June 2020 Lamp V2
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Volume 25, Issue 2 — June 20, 2020 June 20, 2020 — The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary To the Members of the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins, Why is God doing this? In so many words, a number of people have raised this kind of question. Yet, we do not believe that God causes evils. Rather, we believe that he may, by his permissive will, allow evils. He always does so, however, because he knows good can be drawn from them. That is really the key to understanding the Lord’s death on the Cross. He prayed that the cup may pass. It did not. Instead, the Father drew the glory and the blessing of the Resurrection and our Salvation from that gift of his Son’s death. Therefore, it becomes our duty to seek to discern what good God seeks to draw from our current situation. One, certainly, is the strengthening of the blessing of the domestic church, the family. Walking in the neighborhood, I have seen many parents, especially dads, out playing with their children. I know there is a lot more communication going on in families than was the case before. If that is Inside this Issue Page infused with wisdom from above, what a blessing it will Something Ancient - be. Something New 2 From the President's Journal 6 Another good, is the hungering for the Eucharist, Announcements 6 which I know has affected many of you. I pray that this Membership Reminder 6 leads us, as we resume participation in Mass, to be even Consecration Announcements 7 better prepared to receive and then become our Lord as we Upcoming Consecration walk up the Communion line. Announcements 7 There are many more possible goods to be achieved. Note from the Archivist 7 May we all be challenged to seek out, to discern, what Communion with Our God might have in store particularly for me as I walk Bridegroom 8 through these days and weeks and months. Anniversary Reflections 9 Upcoming Events 9 2020 Information Conference 10 Sincerely yours in Christ, Life Corner 12 Virtual Choir of Consecrated Virgins 12 USACV-IRC Leadership Team 12 Most Reverend Earl Boyea, Bishop of Lansing 1 Something Ancient, Something New By Dr. Magalis Aguilera, Psy.D. and Father chaste bodies are your temple; you delight in sinless Dr. Judith M. Stegman, JCD hearts . Those who choose chastity have looked upon the face of Christ, its origin and inspiration. They give To celebrate their golden anniversary, a Catholic couple themselves wholly to Christ, the Son of the ever-Virgin gives thanks to the Lord for the blessing of their marriage Mary, and the heavenly Bridegroom of those who in his by going to the Cross of our Divine Lord Jesus Christ honor dedicate themselves to lasting virginity” (Prayer of during the bloodless sacrifice of the Eucharistic consecration in the rite of consecration of virgins, n. 24). celebration. The consecrated virgin stands before the Cross of her Divine Spouse, always, during the daily Eucharistic Ever since the time when the side of Jesus Christ was celebration and in adoration to honor the love of her Divine opened on the Cross, the Virgin Mother has witnessed her Spouse given in her virginal vocation. We stand in Son’s spousal covenant with His Church: “But when they celebration of the golden anniversary of the restoration of came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did the rite of consecration for virgins living in the world, and not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced throughout the world every single virgin stands before the Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood Cross of the Spouse giving thanks for His mystical and water” (Jn. 19:30). The blood and water are symbols of espousal to her. His Church which holds the deposit of the sacraments of redemption: baptism with the symbol of water, and blood This anniversary is a joyful time because Mother Church as the sacrificial offering on the cross, perpetuated in the restored to light a precious rite in which the Spouse calls Eucharistic sacrifice of the altar by Jesus Christ, the out to his beloved virgins. She hears His voice as in the Spouse. Song of Songs: “I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, His sacrifice on the Cross is the meaning and stronghold of my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is the call to that “new grace” which is poured out upon the filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the virginal woman by the Bishop of the Church during the night” (Song of Songs 5:2). The voice of the Spouse consecratory prayer. The virgin is called to receive sounds in order to prepare His Eternal Feast, and Our Most “eternal coins” from Him, as Saint Leandro wrote to his Blessed Mother and Queen, Mary of Nazareth, stands sister Florentina on the day of her consecration: “Your before the Cross of her divine Son. This is the true mystical spouse gave to you as “arras” or wedding coins his blood meaning of our virginal vocation: we stand before the and with his blood he redeemed you, with his blood in such Cross in the Eucharistic presence of the Spouse, to listen to a manner he joined you to himself in a nuptial link so that His voice. you might receive the spousal gifts in your integral virginity and keep it intact, not as a married woman who The Gospel of Saint John paints a picture of the last has received the wedding coins but given up her virginity moments of our Divine Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross: (Saint Leandro, Bishop, in Francisco Vizmanos, Las “When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom virgenes cristianas de la Iglesia primitiva, 926). he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your The ancient Church was built up by virgins and martyrs mother.’ And from that hour, the disciple took her into his who were called to follow the Lamb of God by dedicating home” (Jn. 19:26-27). From that day forward, the Church “themselves to lasting virginity,” and defeating the power of Our Divine Lord Jesus Christ had a Mother—a Virgin of the devil with their integral chastity: body, soul, and Mother, a Mother who is the Queen of Virgins and who spirit, and the giving up of their body to martyrdom for protects with her unique intercession the Spouse of her love of the Spouse. Son, the Church. As happened with the Gospels, the life of virginity was Consecrated virgins in all parts of the world continue to expressed by the witness of virgins, and their words were celebrate in their hearts the fifty-year anniversary of the quoted by others after their deaths. Time passed from the renovation of The Rite of Consecration of Virgins. This rite days of the virgins in the early Church. In the midst of the transforms the virgin into a sacred woman, an icon of the world’s instability and for protection of the virgins, the Church witnessing to the eternal wedding feast. “Loving virginal vocation became established in monasteries; later 2 still with the changes in economy brought about by the Christ, the Son of God (c. 604 §1)”: The Basis for Industrial Revolution, the virginal vocation was lived not Proposing Juridic Principles to Guide the only in monasteries, but also in religious congregations. Development of Norms for the Ordo virginum (Washington D.C., 2019; ProQuest Number The original virginal vocation, lived by women in their 22623763, Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest LLC, 2019) own situations outside of communal life, was in a sense put 110-111). on hold for ten centuries. We did not know the meaning of why there was this long time that the “eternal train or Explanations for the 1927 Denial eternal spacecraft” of our rite of consecration was held, The reason for the denial is not stated in the without tickets to go onboard. But we have a profound decision itself. Soon afterwards, however, the work written by one consecrated virgin and co-author of Commentarium pro Religiosis published, along this column who dedicated several years to becoming with the decision, the text ‘Annotationes’ by prepared as a canon lawyer for His glory in our vocation, Philippus Maroto, explaining why the Holy See and, offering sacrifices in her daily living arrangement, she had judged it inopportune to admit to the was illuminated by the Holy Spirit. With her investigations consecration women living outside of a monastery. for the doctoral dissertation, she illustrated the treasures of The reasons he gave for the congregation’s 1927 our vocation and rite of consecration. The rite may not denial stem primarily from concern about three have been officially in use for virgins living in the world serious effects of consecration: constitution as a for many centuries, but the Holy Spirit did not permit the ‘sacred person’ in the Church; mystical espousal to consecration to stop. Following are excerpts from the Christ; and dedication to the service of the Church. segment of her work that focuses on 1917 to 1970, the Each of these three juridical effects of consecration period of time that witnessed the restoration of the ancient in the Ordo virginum are later affirmed in canon Ordo virginum: 604 of the 1983 Code. Why in 1927 were these After WWI: New Requests for Consecration of effects deemed reasons for denial of the Women Living in the World consecration to virgins living in the world? The consecration of virgins living isolated lives in In the first place, Maroto affirmed that the bishop's the world probably never fully disappeared.