Vowed religious honored with Mass at Cathedral

Friday, Feb. 13, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — In celebration of the Year of Consecrated Life, the Diocese of Salt Lake City gathered for a Mass in the Cathedral of the Madeleine on Feb. 8 at which religious order women and men who serve in Utah were recognized.

Pope Francis declared the Year of Consecrated Life with the hope that “consecrated men and women would be witnesses of communion, of joy and the Gospel, and go evermore to the peripheries to proclaim the Good News.”

Bishop John C. Wester presided at the Feb. 8 Mass,  which was concelebrated by Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw, vicar general; Father Brendan Freeman, superior of Holy Trinity Abbey in Huntsville; Father Martin Diaz and Father José Barrera, the cathedral’s pastor and parochial vicar, respectively; and Father Michael Sciumbato, pastor of Saint Ann Parish. Deacon John Kranz assisted.

In his welcoming remarks, Bishop Wester said religious women and men “are courageous models of faith,” and over the years hundreds of them have served in Utah at great sacrifice; today, the diocese enjoys the fruits of their labor.

“We pray that God will continue to enrich the Church by calling our sons and daughters to treasure the Kingdom of Heaven above all things,” the bishop said. 

During his homily, the bishop said that at first glance the reading from Job (Job 7:1-4, 6-7) would seem inappropriate for a celebration of those who have taken the vows for religious orders, but a closer look reveals the message that “God takes the initiative and he grabs onto us and he gives us new life. That’s the real God, but it’s a god over whom we have no control, so there is that sense of surrender, of letting go and trusting in God’s loving provenance in my life, as Job learned.” 

The other two readings (1Cor9:16-19, 22-23 and Mark1:29-39) have the same theme, that “God loves us so much and transforms us. When we embrace this God – the real God – it transforms everything about us,” Bishop Wester said.

This theme is a fitting context for the Year of Consecrated Life, he added. “The religious sisters and brothers and priests whom we honor this year … have embraced the Christ, who has completely transformed them into his image and bonded himself to them through his invitation to follow him in vowed consecrated life. It is because of this singular and total commitment to Christ that they have been able to do what they have done throughout their history and the history of our local Church.”

In Utah, members of various orders of sisters endured many trials took on tasks such as building hospitals, schools and orphanages, “combating disease, ignorance, prejudice, discrimination, poverty and countless other challenges, and they did so with great fortitude and great determinations,” Bishop Wester said. “This was because their service to Christ is not grounded in a superficial relationship with him, but a deep embrace of Christ, who transforms them and gives them the grace to do what they do, coupled with the gifts that God gave them, and which they use for our benefit.”

Similarly, the monks in Huntsville and the Carmelites in Holladay have prayed for the diocese for many years, he added. “We honor our religious not so much for what they do – which is vast – but for who they are and the profound impact they have and continue to have on us. It is not simply the education or the health care or the  accompaniment or the ministry that they give us; it is that, but even more it is the relationship that they have with us; the place they occupy in our hearts.”

On Feb. 7, the three Holy Cross sisters who serve the Saint John the Baptist Parish community were recognized at a Mass at which Monsignor Joseph M. Mayo, pastor, presided.