Elisa Inherits it is from last saturday new consecrated virgin in Seville, being already more than 40 present in this archdiocese. The ceremony was held in Seville’s cathedral and was presided over by Monsignor Rafael Zornoza, Bishop of Cádiz.
The prelate recalled that the consecration is “a deepening of the baptismal covenant that the Holy Spirit asks of some baptized whom he calls to a spousal, absolute, irrevocable and definitive love with Jesus Christ, living virginity for the Kingdom of heaven”.
Likewise, Zorzoza has congratulated the Archdiocese and, especially, the community of Los Molares, origin of the new consecrated virgin, for this vocation. And addressing Eisa directly, he added: “Like the wife of the Song of Songs, He has asked you to put him as a seal on your heart to love Him exclusively, to engrave his name on your arm so that you never forget his choice. of love. He has granted you the charism of virginity, which is a gift from God. No one can aspire to this vocation if they do not receive it from Him, because it exceeds the strength of the human being”.
“Virginity – he insisted – is, without a doubt, a very great good for the whole Church. In the consecrated virgins, the Church has one of its best treasuresbecause it permanently reminds all the faithful that our Lord Jesus Christ deserves to be loved with the greatest love, because He has loved us before with that same spousal love”.
On the other hand, the Bishop of Cádiz has explained the Order of the Virgins: “Consecrated virgins live in the middle of the world. They are not nuns, nor half nuns. They do not belong to any religious family, nor do they lose their lay status. Being lay people, they do not leave their family or their professional work. Consecrated to the Lord, they are a wealth for the Church, because they build it up with their presence, with their apostolic work in the Diocese or in the parish and, above all, with their testimony of love for Christ and their brothers for love of Him”. And he added that “God wants many young women to feel attracted by his testimony and feel the call to consecrate themselves to the Lord.”
In a recent interview with the ArchdioceseElisa Hereda explained the reasons that led her to choose this vocation:
-How and when did you become aware of your vocation? How has the journey of discernment been?
–Since my adolescence I have felt the call of the Lord to consecrate myself to Him, but I did not know how, because no form of consecrated life or charism that I knew coincided exactly with what I lived, felt and wanted to achieve. Adoring the Lord, my infatuation reached the highest point of my human possibilities and the desire to respond to his love with the total gift of my being became a need of my soul. It was then that I decided to go talk to my pastor, the Archbishop of Seville, at the time, Mons. Asenjo.
In the books on the Order of Consecrated Virgins that he gave me, I finally found my vocation. The Church confirmed my charism and he has given me everything I needed to be able to recognize and realize my truth and my own identity in this precious vocation. I have had the great privilege of having been accompanied during these years by wonderful priests who have been supporting me and leading me by the hand on this path towards my consecration.
-In these moments what does it mean to live your vocation?
-Consecrated virginity is a gift that God has given me, a call from the Lord to be totally his forever and to which I, freely and out of love, have responded with a generous yes in which I have given my whole life. To live spousality with Christ is to feel one with Him. To live in Him, by Him and for Him, totally possessed by his love. It is communing with his heart, assuming his same sentiments and sharing his lifestyle, surrendering completely to his will and with a tireless zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. It is also to feel myself as an eschatological image, anticipating the reality of the definitive communion with God to which all humanity is called to live in eternity and as a witness of the greatest love.
– What novelty do you discover today, about your charisma and spirituality?
-The total, irrevocable and definitive surrender to God today in a society so secularized, eroticized, in which selfishness, individualism and materialism predominate.
-What are the pillars of your faith?
–The main pillar on which my faith is based and which sustains my life is the love of God. The love of a living God who dwells in me and who calls me to live with Him forever. Feeling myself a beloved daughter of my Father, bride of Christ, my only true love, Lord and Savior and temple of the Holy Spirit. Together with the love of God, his Word, his infinite mercy, the Holy Scriptures, in a very special way the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, adoration and praise, the prayer of the Church, charity and his Mother, the Virgin Maria.
-How does faith live in everyday life? Do you belong to any parish or movement?
-I can say that my life is a continuous prayer, because the Lord occupies the center of my heart and is always present in my thoughts, in everything I do, in all the moments and circumstances of my life and in my brothers. The consecrated virgin is a contemplative in the middle of the world and must take care of the things of God. Prayer is a priority and essential need in my daily life, because through it I remain united to my Husband and I am filled with Him so that later I can take Him to others. Prayer is the source of my fidelity and of my aspiration to holiness. I always look for a moment in the day to pray the Holy Rosary and join my voice to that of the Church to praise the Lord and intercede for the whole world with the prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. I love the contemplative silence, the meditation of the Word of God and the deep study of the Holy Scriptures, worshiping the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and the daily Eucharist is the moment most desired by my soul. Charitable works always accompany my daily activities. I belong to the Parish of Santa Marta de Los Molares where I collaborate helping in the Sacristy, in the preparation of the Liturgy and in the Confirmation catechesis.
-How would you describe spiritual motherhood?
-The Virgin Mary is a Mother because through Jesus she has given us Life and the Church is also a Mother because through Baptism she begets children in faith. Well the consecrated virgin is like Mary and the Church, virgin and mother, she renounces physical motherhood to exercise spiritual motherhood by carrying Jesuswhich is Life, to others and thus become the mother of all men.
-How is this vocation different from any other single woman who intensely lives her faith and service to the Church?
-The virgin is presented to be consecrated by the Church. The Church, through the diocesan bishop and through the Rite of Consecration that is celebrated during the Mass, carries out the consecration of the virgin to God by the supreme grace of God and the infusion of the Holy Spirit, constituting her publicly and officially as a sacred person in medium of the Church and bride of Christ. The virgin becomes part of the Order of Consecrated Virgins, an ecclesial group with its own well-defined characteristics and with a legal status in Canon 604 of the Code of Canon Law and in the CIVCSVA (Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life).
-What would you say to those people who are considering their vocation and for fear give up or postpone starting the path?
-I assure you that there is nothing in the world that can make you happier than carrying out God’s plan for your own lives, because it is where your truth is hidden, the truth that will make you truly free and happy in life. the heart. Let them not doubt, let them consider the happiness that awaits their total dedication to a faithful God who loves them madly and who calls them. “Come and you will see” (Jn 1, 39). The Lord trains his chosen ones and promises them that they will receive a hundred times more and inherit eternal life (Mt 19, 29). In love there is no fear Saint John says. It is worth leaving everything to win the One who is everything. That they be brave and above all that they do not walk alone, that they always seek accompaniment within the Church.
Elisa, a new consecrated virgin for Seville: «I am a contemplative in the middle of the world»