World Day for Consecrated Life, February 2

World Day for Consecrated Life, February 2

Celebrated in parishes Feb. 3-4, 2024


About World Day for Consecrated Life

In 1997, Pope Saint John Paul II instituted a day for women and men in consecrated life. This global celebration is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd. This Feast is also known as Candlemas Day; the day on which candles are blessed symbolizing Christ who is the light of the world. So too, those in consecrated life are called to reflect the light of Jesus Christ to all peoples. 

The celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life is transferred to the following Sunday in order to highlight the gift of consecrated persons for the whole Church. 

There are several ways to celebrate World Day for Consecrated Life. Invite sisters, brothers, and priests to publicly renew their vows at Mass, send cards of support to newer entrants, ask to visit a mother house to meet and pray with sisters, brothers, and priests, invite a vocation director to visit your classroom, Board meeting, or faith group to learn more about consecrated life. Send flowers, make a donation to a religious community, or invite someone to discern their vocation to consecrated life!


Letter from Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life for World Day of Consecrated Life, 2023. 

Resources to celebrate World Day for Consecrated Life

Celebrate with Abundant Hope!

Spark a conversation about religious life using the Abundant Hope prayer cards, Abundant Hope handout, and Abundant Hope video series of newer entrants and senior professed members talking about their lived experiences of intergenerational and intercultural vowed communal life.  There are 76 videos of sisters, brothers, and priests sharing abundant hope on the NRVC YouTube Channel. On World Day for Consecrated Life, gather together to talk about unwavering hope, invite others to celebrate, and record your own short videos to post on your social media sites to join this global celebration! 


VISION Vocation Network articles on Religious Life


Dare to Love video


Consecrated Life through the lens of Fratelli Tutti video


Ideas for families and parishes to celebrate WDCL video


Fundamentals from call to charism to community living video


What you might not know about religious life three minute video


Finding joy in religious life three minute video


Religious Life is...three minute video


Selected quotes from Christus Vivit!


Resources are also available at the USCCB 


Homily links from the pontificate of Pope Francis

2023 Papal Message for the 27th World Day for Consecrated Life

Your mission is enriched by the charisms of your institutes and societies, the charisms of your founders. In their remarkable variety, they all gave themselves for the edification of the Church and for her mission. All charisms are for the mission, and they are precisely so with the incalculable richness of their variety; so that the Church may bear witness to and proclaim the Gospel to everyone and in every situation.

2022 Papal Homily for the 26th World Day for Consecrated Life

What is our vision of consecrated life? The world often sees it as “a waste”, a relic of the past, something useless. But we, the Christian community, men and women religious, what do we see? Are our eyes turned only inward, yearning for something that no longer exists, or are we capable of a farsighted gaze of faith, one that looks both within and beyond? I am greatly edified when I see older consecrated men and women whose eyes are bright, who continue to smile and in this way give hope to the young. Let us think of all those times when we encountered such persons, and bless God for this. For their eyes are full of hope and openness to the future.

2021 Papal Homily for the 25th World Day for Consecrated Life

Some people are masters of complaining, doctors of complaining, they are very good at complaining! No, complaining imprisons us: “the world no longer listens to us” – how often do we hear that - or “we have no more vocations, so we have to close the house”, or “these are not easy times” – “ah, don’t tell me!...”. And so the duet of complaints begins. It can happen that even as God patiently tills the soil of history and our own hearts, we show ourselves impatient and want to judge everything immediately: now or never, now, now, now. In this way, we lose that “small” but most beautiful of virtues: hope. 

2020 Papal Homily for the 24th World Day for Consecrated Life

Why did you do this?  Because 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.  It means seeing what really matters in life.  It means welcoming the Lord’s gift with open arms, as Simeon did.  This is what the eyes of consecrated men and women behold: the grace of God poured into their hands.  The consecrated person is one who every day looks at himself or herself and says: “Everything is gift, all is grace”.  

 

 

Homily links from the pontificate  of Pope Benedict XVI

2013 Papal Message for 17th World Day of Consecrated Life

2012 Papal Message for 16th World Day of Consecrated Life

2011 Papal Message for 15th World Day of Consecrated Life

2010 Papal Message for 14th World Day of Consecrated Life

2009 Papal Message for 13th World Day of Consecrated Life

2008 Papal Message for 12th World Day of Consecrated Life

2007 Papal Message for 11th World Day of Consecrated life

2006 Papal Message for 10th World Day of Consecrated Life

Homily links from the pontificate  of Pope John Paul II

2005 Papal Message for 9th World Day of Consecrated Life

2004 Papal Message for 8th World Day of Consecrated Life

2003 Papal Message for 7th World Day of Consecrated Life

2002 Papal Message for 6th World Day of Consecrated Life

2001 Papal Message for 5th World Day of Consecrated Life

2000 Papal Message for 4th World Day of Consecrated Life

1999 Papal Message for 3rd World Day of Consecrated Life

1998 Papal Message for 2nd World Day of Consecrated Life

1997 Papal Message for 1st World Day of Consecrated Life



Updated on: 2020-12-31


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