Communal Life as a Consecrated Religious

By Bro. Nicholas Jandernoa, SDB

(Orange, NJ – April 8) – After my first profession, God helped me to change the way I view living in community as a consecrated religious. I now share a fraternal bond with my brothers that goes beyond what it was before my first profession.

In our prayer of Religious Consecration, it is specified that the assistance of our brother Salesians will help to keep us faithful to our consecration, day by day. This assistance of our brother Salesians penetrates deeper than the universal call to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. With God’s help, we strive to selflessly love one another as Christ loves us.

Our Salesian Constitution declares, “The Lord has entrusted us with brothers to love.” [1] Yes, anyone who has been baptized is mystically connected to other baptized persons as brothers and sisters through Christ. However, as a consecrated religious, the bond that we share is a familial bond of love and responsibility that encompasses the agape love God has for us. I now have Salesian brothers who have vowed to love me, help me grow, and assist me to live out my consecration in the fullest way possible.

On the flipside, I have vowed to God that I will love my brothers in all circumstances and situations. This is a call, and God will give me the strength to follow it with a pure and undivided heart. I am now participating in the “Luminus sign of the new Jerusalem, the dwelling of God with man.” [2] It is only by the grace of God that I and others can do this.

Please keep all consecrated religious in your prayers, that we may truly live up to the lofty, heavenly call that God has placed on our hearts.

[1] Salesian Constitutions, article 50

[2] Vita Consecrata 45