Friend of the Bridegroom event fosters, supports women religious
By Fr. Gary Coulter
Co-Vicar for Religious
for the Register
Every vocation – priests, religious, and married – needs to be solicitous and concerned for the wellbeing of every other vocation.
Thanks to things like St. Gregory the Great Seminary and the annual Bishops Appeal for Vocations, there is great awareness in the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln regarding the need for priestly vocations and encouragement for seminarians.
But is there a similar awareness of the need for the vocation of sisters; fostering and supporting women religious?
“Last week I attended a seminarian fundraiser and was thinking, ‘we don’t do anything like this for sisters,’” said Julia Stolfus of Kansas City. “Now I know, there’s actually an entire ministry about promoting women’s religious vocations.”
Father John Burns, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, has a vision and mission to help the Lord renew the Church through the renewal of women’s religious life. His ministry, Friend of the Bridegroom (RenewReligious.org) invites all to ponder: “What can we as a Church do to renew women’s religious life?”
More than 100 people, including many religious sisters and young adult women gathered March 1 at St. Joseph Church in Lincoln, for a day of conference and retreat entitled, “Toward a Greater Solicitude for the Renewal of the Bride.”
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Courtesy photos
Father Burns’ message is first to remember the goal of creation. All people are created for relationship with God, which is not just any relationship but a spousal relationship – Jesus comes as the bridegroom and the Church is His bride. Celibacy is not just ‘not being married’ but rather a participation in the ultimate marriage. Priests, as another Christ, should embody the heart of Christ and be a sign of that reality.
But that’s only half the reality.
The religious sister shows the other half of this reality: the perfect spouse of the bridegroom, the Church. The consecrated woman reveals how the Church is supposed to be for Christ. It makes that abstract mystery of heaven more concrete and real.
Therefore, the Church needs sisters not just to have teachers and nurses; sisters are not just functionaries. As attendee Kathy Springer of Crete summarized, “the Church is not just about efficiency. Without sisters, even if we have many projects and programs, we are not living who we are.”
The Church needs sisters, for a different reason than priests. Priests are needed to administer the sacraments, but the Church will not flourish and understand herself without consecrated women. There is a great crisis of diminishing numbers and aging of women religious in the U.S., much more than any crisis of priestly vocations.
As Father Burns summarized, “a Church without women religious is like a home without a mother.” Consecrated life is not marginal, but is at the heart of the Church and decisive for her mission.
The Diocese of Lincoln is blessed with four locally founded orders of sisters, two cloistered communities, and a total of 15 different orders represented in the diocese. But they cannot be taken for granted. Every vocation – priests, religious, and married – needs to be solicitous and concerned for the wellbeing of every other vocation. What can parishes do practically to renew, support and encourage women religious?
The event March 1 with Father Burns strove to inspire awareness of the reality of the call to religious life. Each person needs to know about the consecrated vocation, which is a response to the heart God has for a person, who calls each person from the womb and has a plan for each person’s life. In the consecrated life, someone gives up a natural desire for marriage and family. God calls some young people to rise to a supernatural vocation, one that is sacrificial but gives great joy and fulfillment.
Second, the event strove to be a meaningful encounter with those who may be called to meet religious sisters, to interact with sisters, to see their life and charism. All parishes are encouraged to bring sisters to visit, or arrange for youth to visit them, or to participate in events like Steubenville or SEEK conferences, where they can have such encounters.
Sister Marie Caritas, of the School Sisters of Christ the King, said that for her, “simply meeting the sisters and coming on a discernment retreat with them was such an important part of my vocation.”
Mallory Gertner, originally from Kansas City and living at the School Sisters’ Epiphany House, discerning her own vocation, provided a great example of also doing this, as she invited two of her single friends to attend the retreat day with many sisters present.
Third, all people in the Church need to accompany those who may be called. It takes a life of prayer to receive the call, to have confidence in God’s plan, which is why young women need strong accompaniment, especially in growing in prayer. Every person in the Church knows young women and are responsible in talking to them: inviting, asking, and supporting them in considering a vocation to religious life.
