SAMUELS, Ky. — Women and men religious who feel called to religious life respond out of love of God and the love of serving others, said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz at a Mass Feb. 2 celebrating World Day for Consecrated Life.
The call resides “deep within their hearts,” he said.
About 60 women and men from 11 congregations gathered with parishioners at St. Gregory Church in Samuels, Ky., to renew their vows and pray for one another.
The Mass coincided with the feast day of the Presentation of the Lord in the temple. Archbishop Kurtz recalled the day’s readings from the Book of Malachi, who “called for the purification of ourselves with God’s grace,” the archbishop noted.
Relating the theme of purification to religious life, he said the sacred call to serve God and others can be tainted by “careerism” or the desire “to have people brag about them.”
“I need to ask all of us, including those of you who are women and men religious, to pray for one another now, that our intentions will be pure,” he said.
The day’s gathering was an opportunity, he said, to “rekindle those first intentions, that first desire to follow God and his call and to serve others.”
“And to do so with one another, not that we can get ahead of others but rather that we may be in communion with one another in service to God,” he said.
During a Mass celebrating World Day for Consecrated Life in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 1, Pope Francis urged women and men religious to be people of hope, and he asked all Catholics to pray for the hundreds of thousands of women and men who continue to consecrate their lives totally to serving God and their brothers and sisters.
“You fell in love with Jesus, you saw everything in him, and enraptured by his gaze, you left the rest behind. Religious life is this vision,” he said.
When one is totally in love with the Lord, then poverty, chastity and obedience are not sacrifices, but vehicles of freedom, Pope Francis said.
Among those who attended the St. Gregory celebration were men and women marking major anniversaries of religious life.
Men and women religious in the Archdiocese of Louisville were invited to attend the Feb. 2 World Day for Consecrated Life Mass. Jubilarians were also recognized at the liturgy. Following is a list of those who responded to the invitation of the Archdiocese of Louisville.
75 years
Sister Miriam Elizabeth Brown, SCN
Sister Miriam Cocoran, SCN
Sister Marietta Goy, SL
Sister Dolores Greenwell, SCN
Sister Dolores Kelledy, SL
Sister Jean Kelley, SL
Sister Isabel Lehmenkuler, OSU
Sister Irene Marie du Sacre Coeur, LSP
Sister Annunciata Muth, OSU
70 years
Sister Ann Berrett, SL
Father Peter Berendt, CP
Sister Elaine Burke, OSUMSJ
Sister Martha Buser, OSU
Sister Marie Carol Cecil, OSUMSJ
Sister Veronica Colahan, OP
Sister Elaine DesRoisers, OP
Sister Paschal Maria Fernicola, SCN
Sister Mary Brigid Gregory, OP
Sister Rita Hommrich, SCN
Sister Delores Kincaide, SL
Sister Colette Kraemer, OSU
Sister Frances Krumpelman, SCN
Sister Anne Magruder, SCN
Sister Amanda Rose Mahoney, OSUMSJ
Sister Alfreda Malone, OSUMSJ
Sister Mary Angela Matthews, OSUMSJ
Sister Mary Elizabeth Middendor, SCN
Sister Corina Padilla, OP
Sister Vivan Mary Sabelhaus, SCN
Sister Ceciliana Skees, SL
Sister Betty Vannucci, SCN
Sister Mary Denis West, OSU
Sister Dorothy Wilson, SCN
60 years
Sister Mary Kay Brannon, SL
Sister Juanita Carrigan, OP
Sister Mary Christoffel, OP
Sister Maggie Cooper, SCN
Sister Sara Delaney, OSU
Sister Rita Dressman, OSU
Sister Julie Driscoll, SCN
Sister Barbara Ann Fava, OP
Brother Conrad Fleishmann, OCSO
Sister Mary Susann Gobber, SCN
Sister Betty Ann Hesse, OP
Sister Patricia Huitt, SCN
Sister Marilyn King, RSM
Sister Theressa Knabel, SCN
Brother Simeon Malone, OCSO
Sister Betty MacDougall, SCN
Sister Pearl McGivney, SL
Sister Doris Lee Mingus, OP
Sister Kathleen Neely, OSU
Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO
Sister Nancy Reynolds, SP
Sister Elaine Shaw-Cote, OP
Sister Sue Scharfenberger, OSU
Sister Louise Smith, SCN
Sister Molly Thompson, SCN
50 years
Sister Luke Boiarski, SCN
Sister Rhoda Kay Glunk SCN
Sister Teresa Kotturan, SCN
Sister Diane Pharo, SCN
25 years
Brother Gaetan Blanchette, OSCO
Sister Michelle Grgurich, SCN
Father George Illikkal, CMI
Father Justin Nelson, CP
Father Seejo Antony Thandiackal, CMI
Brother Kurt Wernert, CP
