Called by Love

With the slogan “Called by Love“, the Augustinian Recollect vocation ministry wants to recognize the generous dedication of so many women, in the past and present, who, inspired by the Augustinian Recollect Charism, have followed Christ

Every vocation is an answer to love God, who loved us first and invites us to walk with him. It is a participation into infinite love, which goes beyond all limits of the human mind and emerges us into the ocean, which is God himself. He who from the beginning of creation has made us participants and has given us the world. We can discover with gratitude and generosity how we can respond to this call and make it fruitful, for the good of creation and for ourselves. From this point of view, vocation is understood as a call to love and in love.

In this call to love, women participate in a very special loving way. From the beginning of history of Salvation, occupying a special place in the Bible. Eve, the mother of all humanity, was created in the image of God; because in her, the Father printed the tenderness, sweetness, love and all those feelings that only a woman’s heart could contain and transmit. Her vocation was a call to love that becomes fertile, a call to live that generates life. Her motherhood was a response to the divine command: grow and multiply, make the earth fruitful. Her vocation as a woman and mother reflects the creative love of the Father.

Mary, the new Eve, the Mother of humanity, the Mother of the Church, was chosen by God to make her part of a fascinating love story: to be the Mother of Jesus Christ. Her vocation grew in silence and strengthened by the intense listening of the Word and in pure faith; became an incarnate Love, who brought true happiness, salvation and life to the world and made her the Blessed among all the women. Her affirmation, in response to divine will, is motivated only by her love to God and constitutes itself a model of the Church’s affirmation. Her vocation as a consecrated woman is the model for every Christian vocation, in their different manifestation (marriage, priesthood or religious life).

The Church is feminine: it is La Iglesia (a Spanish feminine word for Church), it is a wife, it is a mother.

Pope Francis has often said that the Church is feminine, and he is right, the participation of women in it has been and is very important. The Pope says: The role of women in the Church is not only motherhood, it is stronger: it is like the icon of the Virgin, Our Lady; The one that helps the Church grow! (…) The Church is feminine: it is La Iglesia (a Spanish feminine word for Church), it is a wife, it is a mother. You cannot understand a Church without women, but women who are active in the Church who carry on with their life and testimony. How beautiful it is to know that the Church embodies all the vocations to which the human being can be called. Her love of woman and mother; believer and a disciple, becomes fruitful when it gives an authentic vocation, called to be in the world, a reflection of the Love that does everything in Christ.

During this month of May, in which by millennial tradition we honor with special devotion the Virgin Mary, we also want to dedicate a space to meditate on the vocation to which women are called within the Church: the Christian vocation as the source of all specific vocations. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, was eager to fully respond to the call of God in contemplative life, says: in the heart of the Church, who is my mother, I will be the love. At the bottom of every authentic christian vocation is the Love (God); the only one who is capable of inspiring all kinds of loves, in kindness  and services, that enrich the Church and make her attentive to the needs of humanity.

With the slogan “Called by Love“, the Augustinian Recollect vocation ministry wants to recognize the generous dedication of so many women, in the past and present, who, inspired by the Augustinian Recollect Charism, have followed Christ; first, as Christians committed to their faith; later, as consecrated virgins in contemplation and action, embodying in their life and in their works, the renewal passion of the Recollection, making Christ present among their sisters, but also among children, young people, the needy and the sick. There are also the mothers consecrated to their home and jobs, the women who, in the daily routine pray for their children and husbands and seek the unity of the Family.

All of them, inspired by Saint Augustine, the great lover of Truth, have felt in their lives the call of “Loving the Love”, which has invited them and invites them daily to fully live their vocation within the Church. As a response of love that has no limits. A daily commitment of dedication and service without expecting anything in return, getting tired in the announcement of the Kingdom; but above all, as a passionate search for that Love, that gives meaning to life, that fills the heart with authentic happiness and overflows the desires of everyone who upon finding it, feels fully loved.