The Clerics of St. Viator The Clerics of St. Viator
www.viatorians.com
www.viatorians.com
Father Dan Belanger, CSV, Father Dan Belanger, CSV, serves serves
in both campus and in both campus and parish ministry parish ministry
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A congregation of consecrated women following in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, we make the Gospel our rule of life. True to our missionary spirit, we go where we are called at home and abroad. As a community of Sisters, we also reach out to the laity who shares our ministry, extending Christ’s love and healing to all we encounter.
Our Sisters have served in healthcare,
education, parish ministry and social
service for over 100 years.
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different from saying we “can’t get
married,” as most people describe
the vow.
The best way i can explain my
understanding of it is by sharing
some phrases from my Marianite
community’s constitution on the vow
of celibate chastity: “We acknowledge our need to love and to be loved
personally . . . we choose that the
deepest of all our relationships will
be our relationship to Christ . . . we
free our hearts from all that might
The reason
to choose a vowed
life is to participate
in the mission of Jesus
in a radical way.
“
hinder this relationship in order
that we might be more available to
Christ and to others . . . by the joy
which this commitment radiates and
the quality of our presence . . . we
become a dynamic source of Christ’s
love . . . we announce what will be
our resurrected state.”
When i reflect on these words,
the vow of celibacy is much more a
positive choice than a set of “can-
nots” and “don’t haves.” That is the
frame of mind in which i choose to
live, and my life is very full of people
i love, some more deeply and inti-
mately than others.
Vowing celibacy, though, has its
difficulties. There are times when
i ache for that life-partner who is
solely for me and i for him; when
i wonder what my children would
have been like; and, let’s be honest,
VISION 2013
