Celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life: Invitation to encounter and mission

Consecrated women religious attend Mass Feb. 5 in the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston with other men and women religious for World Day for Consecrated Life. (Photo by Megan Doherty/For the Herald)

HOUSTON — More than 140 consecrated women and men gathered as the Archdiocese celebrated the 27th World Day for Consecrated Life Mass at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in downtown Houston. The Mass was celebrated by Daniel Cardinal DiNardo.

The participants represented 18 of the 60 Congregations of men and women serving in the Archdiocese.

Movements that have consecrated women were also represented, as were consecrated virgins. The founding congregations of these women and men began many of the parishes and social services in the Archdiocese during its 175 years of promoting God’s mission.

World Day for Consecrated Life, celebrated Feb. 2, the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life invited all in Consecrated Life to celebrate their commitment to consecrated life and exercise responsibility for one another through mutual listening, excluding no one.

In the beginning days of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, many missionaries came from Canada, Mexico and Europe. Today, the Archdiocese has experienced growth in groups of missionaries that come from Africa, Asia and Latin America with renewed energy to serve the poor and abandoned. As they serve the growing immigrant population, they invigorate the goal that no one be excluded or feel excluded from this journey.

The Mass was followed by a reception sponsored by the Serrans from District 10.

In his Feb. 2 message for World Day for Consecrated Life at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, Pope Francis said to all consecrated men and women that “all together we are members of the Church, and the Church has been on a mission since the first day, sent by the Risen Lord, and will be until the end, with the strength of his Spirit.”

He continued: “And in the People of God, sent to bring the Gospel to all humanity, you consecrated persons have a specific role, that derives from the particular gift you have received: a gift that gives your witness a special character and value, for the very fact that you are fully dedicated to God and to his Kingdom, in poverty, virginity and obedience.”

He reminded the consecrated men and women of their mission: “If each person is a mission in the Church, then each and every one of you is a mission with a grace of your own, as a consecrated person.”