Today, the Church observes the World Day for Consecrated Life alongside the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. This annual celebration is an opportunity to give thanks to God for his gift of consecrated life, and to pray for those striving to live this vocation.
I used to think of consecrated life as a gift that certain people are called to give to God. From the sisters who taught me to the friars who served my parish, I was deeply inspired by the generosity of the consecrated men and women in my own life. Their edifying example was part of the way that God called me to discern and enter religious life myself.
As I now prepare to live this vocation, however, I have come to realize that I had it backwards. Consecrated life isn’t primarily a gift that we give to God, but above all, a gift that God has freely given to us.
Consecrated Life: Gift of the Trinity
As John Paul II wrote in Vita Consecrata, consecrated life is a gift of the Trinity: an initiative of God the Father, sharing in the life and mission of God the Son, through the action of the Holy Spirit.(1) That is why, while the graces for ordination are given through Holy Orders and the graces for marriage are given through Holy Matrimony, the sacrament of consecrated life is Baptism, which claimed us in the name of the Trinity. What makes consecrated life different from the universal call to holiness isn’t necessarily a specific grace, but rather the undivided focus and singlehearted dedication that consecrated men and women are called to give to the pursuit of that holiness.
Venerable Thecla Merlo, the co-foundress of the Daughters of St. Paul, deeply understood that the Congregation did not primarily exist for its mission of evangelization with the means of social communication. That mission was and is vital to the life of the Daughters, but her prayer was always that her sisters might first “attain the goal of the religious life: the glory of God and personal holiness.”(2) As she wrote in a letter that has been called her Spiritual Testament:
“Remember that the care of our soul comes first. … If we ourselves are not nourished spiritually, we cannot do good to souls. … Let us ask for saints for our Congregation! The Congregation does not need people who know how to do things, to work, to make a lot of noise; it needs people who are holy.”(3)
Consecrated Life: A Way of Holiness
For Mother Thecla, as for the Church, consecrated life was first and foremost a way of holiness. She took her vocation to holiness seriously and took the Trinity as the reference point for every aspect of her life:
Holiness! I want it. To live the Trinitarian life like the Blessed Virgin. To trust in the heavenly Father, to love the Son who came to save me, to rely on the grace of the Holy Spirit. The heavenly Father is always close to me; he is within me; he thinks of me and provides for everything. Jesus is with me; the Holy Spirit sanctifies me. To live in union with the three divine Persons.(4)
Moreover, as the first superior general of the Daughters of St. Paul, Mother Thecla understood that her role was to encourage her sisters to take their own vocation to holiness seriously as well. She was very clear about the purpose of consecrated life, frequently reiterating that the convents of the Daughters of St. Paul existed in order to be “factories of saints.”(5) She even went so far as to offer her life for this intention, making this prayer one Trinity Sunday during the final years of her life:
“With a humble and contrite heart I pray to you, Divine Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to accept the offering of my life for the entire Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul so that all may become saints.”(6)
As we celebrate Mother Thecla’s birthday (February 20) and anniversary of death (February 5) this month, we invite you to imitate her devotion to the Trinity by renewing your baptismal promises. May her example of total dedication to the pursuit of personal sanctification for the glory of God inspire you to deepen and cherish your own share in the universal call to holiness.
Notes:
1. Vita Consecrata, no. 17–19.
2. Circular Letter no. 176, February 1954. Source: I Carry You in My Heart p. 249.
3. Circular Letter no. 263, Christmas 1961. Source: I Carry You in My Heart p. 325.
4. Mother Thecla’s personal spiritual notebook, 1950. Source: Thecla: She has blazed a clear trail for you, Animation Project, Daughters of St. Paul, 2004–2005, p. 83.
5. Circular Letter no. 156, June–July 1952. Source: I Carry You in My Heart p. 224.
6. Mother Thecla’s personal spiritual notebook, May 28, 1961. Source: FSP Constitutions.
