EDITORIAL

“AN ADVENTURE OF LOVE WITH GOD”

BY REV FR EFREM TRESOLDI MCCJ | EDITOR

ONE DAY a nun was asked to tell the story of her vocation. She explained how, after completing Matric, her father asked her to begin thinking about what she wanted to do in life. The young woman started to reflect about it and asked herself the question: what brings me more joy, a life consecrated to the Lord as a religious or to get married and have a family? She eventually decided to join a congregation of sisters, since she felt that that brought more joy to her heart.

The vocation story of the nun underlines the fundamental elements needed for making a life choice. She had made the decision freely; she did not do this under constraint, nor did she do it to please her father. Then, after some time of reflection and discernment, she chose to join a religious congregation. Finally, her life choice had been made in order to achieve happiness. Indeed, God wants us to experience joy in our lives, real joy and not merely pleasure that is short lived, but the lasting feeling of fulfilment that stems from self-giving out of love for the benefit of our brothers and sisters.

The vocational question is perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing the Church. Pope Leo XIV to General Chapter of the Augustinian Order.

In the current issue of Worldwide, we look at religious life in Africa with the contribution of men and women who highlight the meaning, the challenges and the prospect of consecrated life in today’s Africa.

Undoubtedly, religious life is still appealing to many people, including young generations. Numbers provided by the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics confirm that. While all other continents are undergoing a decline in religious life, Africa is experiencing a growth, though modest: for the religious priests 1.4% and some growth for the professed religious brothers who are not priests. The professed religious sisters in the continent have recorded a significant increase of 2.2%.

However, what is a matter of concern is a universal, prevailing atmosphere in society of materialism and consumerism that weighs against the Gospel values of gratuity, solidarity and selfless gift of oneself.

In this issue, one contributor pinpoints the challenge: “When young people do not reflect on their own existence, they begin to live reactively rather than responsibly. They react to the demands of the market, to family expectations, and to social pressures, but they do not respond to the inner call that gives meaning to life. Consequently, religious, priestly, or consecrated vocation appears distant and unappealing, because it cannot be measured in terms of immediate return.”

In this regard, Pope Leo XIV has an encouraging message for us. Addressing the members of the Augustinian order, he stated that the vocational question is perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing the Church as a whole… He then explained that what matters most is never losing sight of the fact that love is at the heart of everything, since a vocation is born only when one feels drawn to something great—a love that can nourish and satisfy the heart. The Pope concluded “Therefore our primary concern should be to help, especially young people, to glimpse the beauty of the call and to love what, by embracing their vocation, they may become. Above all, it is an adventure of love with God.”