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On Friday 6 September, family, friends, colleagues and many well-wishers gathered at Arundel Cathedral for Mass with the consecration to the Ordo Virginum of Bethan Townsend. After five years of formation and discussion with Bishop Richard and with her Spiritual Director, Fr David King, Bethan declared her resolution "to accept solemn consecration as a bride of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God" and prostrated before the altar as a sign of surrender to the Lord as the Litany of Saints was sung. Bishop Richard then prayed the intensely beautiful Solemn Prayer of Consecration over Bethan, concluding:
Through the gift of your Holy Spirit,
give her modesty with right judgement,
kindness with true wisdom,
gentleness with strength of character,
freedom with the grace of chastity.
Give her the warmth of love, to love you above all others.
May her life deserve our praise, without seeking to be praised.
May she give you glory by holiness of action and purity of heart.
May she love you and fear you; may she love you and serve you.
Be yourself her glory, her joy, her whole desire.
Be her comfort in sorrow, her wisdom in perplexity,
her protection in the midst of injustice,
her patience in adversity, her riches in poverty,
her food in fasting, her remedy in sickness.
She has chosen you above all things, may she find all things in possessing you.
Bethan received insignia of her consecration: a veil to show that she has been "chosen from other women to be dedicated to the service of Christ and of his body, which is the Church," a ring and the book containing the Liturgy of the Hours, the prayer of the Church. Please continue to pray for Bethan as she continues to move forward in her vocation, and for the other women in our Diocese who have been consecrated or who are in formation for the Ordo Virginum at this time.
