I think for me the easiest way to explain what it means to be consecrated is to look to the Eucharist. At each Mass we offer to the Lord the everyday things of bread and wine. "Fruit of the earth and work of human hands." We present them on His altar and by His grace working through the mediation of a priest they are literally changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Similarly we as religious present ourselves and through our profession of vows ask to be transformed - conformed to Christ. In both consecrations the distinguishable attributes do not change. His Body still looks like bread, tastes like bread, even smells like bread, yet it is changed. It is Christ. Furthermore, just as the Blessed Sacrament exists for the nourishment of the Church, so too we as religious bind ourselves to Christ becoming one with Him not for our own sake, but truly for the Church and the world.
And what may you ask could motivate someone to make such a consecration? The answer is simple: love. As St. Paul goes on to say in his letter to the Galatians, "And the life I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."
- Sister Mary Francis, FSGM
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