Dear Parishioners,
 
Last weekend we celebrated our patroness St. Teresa of the Child Jesus. In addition to talking about her love of the Eucharist I would also like to explore her life as a religious in more detail. Entrance into religious life is a unique vocation. One finds in the document “Essential Elements in the Church’s teaching on Religious Life” that this is rooted in the gift of baptism, yet it is not given to all of the baptized. It is freely given and unmerited, and those who accept this invitation enjoy a special gift of grace in the Church, and thereby contribute to the saving mission of Christ in a particular way. It is marked by the essential elements of 1) consecration by public vows, 2) communion in community, 3) evangelical mission, 4) prayer, 5) ascetism, 6) public witness, 7) relation to the Church, and 8) formation. 
 
By this state of life the person vows to strive toward spiritual perfection: perfection of charity, love of God and love of neighbor. While a man entering the priesthood makes three promises, a man or a woman entering religious life makes three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience. By these vows a person configures himself or herself to Christ’s complete self-offering, who is loved above all things. The Church, given its authority by God, will one day accept the vows of those entering religious life and pray that they be inflamed with the aid and grace of the Holy Spirit.
 
This state of life is particularly marked by the Public Profession of Vows during the Mass. The profession is public and received by the Church within the Liturgy because professing individuals freely unite themselves to Christ and his Church. This public witness strengthens and stabilizes the bond which is offered by the individual in response to an invitation from God. In the life of the religious the Eucharist is central, since one follows Jesus, the perfect example of humble surrender and complete obedience. Thus, the Church asks God the Father that the newly professed be admitted forever into the company of Jesus. It is a specific form of witness to an eternal “spirituality of communion.” 
 
In Christ,
Fr. Barrow