How can we not recall with gratitude to the Spirit the many different forms of consecrated life which He has raised up in the Church today?  They can be compared to a plant with many branches which sinks its roots into the Gospel and brings forth abundant fruit in every season of the Church’s life.

Vita Consecrata, par. 5 

 God our Father has created every person for a particular vocation.  The word “vocation” has its roots in the Latin “vocare” which means, to call.  God calls each person to embrace the vocation for which he has been created.  This vocation, as a response to the Father’s initiative, is the way that each person finds his true happiness and sanctification.  Many are called to vocation of matrimony, and others are called to the single life.  Some many and women are called by God to belong wholly to Him in the consecrated life.  The consecrated person gives his whole being entirely to God–he is set apart for God.  There are various types of consecrated life, and each person who has a vocation to the consecrated life is called to a particular form of consecrated life.

 The most well-known form of consecrated life is religious life.  There are religious priests, brothers, and sisters.  The consecrated religious life is characterized by the vows that its members make, typically the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.  Religious make these vows in imitation of Jesus, the poor, chaste, and obedient One.  Religious, moreover, live in community, and within this community they pray, live, eat, and recreate together.  Religious have the title of “father,” “brother,” or “sister,” and are recognized by their distinctive garb.

 Some religious are apostolic; others arecontemplative.  Apostolic religious engage in active apostolates outside of the convent, often in areas such as education or healthcare.  The religious communities have corporate apostolates.  Contemplative religious remain always within their cloister; they do not engage in apostolates outside of the cloister, and their lives are characterized by prayer and penance for the entire world.  These cloistered religious are powerhouses of grace for us, for our Church, and for our world.

 Members of secular institutes also binds themselves more closely to Christ through the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but, unlike religious, they do not live in community, and they neither wear distinctive garb nor have a distinctive title.

 Consecrated virgins living in the world are women who belong by a special consecration to Christ, and serve in the diocese they live in.  Consecrated virgins do not make vows, do not live in community, and n

 Both men and women hermits live a solitary life of prayer and penance, and are bound to Christ more closely through the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

 In our Diocese of La Crosse, we are blessed to have members of many of the forms of consecrated life represented.  We have many apostolic religious men and women, we have consecrated virgins, and hermits