Religious life in our world...

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Yesterday, a friend of mine who has been staying at the rectory left to return home for a couple of weeks before he joins a religious order. He has been discerning his calling for quite some time and determined last year that he was called to religious life. His discernment since then has been determining which religious order he is called to join. He came to the conclusion that God was calling him to the Intercessors of the Lamb based in Omaha, NE.

The Intercessors are a fairly new religious group (officially they are a Public Association of the Christian Faithful) having been founded in 1980. They, like all religious groups, have a specific charism that defines their focus and center of ministry. The Intercessors describe their charism as follows:

The Intercessors of the Lamb are dedicated to the contemplative formation of all Christians for the powerful ministry of intercession. Our goal is to develop and foster a deep interior life in the hearts of God’s people so that they might become within themselves, “a house of prayer” as God is within Himself. Because it is the life that prays, our own personal relationship with Jesus is the root and power of all effective intercession. - Intercessors of the Lamb web site

The reason I mention this is that those discerning a call to serve God are opting for religious life more often than in the recent past. While the number of religious priests has continued to decline in the U.S. (14,137 in 2005 compared with 15,092 in 2000 - source) more and more men and women are considering religious life overall. Some of this may be due to a hesitation to enter diocesan life because of the priest scandals, but much of it has to do with men and women seeking to find that special ministry suited to their talents. Basically, the people are discerning not only their call to serve God but also HOW and WHERE God is calling them to serve. This results, in my opinion, in people who are much more in tune with what path God has laid out for them. They are deeper in their discernment process simply because they have examined their specific talents and seek to put them to use doing God's work.

Anyway, I wish my friend well as he joins this religious group and I pray for all who are in religious life that God may open their minds and hearts to His path for each of them. Until next time...God bless.