Welcome to the Office of Consecrated
Life
Diocese of La Crosse
Director:
Sister M.
Stephania Newell, F.S.G.M.
Office: 608 791-2690
Convent: 608 788-4530
Convent e-mail:
snewell@dioceseoflacrosse.com
Secretary: Maryjo Wilscon
Office: 608 791-2655
e-mail:
mwilson@dioceseoflacrosse.com
Click here
for photos of new Religious studying in or for the Diocese of La
Crosse.
Click Here for 2007 Vocational Events for Women in the
Diocese of La Crosse.
What is the Office of Consecrated Life?
The Office of Consecrated Life serves as a
guide for religious of the Diocese and for those interested in
the Consecrated Life. The Director of the Office of Consecrated
Life represents the Diocesan Bishop in matters that pertain to
the Consecrated Life.
The Office of Consecrated Life also
sponsors many vocation events:
* Vocation Fairs – Held in
the Middle and High Schools in the Diocese
* Miriam Dinners – Special
dinner and talk with the Diocesan Bishop
* Vocation Awareness Week –
Vocations Mass held at the St. Joseph the Workman
Cathedral on the Sunday beginning this
week.
 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 are contemplative.
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
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