God has a great habit of surprising us, writes Andrew O’Connell
I’m writing this week’s Notebook from Cork city. I’ve just returned from St Michael’s Parish Church in Blackrock where several hundred people gathered for a special celebration for the Year of Consecrated Life. The evening, organised by the Pastoral Development Office of the Diocese of Cork and Ross, had a fresh tone, placing a strong focus on the role of lay people in promoting religious vocations.
Pope Francis has specifically asked lay people to be part of this Year of Consecrated Life. In his Apostolic Letter for the occasion he asks us “to rejoice with [religious], to share their difficulties and assist them in their ministries and works”.
This was certainly the spirit of the Cork gathering, but I also detected a sense that lay people are moving beyond a relationship built on personal friendships and fond memories. The truth is that religious do not need people to admire them – they need people to imitate them.
Among the greatest practical contributions lay people can make towards the renewal of Consecrated Life is the building up of vibrant faith communities in their own parishes and families.
It is in these communities that a culture of discernment can develop; a culture in which people, from a young age, become fully aware of their baptismal call and their specific vocation.
And, ideally, in these communities people will learn that among the many ways of serving the Lord is this radical option of Consecrated Life. It was encouraging to see the lay people at the Cork gathering, confident and secure enough in their own identity, coming forward to promote religious life in the Church.
The ‘hour of the laity’ does not necessitate the disappearance of religious. Lay involvement in the Church and the witness of religious life are not mutually exclusive. We need both forms of witness. The great documents of the Second Vatican Council, which gave so much encouragement to lay people, were written at a time when the number of religious was at an all-time high. It was never envisaged that one should entirely replace the other. Both are needed and necessary.
Towards the end of the ceremony in Cork, Bishop John Buckley presented lay representatives from the parishes with seeds to be planted as part of a local parish ritual to increase awareness of the vocation to Consecrated Life.
The gesture underlines that vocations don’t grow from thin air. The seed of a vocation needs the appropriate soil and conditions to nurture its growth.
The gathering in Cork took place just as news emerged from the Church in England and Wales that entrants to women’s religious orders had reached a 25 year high with a particular recovery in the number of women entering the apostolic congregations.
The news is encouraging and a reminder that God has a great habit of surprising us.
Pope Francis provides a helpful reality check in Evangelii Gaudium for those involved in both the work of vocation promotion and the work of evangelisation.
He notes that despite our best efforts, “we will never be able to make the Church’s teachings easily understood or readily appreciated by everyone”. Faith, he adds, retains a “certain obscurity”.
The honesty of the Pope’s observation should help to defuse any anxiety felt at the sometimes frustrating lack of progress in the work of evangelisation and vocations promotion.
Lure of the seminary
A recent study of Irish seminarians revealed one particularly interesting finding: 42% of respondents identified with the statement: “I fell away from the Catholic faith at some point in my life but later returned to it.”
This should challenge us to be even more proactive in our efforts to help young people encounter the faith in a positive way even after they drift away.
But it is also hugely encouraging as it means that those who fall away are not lost forever. Some will even end up in a seminary!