In this year of consecrated Life

Let us hearken to the invitation

Be glad, rejoice, and radiate joy

For we  are the chosen one.

Proclaim the joy of nearness to God

Delight in what has been created by God

Exult embracing the past and future

That the messianic joy may be in you

Pope Francis said to the seminarians

There is no holiness in sadness

For joy is the beauty of consecration

An ornament and life’s foundation.

In this year of consecrated Life

We are not called to witness epic feats

Or  to proclaim high sounding words

But witness to the joy of being God’s

Let us enter the school of the Master

To be taught how to live perfect joy

To be messengers of hope and serenity

To give God’s tenderness to humanity

Our calling is so great for God Says

You are important to me, I love you

Jesus looks at each one and says

You did not choose me but I chose you

In this year of consecrated Life

Jesus invites us to make an exodus

From ourselves to  centre  on Jesus

Till we  no longer live but Christ lives in us

Pope Francis invites us on a pilgrimage

To discover ourselves on streets of Palestine

To be in the boat with the Galilean fishermen

To be by the tax collectors  desk near the road

Pope Francis invites us to be with Jesus

When the nets were left to follow him

It is good to set out to follow this Master

Who alone has words of eternal life

In this year of consecrated life

Pope Francis calls us to pause

To recall the meaning of our vocation

And respond anew to the call of love

Go on nourished by the restless searching

Aware of the gratuity of the gift of vocation

Reread our own personal story   our call

Scrutinize it in the light of God’s loving gaze

Pope Francis reminds, exalts and exhorts

Consecrated life is  a call to incarnate Good News

Is a call to follow Christ crucified and Risen

Is a call to taken on Jesus way of living & acting

In this year of Consecrated Life

Make Christ the seal of our hearts & foreheads

Listen to the continuous call to be made like him

Imbibe his integrity, his simple daily generosity.

Encounter the Lord and leave aside self-absorption

Let not the relationship with the Lord be static

Put Christ at the centre to open ourselves to others

To be at the service of the Lord and the Church

We are in an era of crisis of fidelity in consecrated life

We are also in a crisis of humanization & inconsistency

We face discontent and bitterness,  enclosing in remorse

Our relationship  turned into a uninhabited wilderness

So revisit the deep centre of our personal life

Find motivation of our life with  Jesus our Master

To be set free from inner emptiness and loneliness

To be faithful disciple who practice sacrificial charity

Lord calls us to follow him with courage and fidelity

Lord  invites us to proclaim him with joy and passion

Lord asks us to do so by word and witness of our lives

Lord asks us strip of idols and worship him alone

Pope presents prayer as the source of fruitfulness

So contemplate even amid the whirlwind of duties

Pope invites us to renew our vocation with passion

Till it matures and matures in loving activity

In this year of consecrate life

In a world of distrust, discouragement and depression

In a culture enveloped in fragility and weakness

In a domain where individualism and self-interest is wild

We are called to bear witness to the mercy of God

We are called to attract people towards good

We are called to bring God’s consolation to others.

We are called to bring everyone the embrace of God

We are witnesses of communion beyond our limits

We are to wear God’s smile, humanize our community

For community is most believable Gospel we can preach

So make our communities a family and not a purgatory

We are called to undertake an Exodus out of ourselves

We are called to set out on a path of adoration and service

Have courage to go against the culture of efficiency

And encounter everyone in solidarity and fraternity

Let us then hearken to Pope Francis invitation

Be servants of communion and the culture of encounter

Leave and cosy nests and walk into the peripheries

Be witness of a different way of acting and loving

Embrace with passion the task of waking up the world

Sr. Stella P.