From Ruth Burrows, OCD, "Consecrated Life," Essence of Prayer
(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2006):
It is the privilege of all of us in religious life to have been called out
of the Christian community to serve that community in a special way, not
primarily by the ministry we fulfil but by our public profession of
belonging absolutely to God; by our lived affirmation that the love of God,
the fulfilling of God's will, are our supreme and only concern, and that God
is worth the offering of our whole life. That, surely, is what we mean
by consecrated life: the daily intention and effort to live for God alone
and not at all for ourselves.
To
have been moved to do this — to want to do this no matter how feeble the
wanting — indicates divine, not merely human, inspiration. Human
nature of itself does not produce such desire. What I have to say deals only
with this ground level of our consecrated life and, I believe, applies to
everyone of us, be they young, old or middle aged; a member of a modern,
vibrant community or of an older institution that seems called upon to die;
whatever the ministry they fulfil.
...I hold the unswerving conviction that the mystical way, properly
understood, is identical with genuine Christian discipleship and with what
we mean by true faith and a life of faith. ...
Jesus is the prime object of our faith... We come to know in Jesus that the
REALITY, the MYSTERY in which we are immersed, the nature of which we could
know nothing unless disclosed to us, loves us.
[The above is only a small portion of Ruth Burrows' chapter on Consecrated Life.]
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