Each February, we seem to pass through the month that is both the shortest and the longest. Obviously it is the shortest on the calendar, but often we are so done with winter that February seems eternal and the first warmth of March seems never to come.

But before February slips away and we enter into the wonderful season of Lent, I would like to highlight a celebration from earlier this month. On Feb. 2, we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. But since 1997, at the request of soon-to-be Pope St. John Paul II, that day is also celebrated as the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life.

As a result, that day serves as a salutary reminder for us to thank God for the witness of consecrated life in the Church and to pray in gratitude for those who have offered that witness. At the same time we ask God to send to the Church new vocations.

By consecrated life, of course, we mean those men and women who have been called to a radical following of Christ in the Church. From some of the earliest times, men and women have taken particular vows and have gathered together to serve Christ and the Church in a particular service.

Most visibly, consecrated life is lived by those who serve in religious orders. The life in those orders is characterized by a profession to poverty, chastity and obedience, and by attachment to community life. There are also consecrated virgins who take vows, offering themselves in prayer to the Church. And of course our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is a religious from the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

Here in the Diocese of Rockford, we have a solid history of religious men and women, especially those who have dedicated themselves to the education of our young people. When reading the history of each parish in our diocese, it is striking how the different congregations of sisters formed so many generations of the faithful.

And, of course, we have on-going contributions to the education of our young people in the Diocese of Rockford by religious communities, including the monks of the Order of St. Benedict at Marmion Abby and the Dominican Sisters of Springfield at Rosary High School, both in Aurora.

In the City of Rockford, we are so blessed with the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis who so ably and with such dedication continue the Catholic tradition of health care at St. Anthony Hospital.

And we rely on the constant prayers of the Poor Clares at Corpus Christi Monastery. They continue the tradition of the cloistered life, drawing apart from the active life in the world in order to pray for the Church and for all of us.

Of course, there are other religious men and women of different orders throughout the diocese.

The key to religious life is its faithful connection to the Church and our Catholic faith from which it was born. Obviously, consecrated life would make no sense if it were not dedicated to the Church, her teaching and to the pope and bishops. It is in that context that the different callings such as teaching, health care or evangelization can flourish.

It is one of the tragedies of recent decades that vocations to the consecrated life have dwindled. For example, many of us who were formed and instructed by religious women in our grade school years know the great contribution that they made to us and to the Church.

Please, add to your prayers a request that God grant to the Church more faithful and dedicated consecrated men and women.

And don’t forget to say thank you to those who continue to serve the Church so well.