July 28, 2011, 6:00 am
Religious today must offer the wisdom of their lives, and faith in true education to counter the threats against religion, Pope Benedict said.
In his annual address on the World Day of Consecrated Life, Pope Benedict XVI said that although religion is often marginalized in the public sphere, religious, through their witness, should offer a true education in guiding others toward the Gospel:
The situation in which we live today, especially in the more developed societies, is often marked by a radical plurality, by a progressive marginalisation of religion from the public sphere, by a relativism which extends to fundamental values. Continue reading ‘In a World That Scorns Religion, Consecrated Persons Must Offer a Clear Witness of the Truth’ »
July 21, 2011, 6:50 pm
Sr. Maria Vianney makes her first profession as a Dominican Sister of the Immaculate Conception recently.
Young women interested in a religious vocation have no need to feel alone in looking for the right religious community — Pope Benedict XVI said that he prays for “the young who today knock at their doors and ask to be allowed to commit themselves to Jesus Christ through radical dedication to the Gospel.”
Furthermore, consecrated life will “never die” in the Church because Jesus Christ Himself chose a lifestyle of chastity, poverty and obedience, the Holy Father said last November in speaking to bishops from Brazil who had come to the Vatican.
The Pope noted that “some people are asking themselves whether consecrated life continues to be a proposal capable of attracting young men and women.” He went on to say that consecrated life Continue reading ‘Consecrated Life Will Never Die, Pope Says’ »
July 16, 2011, 2:16 pm
Nancy, France, the city where Róża took her vows.
This account is a paraphrase of part of a biography of Róża Bialecka, who became the foundress of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception under the name Mother Kolumba Bialecka.
Near the end of her Novitiate in Nancy, in France, Róża wrote to Father General Vincent Jandel, the head of the Dominican Order, because a bad spirit tormented her with temptations with the idea that it might be better to come back to Cracow, Poland, in order to take her vows there and stay in an enclosed convent. In response, this good priest wrote a long letter advising her to reject such temptations, saying, “like two years ago, I’m now again writing for the same reasons that Cracow is not for you, neither for your health nor your soul,” and then he gave several reasons – and repeated the same thing he told her in Podkamień, a city in the Austro-Hungarian empire, about Polish people’s attachment towards their country and that, by that time, he could not promise whether she would be able to come back to the country, or when. Continue reading ‘Róża Told to Renounce Her Country and Family’ »
