”

• Depth: gospel discernment and authenticity
• Hospitality and gratitude
• Non-violence and meekness
• Liberty of spirit
• Boldness and creativity
• Tolerance and dialogue
• Simplicity: valuing the resources of the poor and despised

The participants also noted certain convictions which will enable them to move forward today, such as the need to see themselves as on mission, and so be ready to engage in creative discernment in relation to their works taking into account the need for dialogue both within and outside the Church , and to be present where life is most threatened.

Further the Congress also recognised that to accomplish all of the above and more a new paradigm of formation is needed. So we can see in this brief reference to some of the material which emerged from the Congress on Consecrated Life that there is a vivid dynamism at work within the congregations, and that this dynamism is rooted and grounded in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus gave to his Church the sacraments, which are the presence of the invisible God in our lives to strengthen our faith, deepen our love and shore up our hope in Him.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God continues to surprise us in many ways, and the existence of so many religious orders, congregations and institutes of both male and female members is a clear reminder of his love for the Church; these congregations are all God's gifts to the Church.

So if we feel called to religious life, to a vocation of Consecrated Life, we are being called by God to share in this special gift to the Church – whether it be as a Dominican priest, brother or sister, or as a Jesuit priest or brother, or any of the other congregations – and so to respond generously to such a “call” is an attempt to return something to God for the wonderful gift He has given to us through his Church.

A religious community is simply a community of men or women bonded together by the vows of their calling, their common mission within the Church and their life in community. However, in practice, all these elements which go to identify the religious community, all have their challenges and do not come easy to most religious.

So we need always to keep in mind that a vocation is a calling from God, and as such He will supply all that we need to fulfill that vocation provided we remain faithful to the calling and with faith in His faithfulness.