Sister Francesca to Make First Vows

Glad Tidings Chapter for Sr. Mary Francesca         June 12, 2020

 

+My dear Sr. Francesca,

   In God’s loving and gracious providence, this day has been chosen for you, the day on which you will be espoused to Christ the Lord. St. Monica may not seem to be a fitting patroness for such a day, but the more I prayed about it, the more I found the day to be just right, and specifically because God chose it, since the Bishop will be able to come on that day.

   When I think of St. Monica she is to me a woman of prayer, of unceasing prayer.  She did not give up her prayer until God answered her, and He rewarded her perseverance with gifts and graces beyond measure.  Not only was her son Augustine converted to Christ, but he became a great saint of the Church.

As Monica prayed with tears for the conversion and salvation of her son Augustine, how much more are you to implore God for the salvation of your spiritual children.

  But even more than following the holy example of St. Monica, you are called and chosen to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Mediator between God and Man and to follow in His footsteps.  As contemplatives, we are called to specifically imitate Christ in prayer upon the mountain and in the daily offering of the Divine Office we stand before the throne of God as intercessors in the name of our Mother the Church. Truly we become the voice of the Church,” the Bride addressing the Bridegroom” day and night on behalf of the entire world.

 Our seraphic parents, Saints Francis and Clare, are your first models after Christ for a life of unceasing prayer.  It was said of Holy Father Francis that he did not so much pray, but became prayer, and we know our Holy Mother Clare was immersed in prayer as if it were her very life breath.  And as their daughter, this is your calling also-to intercede and to pray without ceasing, imploring God for the sake of all His children until your prayers are answered, fulfilled according to His merciful love and grace. 

     In the document, “Vita Consecrata”, St. John Paul II writes eloquently of the consecrated life and says that the evangelical counsels, which are at the heart of our consecrated life, are a gift of the Most Holy Trinity, which is an appropriate reflection for us today, too, since we are within the Octave of that great solemnity.  He wrote: “The deepest meaning of the evangelical counsels is revealed when they are viewed in relation to the Holy Trinity, the source of holiness. They are in fact an expression of the love of the Son for the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.” (#21)

   These evangelical counsels are first and foremost an invitation from the Lord to follow Him, poor, chaste and obedient, to dedicate oneself as a total gift, with an undivided heart, in complete self-emptying, living without anything of one’s own. 

  “The consecrated life, through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, constitutes a closer imitation of the way of life which Jesus, the supreme consecrated one, embraced and proposed to his disciples.” (#22)

   Our Constitutions state that “We have entirely offered ourselves to the Lord Jesus with the firm resolution to live in the spirit He lived, obedient, poor and chaste, observing not only what is given in the Gospel as commandments and counsels, but also striving to follow all admonitions and exhortations…”   This is a high calling and a privilege: to live the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!  It would not be possible for us unless God gave the grace and your Holy Profession marks a new outpouring of grace so you can re-spond with a greater fullness to the vocation you have received, to the invitation the Lord has extended to you to “Come, follow Me!”

   The vows are not just something you pronounce in love, but they are also pledges of God’s faithful love to you because, as our Constitutions also say “By our religious profession, we are totally set apart for God in a personal covenant of love.” It is a mutual exchange of love, which all marriage vows should be.

  We know our vocation is not a burden but a pure gift given by God and so we receive it with joy and grateful love, wanting to respond to His call with all our hearts. Our beloved enclosure, in which we vow to live, is the precious space where we will live with the Lord in this covenant and be offered with Him day after day as a gift.  And this brings us to the next great Solemnity we are about to celebrate:   The Most Sacred Body and Blood of Christ, the Holy Eucharist.  In the cloister, we are able to offer ourselves in a unique way with Christ for the world’s salvation.  As our Mother St. Clare, whose “entire life was a Eucharist” you also can and will be offered up as sacrifice, expiation, praise and thanksgiving with Christ to the Father through the Holy Spirit. Amen!