Joy for Consecrated Life
Father Anto Vijayan Carloose, SAC, shares a laugh with a Dominican sister during a dinner honoring consecrated religious on March 28, 2025 at Holy Family Parish in Fort Worth. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)
FORT WORTH — In a celebration of hope and service, consecrated religious men and women gathered at Holy Family Church on March 28 for vespers and fellowship.
Spanish, Vietnamese, and English antiphonal prayer filled the sanctuary as the gathered religious followed along in the Liturgy of the Hours.
In his homily, Bishop Michael Olson expressed appreciation for the consecrated religious, for their vows of consecrated life, and for the hope they provide the faithful of the diocese, especially in this Holy Year of Jubilee.
“Hope is most demonstrated when we are powerless,” Bishop Olson asserted. “And the witness of religious life is to be powerless, right? And to be powerless is, in a sense, to acknowledge in humility our inability and our powerlessness to do anything without God, for hope is rendered so that we have to trust in God's power — that where we are powerless, God is powerful.”
Religious people, the bishop said, witness the gift of the Holy Spirit intimately and are given the opportunity to foster a powerful relationship of love with God through Jesus Christ.
Carrying out that love to God’s people, especially those who live in ignorance and who are left on the fringes of society, is at the heart of consecrated life.
“Many people think that there's so much that we are unable to do now,” Bishop Olson said. “They think we are unable to live in a civilization of respect and love; they think we're unable to live in a society where we can trust each other and respect each other.”
These misconceptions fail to recognize the power of hope and vocation, he said.
Ending the vespers by praying the Magnifcat, the bishop said he hoped to “unite our prayers to the [Blessed Mother] so that we may witness to God's power, in His love, through a witness to hope, by our courage, to live the Gospel and community life through the concepts of poverty and chastity and obedience — the three things that this world thinks are impossible.”
A year of hope
In this jubilee year, Sister Marie Nguyen, OP, of St. George Catholic School in Fort Worth hopes to see the students, families, and communities of faith in the diocese grow in talking and sharing the faith.
“If students could have more understanding of what they’re searching for and be comfortable to just sit there and just talk to God — because God is alive,” Sr. Marie said, expressing her hope for adults to take the initiative to start conversations of faith with the youth around them and “tell them Christ is alive and He wants a relationship with you.”
Strive for joy
Asked to share his hope for the faithful of the diocese, Friar Feliciano Castro-Torres of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Fort Worth, stated, “I want all people to feel happier. Of course, one will not find joy if you don't first understand God. To understand God means to live in universal fraternity. We are all brothers and sisters.”
Sister Yolanda Cruz, SSMN, hugs Sister Susan Islas, MCSH (left), and Sister Laura Martinez Penilla, MCSH (right), during a dinner honoring consecrated religious on March 28, 2025 at Holy Family Parish in Fort Worth. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)