Salt- salary, it preserves, heals, flavors, gives nutrition

Light- comfort, glow…and where light is, the Devil and his demons FLEE

God will furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will. May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him — today’s first reading

Each of you has a personal vocation which He has given you for your own joy and sanctity. When a person is conquered by the fire of His gaze, no sacrifice seems too great to follow Him and give Him the best of ourselves. This is what the saints have always done, spreading the light of the Lord … and transforming the world into a welcoming home for everyone. Pope Benedict XVI

Feast of the Presentation – Candlemas

Hannah and Simeon, first consecrated folks…

Religious are in many ways LIGHTS…

Consecrated people…not about DOING but about BEING….consecrated people are a SIGN pointing, a LIGHT shining

Religious people stand in the “gap” between the here and now…

Vows: Poverty, chastity, obedience … modeling Jesus, pointing to Jesus, deeply abiding in Jesus who was POOR, UNMARRIED, OBEDIENT

Check out this list of pontifical rank

They come and go, they’re at service of Church

Three major types of orders: monastic (desert mvmt, monasteries), mendicant (witness, teach, care for), apostolic (go out as missionaries, convert the world)

One day our children will stand before King Jesus, and He’ll care little about their:
grades,

batting averages,

3-point percentages,

yards per carry,

popularity,

college transcripts, or

class rank.

How are we investing in their eternal souls? The one thing he cares about.

St Thomas Aquinas, 700 years a saint!!

“Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.” -St Thomas

From a letter to her Sisters by St. Mother Angelica Merici

I also beg you to be concerned about every one of your daughters. Bear them, so to speak, engraved upon your heart – not merely their names, but their conditions and states, whatever they may be. This will not be difficult for you if you embrace them with a living love.

Mothers of children, even if they have a thousand, carry each and every one fixed in their hearts, and because of the strength of their love they do not forget any of them. In fact, it seems that the more children they have the more their love and care for each one is increased. Surely those who are mothers in spirit can and must act all the more in the same way, because spiritual love is more powerful than the love that comes from a blood relationship.

Therefore, mothers most dear to me, if you love these your daughters with a living and unaffected charity, it will be impossible for you not to have each and every one of them engraved upon your memory and in your mind.