Vijayawada Diocese marks Day of Consecrated Life

(March 02, 2012) The Diocese of Vijaywda in southern India’s Andhra Pradesh state last Sunday marked the World Day of Consecrated Life with Bishop Prakash Mallavarapu felicitating fifteen religious men and women who marked 50 and 25 years of religious life. The Conference of Religious India, CRI, which is the organization of India’s religious men and women, observed its annual World Day of Consecrated Life at Vijayawada’s Maris Stella College with over a hundred religious men and women attending. “Through a multiplicity of charisms and the edifying fruits of your life you are called to show forth to the world by means of the evangelical counsels the person of Jesus Christ, and he matters to you. The characteristic features of Jesus - the poor, the chaste and the obedient one - are clearly visible in the practice of the evangelical counsels,” Bishop Mallavarapu told the jubilarians. He also thanked all religious for their service in schools, hospitals, universities, health care centres, social service, legal service centres and all other catholic charities, particularly commending the women religious. Local CRI President, Jesuit Father, Stanley, in his homily invited the consecrated persons to be witnesses of the mercy of the Lord, where man finds his salvation.