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On Sunday, February 2, 2025, vowed women religious from around West Michigan gathered at Chapel of the Word / Marywood to celebrate the call and commitment to consecrated life. Sister Diane Zerfas opened this gathering of Dominican Sisters and Friars, Franciscan Sisters, Carmelite Sisters, Consolata Missionary Sisters, and Mercy Sisters.

OPENING PRAYER: FEBRUARY 2, 2025 | Diane Zerfas OP

On this feast of the Presentation when we remember that the parents of Jesus brought him to the Temple to consecrate his life to the Lord, we gather to celebrate the gift of consecrated life to the Church and to the world. And so we pray…

O Faithful God, we are grateful for your call to consecrated life, for the gift of perseverance, for the many opportunities to be “bearers of light” in these times of darkness and pain, and for the many joys of doing ministry in the name of Jesus. Your faithfulness deepens our faithfulness. Your promise of salvation purifies our motivations and softens our hearts to make a difference in the world.

With the psalmist we pray: How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the goodness done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord; My vows to the Lord I will pay in the presence of all of the People of God.

Faithfully and joyfully, in Jesus’s name, we pray. AMEN.