A spiritual renewal for the members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre

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PopeFrancis_CardinalO'Brien_Consulta

Besides being required by the law of the Holy See, the Consulta of our Order of the Holy Sepulchre has been a sound source of rich grace!

The Statutes of the Order, approved by the Vatican Secretary of State, require that at least every five years a “Consulta” be convoked by the Grand Master to review the activities of every facet of our Order’s performance.

This year, the Consulta was held from November 13 – 16 here in Rome. It was the result of intensive and successful preparation on the part of our dedicated staff. All but 5 of our 64 Lieutenants/Delegates were on hand coming as far as from Guam, Australia and South Africa. Good prayer, serious discussions and warm social gatherings were packed into each day, including a moving Oratorio on the life of Blessed Bartolo Longo. The Grand Finale was a concluding Audience with our Holy Father and his expressions of strong support for the works of the Order on behalf of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and other Catholic operations in the Holy Land.

All this will be described in colorful detail on our website. Newsprint will not capture, however, the sense of fraternity and camaraderie and the spiritual renewal with which the Lord graced the hours of our gatherings.

Now that we have entered the New Year, the results of the prayerful deliberations of our Consulta will hopefully be experienced by our members far and wide who were represented so ably by their leaderships!


Edwin Cardinal O’Brien


(January 2019)