Happy (Day of) Religious!

Today is World Day for Consecrated Life! It's our little feast day and this event provides us with a good opportunity and stimulus to reflect a bit more on our life as consecrated persons. I remember back in the novitiate, we were told that religious life is "Sequela Christi"... a following of Christ. I was so inspired then, so idealistic, so eager to follow Christ. But over the years--with the stress and daily demands of the apostolate, community life and personal concerns the reason behind the following sometimes gets obscured. Problems and work become the focus and not anymore the person I am supposed to follow. And so it's good to be reminded from time to time... to pause a little while and return to focus, to return to Christ.

Really, how much have I been configured to the image of Christ after all these years of being a brother? More than what I have achieved, what I have done, what I have accomplished--this question, I believe is far more important.

Catholic News Service posted this news as well on this occasion-- it's an added encouragement as well to all the brothers. I am reposting parts of it here.

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Pope honors religious; Vatican preparing documents on prayer, brothers

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholics enter religious orders or consecrate themselves as virgins because the love of God is so great that it is worth giving everything for, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Adoring the Eucharist and celebrating evening prayer with religious Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, the pope told them that they are witnesses for others of the realness of God's love and mercy.

The church celebrates World Day for Consecrated Life each year on the feast day.

The pope told the religious that each one of them had drawn near to Christ "as the source of pure and faithful love, a love so great and beautiful that it deserves everything or, rather, more than our all, because an entire life would not be enough to repay that which Christ is and has done for us."

Beyond the thousand things religious do in the church and in the world, he said, "consecrated life is important precisely as a sign of selflessness and love."

Pope Benedict offered special encouragement to religious who feel the weight of never being thanked, those who are aged or infirm and those experiencing difficulties.

Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, told Vatican Radio Feb. 2 that his office was working on two documents: a joint document with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments on the importance of prayer in the life of religious; and a document highlighting the importance of religious brothers in the church.

"Some people say that today religious men and women pray too little. I don't know if it is true, but I certainly hope not," the cardinal said. "Maybe prayer today is more difficult than in the past, in a time when the rhythm of life was a bit more human and there was not so much stress, not so much noise."

As for the document on brothers, Cardinal Rode said the numbers speak clearly "and something must be done."While the numbers of religious in every category have dropped in the last 50 years, the number of religious brothers has decreased most drastically, he said, citing the example of the Christian Brothers who had 16,000 members in 1965 and have fewer than 5,000 today."

"A lay brother is not -- as one often thinks and most people believe -- someone who was not able to, did not want to or could not, for some reason, become a priest. It is a vocation that has its own reasons and a particular mission in the church," the cardinal said.