A heart on fire

that remains fervent

for God and for Humanity

The eve of the Solemnity of Our Lord Christ the King of the Universe on November 21, 2015, was celebrated with great and intense joy in the Basilica of the Holy Trinity in Fátima, where seven members of the Congregation of the Aliança de Santa Maria were consecrated by professing the vows of poverty, obedience, chastity and unity, the latter a specific vow of the Congregation. Mariana Pereira, Sophie Alves and Andreia Ferreira took their temporary vows. Sister Catarina Rolo, Sofia Mendes, Marta Mendes and Maria Benedita Costa sealed their perpetual vows by choosing to follow Christ through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

This memorable celebration was presided by Bishop António Marto of Leiria-Fátima, and co-celebrated by Bishop Manuel Felício of Guarda, Bishop-emeritus  Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva of Leiria-Fátima and Bishop-emeritus Augusto César of Castelo Branco, and in the presence of seventy priests who together with the assembly of family members and friends bore witness to God’s election and mercy visible in the lives of these Sisters, for whom, in the words of the Superior-General Sister Natália Rocha, we ask the Lord “ a heart on fire that remains fervent for God and Humanity.”

“the assembly of family members and friends,

bore witness to God’s election

and mercy”

 ___________________

In this celebration, during the Year of Consecrated Life, we further celebrated 25 years of consecrated life of Sister Teresa de Lurdes and the renewal of the temporary vows of Sister Ângela Oliveira. For the vocations that Our Lord awakens and sustains let us lift our hearts in thanksgiving confident that the covenant that He has made with each one is irrevocable.

Catarina Rolo, asm

21 November 2015