Statement of His Eminence Sean Patrick Cardinal O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap, Archbishop of Boston
"Our religious profession is to imitate Jesus' self-emptying, to throw off the tyranny of self-will and to be available to God and His Church with an antecedent willingness born of a listening heart that seeks first the will of God.
"Our yes in religious life is not a cry in the dark. It is a yes to Christ who lives and walks with us. It is a yes to Christ and to the Body of Christ, the Church. Our call is to serve in the vineyard, Christ's Church. Our participation in an individual religious community is the way that we live out our commitment. But that vocation is within the context of the Church. Our fraternity, our sisterhood, must never cut us off from the whole Church. It is only in the context of the Church that our charisms can be discerned, cultivated and authentically lived."
From a homily given for the Religious Life Symposium, Stonehill College, Easton, MA, September 2008
