Pope celebrates Presentation, Day of Consecrated Life

February 03, 2012

Celebrating the feast of the Presentation and the Day of Consecrated Life at Vespers in St. Peter’s basilica on February 2, Pope Benedict XVI tied the two observances together in his homily.

At the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, Simeon and Anna “recognized the Child as the Messiah announced by the prophets,” the Pope observed. On the Day of Consecrated Life, he said, we recognize “people who, through the evangelical counsels, are called to demonstrate before the Church and the world the characteristic traits of Jesus: virgin, poor, obedient, consecrated in the Father. What we celebrate in today's feast, then, is the mystery of consecration: the consecration of Christ, the consecration of Mary, the consecration of all those who follow Jesus for love of God's Kingdom.”

The Pope looked forward to the Year of Faith, which will open in October, and suggested that it would be “an opportune time for interior renewal,” for the entire Church, and especially for religious a time for “deepening of the essential values and needs of their own consecration.”

 

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Further information:

• Feast of Presentation of the Lord, Day of Consecrated Life (VIS)
• Pope celebrates Presentation of Lord, World Day of Consecrated Life (Vatican Radio)
• Fidelity and renewal (L'Osservatore Romano)