Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Fourteen years ago, Pope John Paul II called for an annual observation of a World Day of Consecrated Life each February. The date set for this year’s celebration is Feb. 7. A few years ago we sponsored a diocesan prayer service to mark the observance. In recent years we have encouraged parishes to commemorate the day in some significant way.

When I look back over my own life, vowed women and men religious have played a very significant part in my own formation in the faith. Along with my own family members, it was the religious sisters and brothers in the Catholic schools who planted and nurtured my vocation to the priesthood. I was taught and formed by Franciscan Sisters, Dominican Sisters, Benedictine Sisters, and the Christian Brothers. All these communities of religious left traces of their specific spiritual charisms in my life.

Still today, I often repeat the hourly prayer that permeated the classroom day at the Christian Brothers’ De La Salle High School: “Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God!” I doubt I would be a priest without the influence and impact of these communities of religious.

Blessed with their presence
With declining numbers of religious vocations and the graying of religious, I believe the church is deeply concerned that many consecrated religious communities could vanish from the church, at least in the United States. What a tragedy that would be for the mission of the church. What a blow that would be for the universal church and for our Diocese of St. Cloud!

Both the World Day of Consecrated Life and the recently announced apostolic visitation of apostolic congregations of women religious in our country give us the opportunity to convey our support and deep esteem for the religious in the Diocese of St. Cloud.

We are blessed with the presence, the prayers, and the community charisms of the Sisters of St. Benedict of St. Joseph, the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, the Crosier priests and brothers of Onamia and the Order of St. Benedict of St. John’s Abbey.

Beyond these communities based in our diocese, we also have individual religious members working here from the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato, the Dominican Sisters from Sinsinawa, the Franciscan Sisters from Rochester and from Joliet and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul. We are grateful to all of them for their mission and ministries among us.

Of course, we are also blessed by the Monastery of the Poor Clares in Sauk Rapids. These contemplative nuns spend their days and nights in prayer and fasting, ever within the enclosure of their monastery walls, for all of us and for our intentions! What a gift of prayer and blessing they are for our diocese and for all of us.

On behalf of the diocese, I extend intense gratitude for all of the consecrated religious women and men, who have provided us with faithful service, stability in their presence and hope for the future.

In addition to the gratitude we hold in our hearts, it is important for us to step forward and give them our support and strong encouragement for their lives. Think back on how religious women and men have helped you in your life. Have you ever told them of your gratitude — through a note, an e-mail or a prayer of thanks? It is not too late to do that now! And if God has already called them to the fullness of eternal life, pray for them and thank God they gave their lives to a vocation to consecrated life and that they persevered in it.

Let us also ask God to send replacements for them! Talk with your children, grandchildren and/or students about the beauty of serving God and God’s church through a lifelong commitment to consecrated life. Be supportive of young people thinking about a vocation to religious life! The church needs many religious women and men living evangelical vows or monastic profession in order to be a further vibrant sign to all of us of the presence of Christ in our world.

We are grateful to you, O God, for all your blessings given us through the women and men religious of the church, and we praise you.

+John F. Kinney
Bishop of St. Cloud