By Fr. Brian Bashista
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 9/18/03)

The Diocesan Pilgrimage to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception takes place on Oct. 18. The pilgrimage theme is "The Rosary: Our Spiritual Treasure." This week Father Bashista takes a look at religious communities who have the rosary as their charism.

These words from the Gospel of John succinctly focus the goal of the call to holiness for every Christian: the gift of eternal life -- knowing God and the one He sent to make Him known Jesus Christ. This general call to holiness is received at baptism. Through the grace of this sacrament each person is given a share in the life of God, which enables the deepening of the knowledge of the Father manifest in Jesus through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

What is of particular interest is that eternal life includes the knowledge of the one whom God sent, or whose mission it was to make the Father known. Knowledge of Jesus Christ is knowledge of Him as the one sent forth to proclaim the love of God. All those who are called to holiness or likeness to Jesus Christ in baptism will fulfill that general call only through faithfulness to their vocation to a particular state in life and their personal mission, their being sent forth.

From the many called to holiness, some are chosen by Christ to follow Him more closely, to be united to Him more intimately through obedience to His Word of election to the priesthood or religious life. These are the laborers in the harvest abundantly blessed by the Lord. They, too, make the merciful love of the Father manifest in their lives of service to Christ and His Church through their practice of virginity for the sake of the kingdom. They have as many apostolates as there are needs within His Body and as many charisms as the Spirit is pleased to bestow for their union with Christ in their missions. Many men and women have responded to the Lord’s call with such sincerity and openness that they have themselves become a kind of magnet of holiness for others. These are the Dominics, the Clares, the Francis’s , the Teresas, the Faustinas, the Mother Teresas, the Benedict Groeschels, whose vision of Christ is a charism shared with many.

All these founders whose mission was to advance the kingdom of God through their lives as priests and religious men and women teach us that prayer and humble contemplation of Jesus the Word Incarnate is the means of growing in likeness to Him, of entering more deeply into the mystery of His life of love with the Father through the Holy Spirit. They all profess a love for the Word of God in scripture and celebration of the Word in the Mass and Liturgy of the Hours.

St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, was given the mission of combating sin and the Albigensian heresy which denied the humanity of Christ because of the false understanding that all matter, flesh included, was evil. He begged our Lady for help and she in her good counsel supplied him with the perfect anecdote. She asked him to preach the Holy Rosary. This form of prayer combines vocal and mental prayer and focuses on the very humanity of Christ denied by the Albigensian heretics. With every "Hail, Mary" the Incarnation is recalled and offered to God through the Blessed Virgin’s intercession. Every "Hail, Mary" is a flower of gratitude given to God for each of the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries of our Lord’s life, death and resurrection. Every "Hail Mary" remembers too the vocation and mission of Mary, handmaid of the Lord. Because she chose it as a preferred means of meditating on the gift of her Son, it remains an integral part of the prayer of diocesan priests and religious communities.

On the 24th anniversary of his election to the papacy, Pope John Paul II announced the inclusion of the "Mysteries of Light" to the meditations of the rosary. The five Luminous Mysteries bring forward the active life and mission of our Lord. These Luminous Mysteries can be prayed as "Mysteries of Vocation." Reflecting on the beauty of the mission of John the Baptist being fulfilled as he Baptizes the Lord, the presence of the Father who is well pleased and the power of the Holy Spirit who compels Jesus into His mission all hold veins of truth for meditating on vocation. This mystery reinforces the essential significance of the mission of every Christian as his most personal of all gifts. Hearts closed to the call of the Lord will not know their mission, nor will they reach their fulfillment as persons made is God’s image, the image of Christ sent by the Father, because vocation, mission and personhood are inseparably linked.

A glance at the Mystery of the Wedding Feast at Cana draws our attention to the need for obedience to the voice of God. Once His call is heard action is required. Our Blessed Mother clearly says to "Do whatever He tells you." Faithful obedience to the Lord’s call establishes the Christian firmly in union with Jesus in the Proclamation of the Kingdom. This mystery can be prayed with the desire for the knowledge of the charism through which the person is to fall in love with Christ and for the apostolate in which one is to serve Him and His Church. The Mystery of the Transfiguration increases our confidence in the reality of Christ Who is calling us to a vocation to serve the kingdom in the state of election. He is divine, He is glorified, He is triumphant and trust runs deeply through the soul of anyone who may hesitate in fear at the knowledge of their vocation. Who comes and touches Peter, James and John after the glorious vision and says, "Do not be afraid"? Jesus calls, He strengthens that call, He challenges us in the call, He sustains us with love in the call.

Jesus promises to be with us always and remains divinely present in the soul of every baptized person. He calls us as persons, body and soul, to be given as gift to another. That is love, to be totally given to another. In the Mystery of the Eucharist Jesus is both Giver and Gift. He holds forth to us a boundless well from which to drink in the truth of His Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. He gives the example of humble service and selfless gift. Through the Eucharist He quickens and perfects our own attraction to love others as He loves us. Praying the Luminous Mysteries sheds radiant light on the dignity of every person’s vocation, its resulting mission and the imperative quality of each individual’s response. He is sent to the depths of our being through communion with Him in the bread of life to transform us and the world through our vocation and mission in His Church.