Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration: These sisters run Franciscan Health and also teach at Central Catholic High School in Lafayette
Poor Clare Sisters: These sisters have a cloistered monastery in Kokomo. Their apostolate is one of prayer and sacrifice for the Church.
Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great: These friars serve at St. Thomas Aquinas parish on Purdue's campus in West Lafayette.
Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia: These sisters teach at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Carmel and at St. Theodora Geurin High School in Noblesville.
Little Sisters of the Poor: These sisters run St. Augustine Home in Indianapolis, providing assisted living and nursing care for the elderly poor.
Franciscan Friars Minor: Friars who work in and around Fort Wayne who engage the culture in order to evangelize.
May God choose many of our young people to follow the path of consecrated life!
Also, please consider taking your family to the Indiana Holy Family Catholic Conference on February 25th!
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Homily: 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Today Jesus uses the metaphors of salt
and light when teaching his disciples about how they are supposed to be in the
world. For us I can’t imagine that there
are many better metaphors that he could have used. This is because, if we think about it just a
little, each of us could name the benefits of salt and light. Salt enhances the flavor of things: in other
words, it takes whatever flavor a thing has and makes it bolder. Light, of course, functions to extend the day:
in other words, it’s something that conquers darkness.
Jesus uses these metaphors of salt and
light to teach his disciples about the effect that they should have on the
world. In using these metaphors he is
teaching them that they must enhance the world, bringing forth its goodness and
making it stand out so that others might enjoy its flavor; and they must shine
amidst darkness, illuminating the way for others and, thus, eliminating the
dangers inherent in trying to make a way through the darkness. In this way, Jesus demonstrates that the flavorlessness
and darkness of the world is not God's plan for the world; but rather that God
wants it to be bold and bright.
Today, the Church celebrates the World
Day for Consecrated Life—a day to celebrate the men and women of religious
communities throughout the world who have consecrated themselves to God and to
his service in the Church through vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—which
is fitting, since, in a particular way, consecrated persons are truly salt and
light for our world.
Consecrated persons, because they have
responded to a particular call from God, have taken a step away from the “ordinary”
world in order to dedicate themselves in a unique way to discipleship. Because of this, they are often “hyper-concentrated”
salt and “super-bright LED” lights in the world. In other words, consecrated persons live the
joy of the Gospel in a vibrant way, such that many are inspired by them to live
the joy of the Gospel in their own lives.
Thus, like salt, they enhance all that is around them and, like light,
they shine amidst darkness.
One poignant example of how
consecrated persons inspire others is Dominican Sister Mother Mary Alphonsa,
who was born Rose Hawthorn. Rose was the daughter of famous American
writer Nathaniel Hawthorn. Her faith
upbringing was in the Unitarian church, but when Nathaniel’s work took the
family to Europe, Rose was exposed to the “Roman Church”. She and her family were impressed by the
beauty and grandeur of the church architecture and the richness of the Catholic
culture, but were turned off by the mediocre way that Catholics seemed to live
their lives. Eventually, however, she
did convert to Catholicism. There she
first encountered and was deeply impressed by Catholic women who were living vibrant
lives of faith. These were Catholic
nuns: women who had consecrated themselves completely to God.
From that inspiration, Rose decided to
dedicate herself more completely to God.
To that end, she pursued studies in nursing and opened a hospital to
care for terminally ill cancer patients.
Eventually, she herself would consecrate herself completely to God as a
Dominican sister and found her own congregation of Dominican sisters. Today, the Hawthorn Dominicans continue to do
the work of their foundress and continue to be salt and light in the world.
Hopefully this example was enough to
see that we need to see more consecrated persons in the Church! In order to see them, of course, we need to
have more consecrated persons in the Church.
In order to have them, every one of us needs to take responsibility for
inviting young people to consider consecrated life. That means parents, grandparents, aunts,
uncles, teachers, coaches, and, of course, spiritual leaders all need to be
intentional about talking to the young people in their lives about considering
the consecrated life. Still more, we all
need to work together as a parish to provide opportunities for our young people
to experience consecrated life, by making visits to convents, priories, and
monasteries. And we need to commit ourselves
to support our young people who wish to explore the consecrated life financially
by helping them to pay off any debts that they may have that may prevent them
from entering a community.
Really, however, the greatest way to
ensure that young people will consider consecrated life is by living a healthy
and balanced Catholic life: in such a way that our young people experience the
faith as a culture to be lived and not as a burden attached to life. This means that we do things like praying together
as a family, going to conferences together (like Holy Family Catholic
Conference on the 25th), doing holy things on vacation (like visiting basilicas
and cathedrals in the places in which we are visiting), and serving together in
our community.
Even more simple: what if we kept
magazines around the house that talk about Catholic life and faith and what if
we participated in "Catholic culture” events, like May Crowning and
Eucharistic Adoration? You know, I got
into cars because I'd pick up my dad's car magazines and read about them and my
dad would take me to "car culture" events like car shows and swap
meets. Imagine if I would have found a
magazine that had articles about happy Catholics—especially consecrated persons—living
joyful lives, and imagine if I had spent an equal amount of time at car shows
as I did doing service among other Catholics?
As we strive to build a Catholic culture around our young people, they
will open their hearts to hear when God calls them to the consecrated life.
My brothers and sisters, consecrated
persons are salt and light in this world.
We don't have to be consecrated like them to be the same, but we do need
to be salt and light in our own lives. And
so your homework this week is this: if you have been called to do big things
(like consecrate your life to God through the vows of poverty, chastity, and
obedience), great! Start today to do
them and you will be salt and light in the world. If you’re not called to do big things, that’s
fine! Just begin to do the small things
of your life with great love and you, too, will be salt and light in the
world. Whatever you do, however, don't
do nothing! Nothing is comfortable, but
deadly! Don’t be deadly; be salt and
light.
Inspired by the grace that we receive
from this Eucharist and the example of consecrated persons throughout the
world, may we be moved to use the ordinary things of our lives to enhance and
shine light into the world around us, so that those around us will see our good
deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – February 5th, 2017
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