Taking an appropriately “Sunday Appriciation” hiatus from the publishing blogs about the PNBA trade show, I just wanted to mention that my daughters Rachel and Maire and I were very privileged Friday evening to attend the Mass and consecration ceremony for Regina Dibb. who has pledged herself to the vocation of Consecrated Virginity in the Archdiocese of Portland. Regina is only the third woman in Oregon to make this consecration, and there are about 150 nationwide.

The vocation of Consecrated Virginity (like the similar vocation to Consecrated Widowhood) is one of the most ancient female vocations in the Church, older than that of the communal religious life so familiar to us, but it was largely abandoned in the middle ages when communal religious life became the norm for consecrated women. Consecrated Virginity, no doubt in response to the needs of our present secularized age, has begun afresh since Vatican II.

Here is the website of the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins.

It was a beautiful ceremony at Regina’s home parish of St. Cecilia’s in Beaverton, and accompanied by a fantastic parish choir–all the more remarkable in that the parish is fairly small.

Congratulations, Regina!

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