CLIFTON Every religious sister, brother or priest has a story about his or her vocation and throughout the past year, those members of religious orders have shared their lives with the world as the universal Church celebrated the Year of Consecrated Life. The yearlong celebration began on the First Sunday of Advent, Nov. 30, 2014, and was recently concluded by Pope Francis on Feb. 2 with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
In the Paterson Diocese, religious communities marked the year with a variety of events, giving them the opportunity to reflect on their commitment of serving the Church. The celebration to end the Year of Consecrated Life in the Diocese — which had originally been scheduled for Jan. 24 but was postponed due to the blizzard that hit the area — will be at 4 p.m., Sunday, April 10 at a vespers service in St. Philip the Apostle Church here.
Sister of Christian Charity Joan Daniel Healy, diocesan chancellor/delegate for religious, said, “Pope Francis opened the Year of Consecrated Life with the following words: ‘So I invite every Christian community to experience this Year above all as a moment of Thanksgiving to the Lord and grateful remembrance for all the gifts we continue to receive.’ With the Holy Father’s mandate, religious set out to live up to the Holy Father’s expectations for this year of Consecrated Life: 1. We are called to be bearers of joy; “where there are religious, there is joy.” 2. Pope Francis counted on us to wake up the world — to be prophets who witness to how Jesus lived on this Earth. 3. Our Holy Father asked us to be “experts in communion.” We are to examine how we relate to persons from different cultures as our communities, our world becomes increasingly international.”
Through open houses, days of service, morning and evening prayers, newsletters and retreats, and the Diocese of Paterson’s web page for Consecrated Life (www.rcdop/consecrated or www.consecratedlifepaterson.org), religious orders took part in the theme to “Wake up the world!” and to continue their mission to serve the Church through prayer, service and community.
Filippini Sister Ascenza Tizzano, provincial superior at Villa Walsh Motherhouse in Morristown, said, “This year personally gave me a greater appreciation of my call and in particular when reading the Holy Father’s reflection about the year, it raised an awareness of God’s gift to me as a religious.”
At Villa Walsh, every day of the Year of Consecrated Life, the Filippinis prayed for different petitions and once a month, a retreat was held for the sisters. “We took the three objectives of the year to look to the past with gratitude, live in the present with passion and look to the future with hope,” Sister Ascenza said.
In closing the year, Pope Francis said,“This is a word that can summarize all that we have seen during this Year of Consecrated Life: gratitude for the gift of the Holy Spirit, which always enlivens the Church through the different charisms.”
One of the highlights for the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, was the open house held on its campus, which welcomed laypeople to witness life inside a convent last February. These open houses were also held at the motherhouses of the Filippini Sisters, the Sisters of Christian Charity in Mendham and the Franciscan Sisters in Parsippany.
Sister of Charity Maryanne Tracey said, “It reminded us of the value each of our members has to the community as we worked together to make the day a success. The year highlighted religious life and the responsibility we have to live our consecration and make it more visible. It made religious conscious of the role we play in the life of the Church.”
During the Year of Consecrated Life, many orders also welcomed young women and men discerning their vocation to religious life. The Sisters of Christian Charity held a discernment weekend for 12 women. Women were also invited to join in the ceremony of the order’s three notices offering their first vows and again, when these religious sisters made their final vows.
The Salesian Sisters in Haledon along with the Salesian Brothers and priests welcomed Salesian Father Pascual Chavez, who previously served as rector major of the worldwide order and was an instrumental part of having the Year of Consecrated Life observed. Salesian Sister Marie Columba, secretary of the provincial office in Haledon, said, “This was a real highlight for us to listen to Father Pascual. He reminded us about the charism of our founder, Don Bosco, and took our Salesian identity and wrapped it around the theme of the year — that we are to wake up the world. We are to bring Christ to the young and bring the young to Christ.”
Bishop Serratelli hosted an evening for young religious in August where he spoke of their vocation as a gift from God to be cherished. Almost 90 young men and women from many different religious congregations serving in the diocese attended the event.
Sister Joan Daniel said, “As we share just a few of the different activities and projects our communities here in Paterson did, I feel we can rejoice knowing that throughout the world, religious united in a concerted effort to truly live and share the Year of Consecrated Life with the world. However, for Pope Francis, one must continue what was begun, it is never ended and so, at the close of the Year of Consecrated Life, the Holy Father proclaimed that he sees consecrated life as ‘a river,’ saying, ‘it now flows into the sea of mercy, into the immense mystery of love that we are experiencing through the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.’ And so we continue on the journey, we continue our prophetic witness as we move from the Year of Consecrated Life into the Jubilee Year of Mercy.”