PRAYING AND DEVELOPING CHURCH VOCATIONS TO THE CONSECRATED LIFE..........

One of the charisms of the Catholic-Christian community of believers is experienced in the commitment to the Religious Life made by women and men who hear and answer God's Call to serve as members of the Church who consecrate themselves to the communal life in prayer and ministry for the common good of serving God's People. Since many decades before there was a Diocese of Sacramento more than 160 years ago, there was a religious life presence in Sacramento led by the ministry of the Franciscan Sisters and the Sisters of Mercy, and which throughout our diocesan history has included, the Christian Brothers, the Jesuit Priests and Brothers, the Passionist Fathers, the Loreto Sisters, Presentation Sisters, the Salvatorian Priests and Brothers,the Oblates of St. Joseph Priests, the Carmelite Sisters and Priests, Dominican Sisters, Priests, and Brothers, the Canossian Sisters, and the Sisters of Social Service, among several other religious orders. They have and are serving in parish churches, parochial schools and high schools, religious education and faith formation, hospitals and health care, social service and justice ministries, spiritual retreats and renewal, and church vocations awareness, discernment and recruitment, to name just some of the vital work their profession of vows to the consecrated religious life has been theirs, in serving the Church and Communities of Superior California. We as God's People have a multitude of reasons to be grateful for the commitment and dedication of these hard working and devoted men and women of faith and fidelity, to evangelical and gospel values for our betterment and enrichment. The Sisters of Social Service and the Sisters of Mercy, have played a significant role in my own family's life. In 1937, my mother at age 15, had completed the 8th Grade, and did not go on to high school, but went to work to help support the family. The Sisters of Social Service obtained a job for her, working for the John Hamlin Sr. Family in Land Park, as the caregiver for the family's young son, John Jr. For three years my mother looked after the son in their home and around the neighborhood, as trips to the park, baseball field, and to the drug store for ice cream, were outings she accompanied John Jr. on. Amongst the Hamlins Land Park neighbors were the Max Baer Sr. Family, the well known boxing champion. His son, Max Jr. was a friend of John Jr., and occasionally my mother would escort both boys down to the drugstore for an ice cream cone. My mother held this job and shared these experiences all because the Sisters of Social Service cared enough for a young, struggling, girl, from a middle class (my father would have said, "working poor") family, to assist her in obtaining employment at such a young age. The Sisters of Mercy have played a role in my family's life before I was born. My two older brothers, twin sisters, younger brother, and I, were all born in Mercy General Hospital. We were cathechized by the Mercy Sisters and prepared for First Communion and Confession, as well as, Confirmation, by them. I have worked with them from my days as an altar server, as a catechist, and as a seminarian, transitional deacon, and priest. From Sisters Mary Cornelia Murphy, Mary Dominica Cunningham, and Faustina Sena, RSM, at St. Rose's / St. Patrick's in South Sacramento; to Sisters Ann O'Neill, Philomene Gogarty, Kathleen Horgan, Julianna Clancy, and Mary Martin Mulroy, RSM, in St. Joseph's Parish in Auburn; Mercy San Juan Carmichael, and Mercy Folsom Hospital; Mercy General Hospital, Sacramento; Presentation Parish, Arden-Arcade; and Sacred Heart Parish, East Sacramento; these fine and wonderful servants of God have enriched me and my priestly ministry with their support and collaboration. And so this coming week as we commemorate the World Day of Prayer for the Consecrated Life, may we lift up those men and women Religious who have, are, and will continue to, please God - play a significant role in our lives as faithful witnesses to Jesus the Christ. This Monday night February 1, the Serra Club of Sacramento will join with Bishop Jaime Soto and many others in remembering and celebrating the consecrated Religious in our Diocese, at a special observance in the Parish Community Center at St. John the Evangelist Church in Carmichael. Let us all pray and express our gratitude for the seminal part the Religious priests, brothers, sisters, and deacons, we know have played in developing and forming our own Catholic-Christian Discipleship..........Acknowledging The Vows of Obedience, Charity, and Poverty, They Profess and Give Witness To, Gratefully in Christ Jesus, Fr. Troy