{"id":326860,"date":"2014-12-04T09:35:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-04T08:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/the-year-of-consecrated-life-has-begun\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T14:58:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:58:40","slug":"the-year-of-consecrated-life-has-begun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/the-year-of-consecrated-life-has-begun\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year of Consecrated Life Has Begun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ReligiosiCammino\"The path taken by the Church, despite some contrary currents, is by its nature a path of hope which proceeds irreversible toward Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That is why the logo chosen for this year repeats these words: Gospel, Prophecy, and Hope<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With this conviction, men and women religious, consecrated men and women, and men and women touched by the charisms \u2013 which throughout the centuries have beautified the Church \u2013 were given an appointment for a Prayer Vigil and a Eucharistic Celebration for the opening of the Year of Consecrated Life.<\/p>\n

On Saturday evening the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome<\/strong> gradually filled up with men and women with habits of different colors for the Vigil Prayer Service.\u00a0 \u201cFifty consecrated men and women preceded Bishop Jose Rodriguez Carbello in the entrance procession to Saint Mary Major, with a lighted lamp, a symbol of the different charisms but most of all a symbol of the Spirit who re-ignites souls and hearts,\u201d recount Fr. Theo Jansen and Fr. Mariano Steffan of the International Center of Religious of the Work of Mary<\/a>, who were present as representatives of those religious scattered throughout the world who are linked to the spirituality<\/a> of the Focolare.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommenting on the selection of the Gospel<\/strong> about the miracle worked by Jesus at Cana in Galilee, about the changing of the water into wine, Bishop Carballo who was presiding at the Prayer Vigil reminded everyone, among other things, how in order to have the \u2018new wine\u2019 we should go to Jesus, know how to meet him and listen to him, and know how to \u2018live\u2019 him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all struck<\/strong> by the fact that he wanted us to begin by placing ourselves under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.\u00a0 From that moment on, in fact, listening to the Bible readings, to some thoughts taken from the writings of founders, and to the prayers \u2013 it seemed to me \u2013 we were all enveloped by Mary\u2019s mantle,\u201d recounts Fr. Mariano.\u00a0 \u201cPope Francis too, in his videotaped message prepared for the occasion and listened to before concluding the Vigil, entrusted us to Mary.\u00a0 And the prayer concluded with an invocation to the Virgin Mary,\u201d added Fr. Theo Jansen.<\/p>\n

\"Card_braz_de_aviz[1]\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Eucharistic Celebration which took place on Sunday, November 30, in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica gave the official start to the Year of Consecrated Life.\u00a0 Pope Francis\u2019s inaugural greeting, read at the beginning of the concelebration presided by the Prefect of the Congregation Cardinal Jo\u00e3o Braz de Aviz, returned to the exhortation: \u2018Reawaken the world!\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr. Mariano commented, \u201cIt made everyone smile and reflect when the Prefect of the Congregation \u2013 during the homily given in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica \u2013 said: \u201cIt is a repulsive sight to see sad faces, always serious, without a smile among men and women religious .. . Joy needs to be manifested and shared . . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter these two events there was truly a new atmosphere in the plaza of St. Peter\u2019s. One could see on the face of everyone the certainty that with such a beautiful beginning, we have every reason to hope.\u00a0 We returned home,\u201d concluded Fr. Theo, \u201ckeeping everything in our heart as Mary did, with the conviction that we have already been given the premise for a step forward in religious life, and it is our wish for one another that in so doing we may \u2018Reawaken the world!\u2019 which is Pope Francis\u2019s wish for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Year of Consecrated Life began with the Vigil Service in the evening of November 29 and the Eucharistic Celebration on November 30. \u201cReawaken the World!\u201d was the wish expressed by Pope Francis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[894],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senza-categoria-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}