Monday 14 September 2009 The Carmelite community of Haifa, Israel,  is renewing its commitment to priests: "to offer our humble supplication that you may be holy." The cloistered religious have made this renewal in a letter marking the Year for Priests, under way through next June.

Missionaries of Charity around the world marked on Saturday the 12th anniversary of the death of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, looking to next year's 100th anniversary of her birth.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, AUG. 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Vocations in the United States are attracted to religious congregations by the example of the members, particularly by their testimony of joy, a down-to-earth attitude, commitment and zeal.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, APRIL 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Saturday at the pontifical residence at Castel Gandolfo, in an audience with members of the Franciscan family participating in the "Chapter of Mats."

1,800 Franciscan friars from all over the world are converging on Assisi, Italy, to celebrate the 800th anniversary of papal approval of the Franciscan rule.

Nearly 70 percent of Catholic religious communities have seen a jump in vocation inquiries in the past year, according to a survey conducted by VocationMatch.com, the leading online religious vocation discernment website.

ROME, MARCH 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Contemplative communities are called to be a type of "spiritual lung" for the world, so that spiritual "respiration" is not strangled by the bustle of cities, says Benedict XVI.

A Mass was held in St. Peter's Square on the 13th of February to mark the 13th World Day of Consecrated Life. The Pope delivered his message after the Mass.

(03 Feb 09 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the world’s consecrated men and women to model themselves on the missionary zeal and spiritual intensity of St. Paul the Apostle, as well as the contemplative excellence of the Virgin Mary.

The Missionaries of God's Love invite you to the launch of the book Spirit and Fire: On the Human Journey with the Spirit of Jesus, by Sr Patti Jo Crockett.