Michelle Piccolo was consecrated as a virgin in the Archdiocese of Detroit by Archbishop Vigneron in October 2020. She explains her journey to this rare and beautiful vocation - living in the world and committed to the Lord.
Learn more about Michelle's consecration on Detroit Catholic: detroitcatholic.com/news/gabr...
---
Transcript:
My name is Michelle Piccolo and I was consecrated as a virgin living in the world by Archbishop Vigneron on October 24th, 2020 at my home parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
So in the fall of 2009, my mother became sick with cancer, and I decided to move back home to Cleveland, and that’s really, like, the catalyst. That’s really when I started getting more involved in my church and exploring my faith more in-depth than I was previously. She was such a faithful Catholic woman that, when she passed away, it was just on my heart that, like, “I want to go where she is and I believe she’s in heaven and I want to get there, so how do I become a prayerful person like she was?”
During the timeframe of this discernment I went on lots of young adult retreats and encountered lots of people, lots of young adults who had this personal relationship with the Lord, and it became really attractive to me. And I discovered something called Theology of the Body, which is my passion, my thing, and that’s where I first heard the term “consecrated celibacy,” “consecrated virginity.”
I enlisted the help of a spiritual director and started my journey here towards the Archdiocese of Detroit, because there’s quite a few consecrated virgins in Michigan. I started exploring this vocation more in-depth, living as if I already was consecrated, to see if I had peace in my heart, I did, and it became a reality, an answered prayer.
In the moments right after consecrating, you know, we’re taking pictures and people are coming up to me during the reception, a long-time parishioner came up to me and had tears in his eyes and was like, “This is like heaven.”
Some people think it’s new, it’s actually not. It’s the Church’s oldest vocation. We consider Mary to be the first consecrated virgin. So as a consecrated virgin, we promise to pray for the Church everyday, so I pray the Liturgy of the Hours.
So, my day is centered around prayer as much as it can be. Because we are also in the world, right? That’s our official title. We still have our regular jobs. The ring is the only outward sign that we wear to indicate that we are committed to the Lord.
I feel like the Lord is calling me to just spread joy and peace, and pointing people back to him. So I’m looking forward to just seeing more of those opportunities, to find the lost sheep, to - there’s plenty of people to bring into the fold - to just bring as many people to him as possible.
Негізгі бет The Church's Oldest Vocation: Life as a Consecrated Virgin
Пікірлер: 138