Archdiocesan Mass to honor Consecrated Life on Feb. 1, joining worldwide celebrations

HOUSTON — On Sunday, Feb. 1, women and men in consecrated life will gather in celebration with Archbishop Joe S. Vásquez at an 11 a.m. Mass at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, located at 1111 St. Joseph Pkwy. in downtown Houston. The public is invited to attend.  

Pope Francis challenged consecrated men and women religious on the World Day of Consecrated Life in 2018: “We have to remember that we can never renew our encounter with the Lord without others; we can never leave others behind, never pass over generations, but must accompany one another daily, keeping the Lord always at the center. For if the young are called to open new doors, the elderly hold the keys.” 

In Galveston-Houston, there are 370 women and at least 200 men in religious life — prophetic signs of God’s closeness, and eager to share their lives, hopes and joys at this time of celebration. 

Local religious serve in a wide variety of ministries: as priests, educators, ministers in health care, retreat work and spiritual direction, catechetical ministry, pastoral care, and services among the homebound, the poor and marginalized.

In 1997, St. John Paul II instituted a day of prayer for women and men in consecrated life. 
In October 2025, at the Jubilee for Consecrated Life, Pope Leo XIV praised the centuries of service that consecrated people have offered the Church, and thanked them for their hidden daily gestures to sustain the Church worldwide.

“United with Him, and in Him with one another, your small lights become like the path of a luminous trail in the great plan of peace and salvation that God has for humanity,” he said. 
He also encouraged them to “return to the heart,” as the place where they rediscover the spark that ignited the beginnings of their history, entrusting to those who came before them a specific mission that endures and which is now entrusted to them.

Pope Leo echoed Pope Francis, who wrote for the Year of Consecrated Life in 2014: Our hope “is not based on numbers or works, but on the One in whom we have placed our trust and for whom ‘nothing is impossible.’ This is the hope that does not disappoint, and that will allow consecrated life to continue writing a great story in the future, toward which we must keep our gaze, aware that it is toward this future that the Holy Spirit impels us to continue doing great things with us.”