Editor’s Note: Though celebrated Feb. 5-6 in parishes, the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Feb. 2. Also known as Candlemas Day – the day on which candles are blessed symbolizing Christ who is the light of the world – the feast was instituted in 1997 by Pope Saint John Paul II.
Marianist Father David McGuigan has often felt that his vocation is “floating on a river of prayer.”
“I am always grateful when folks tell me that they will pray for me. My experience tells me that they’ve gotten around to it.”
Father McGuigan, S.M., a chaplain at the Marianist Family Retreat Center in Cape May Point, is among those who have embraced consecrated life. Like all who choose this path, he has publicly professed vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
With the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life being celebrated in parishes the weekend of Feb. 5-6, Father McGuigan spoke of the importance of spiritual support for all those serving and in formation throughout the global Church. He witnessed that support firsthand while serving as a U.S. representative of the Marianists at the end of the Year of Consecrated Life at the Vatican in 2016.
“Pope Francis joined us. Religious from all over the world were there,” Father McGuigan said. “He set aside the papers with his prepared remarks and simply spoke to us about living … as Jesus chose to live in order to fulfill his mission. It is a beautiful and challenging vocation to live as Jesus.”
‘In Total Service’
In his 2014 message on those in consecrated life, Pope Francis asked, “What would happen if there were no sisters. Sisters in the hospitals, sisters in the missions, sisters in the schools. One can’t imagine it. They are the leaven that carry the people of God forward.”
Those sentiments spoke to Sister Stacie Marie Gagnon, FMIHM. From her current duties teaching fifth-graders in Saint Michael the Archangel Regional School, Clayton, to serving in countries such as Iraq, Syria and China, “you find us everywhere,” she said.
The Franciscan Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary serve in clinics, hospitals, schools, orphanages and more in 15 countries, often in areas of conflict or poverty.
“A consecrated person in a habit is a sign that we believe in God, and a lot of people are drawn to [us],” she said. “It is very clear by our actions and our words that we pray and focus on the Eucharist and that the word of God comes forth. People need to have such encounters. Sometimes we’re the only Gospel someone is going to read.”
Brother David Graber, M.SS.CC., agrees. “Looking at our faith from a grammatical understanding, to be Catholic should be a verb and not just a noun. Regardless of our vocation, we are called to serve the Church in an active way.”
Brother David teaches in the theology, science and campus ministry departments in Saint Augustine Preparatory, Richland. “I find it surprising and refreshing that there is still such a keen respectful interest by many, young and old, as to what a religious vocation is about. Wearing a habit in my apostolate, it seems to be an invitation for some people to come up to me and ask genuine questions about Catholicism and religious life.”
He continued, “As religious, we are called to live our lives in total service to the Church. Whether or not the religious man or woman wears clerical garb, he or she should be visible to the world as someone who sacrificed their entire life to Christ and the Church.” Being actively present is the key that often opens the door to and interest in the faith, especially in a growing secular society and time when the “institutional Church has shown many failings.”
“What so many people fail to realize is that the perfection of the Church, as Body of Christ, still exemplifies itself through God’s grace,” he said. “Even with dwindling numbers of men and women religious serving the American Church, it’s essential for all of the faithful to fervently pray for an increase of vocations and most importantly, to pray for the spiritual strength so urgently needed by the faithful religious.”
A World in Need
Pope Francis once said that the Church and world need the testimony offered by those in consecrated life. His concern speaks volumes in what Marianist Brother Stanley Zubek referred to as “this very turbulent time of 2022,” when Christians are called to “step up to the plate and give the Gospel message” of God’s unconditional love.
“I have lived the consecrated life for 60 years, many of those years in the missions of Africa,” said Brother Stanley, S.M., who presides over the music ministry and facilitates small group discussions at the Marianist Family Retreat Center.
“We who are religious have experienced this conversion in our lives, and now it is our privilege to pass it on to the whole world. We can’t blame the world for being so worldly,” he said. “That is what it is supposed to be. It is we religious who need to find ways to communicate the Gospel message.”
Perhaps by collaborating with the laity, he said, “we will be able to see how we are already giving testimony and how we can be better witnesses to Christ.”
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