You may not know it, but making her way through Denver is a Bride of Christ.
Senite Sahlezghi goes about her day much like many of us, making time for work, prayer, friends and family, but she does so mystically united with Jesus as his bride. As the rest of us plan and execute the perfect Valentine’s Day for our beloveds, she turns to her husband, the Lord Jesus, planning to spend time with him and in service to his people — a dual reality at the heart of her call.
A consecrated virgin in the Archdiocese of Denver, Sahlezghi was set apart through a special ceremony — much like a wedding — on June 12, 2021, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that year. Unique from other religious professions, her consecration brought her into a profound, even mysterious, union with Christ through the Holy Spirit.
“The heart of my vocation is being a virgin bride of Christ, a spouse of Christ,” Sahlezghi said. “The opportunity is really an exterior virginity to safeguard an interior virginity, which is really to say an undivided love for the Lord. He calls women into this vocation to bear witness to the reality of his love in the midst of ordinary circumstances of life, as an eschatological sign of the life that we will all be living in Heaven someday.”
Living now what each of us will live in Heaven, Sahlezghi foreshadows the profound unity God desires to have with his people. As a Bride of Christ, she represents her husband in a mystical way wherever she goes.
That representation can be tough for many to understand — how can someone be married to Jesus? Especially since Sahlezghi looks, sounds and makes her away about the world like many of us, it’s easy to confuse her for a single woman.
But it’s a hill she says she’ll continue to die on: she is not a single woman; she’s married to the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ!
Put simply, Sahlezghi said, “We become his brides and give him our undivided love and bear witness to that in the world, as we have deeper, greater freedom to serve his people so that we can get them into Heaven as well.”
Being married to the King of Kings might mean no fancy dinner reservations, bouquets of flowers or boxes of chocolate, but Sahlezghi isn’t batting an eye.
“One of the gifts of this vocation, the real ministry, the office that’s been entrusted to me, is prayer,” she shared. “Every consecrated virgin, with the personal gifts and charisms she’s been given by the Lord, is serving Christ and the Church in those ways. But the heart of the vocation — there’s a moment in the Consecration where the bishop gives us the Liturgy of the Hours, and we become an icon of the praying Church. That really is the office.”
Called to love God first and foremost, especially as his Bride, Sahlezghi embodies the virtue of charity — that is, intimacy with the Trinity — by being a “contemplative presence in the world.”
“The consecrated virgin fleshes out or concretizes in the midst of the world this indwelling of the Trinity. And, God willing, we’re all bearing witness and letting that light radiate from us, the light that is Christ our spouse. So, practically speaking, what does that mean? It’s being able to be the praying Church and to be virgin bride and mother first to God, and then, out of that love that we love because he first loved us, I’m called to love the people of God because his love for me overwhelms and then diffuses,” Sahlezghi explained, pointing to the Apostle St. John’s famous words in his first letter (1 John 4:19).
“It’s so humbling and overwhelming,” she continued, beginning to choke up with emotion. “The reality of being chosen by him way back when and now and every day for the rest of eternity… There are no words to articulate that. I realize he’s always been there. And St. Agnes has a great line where she says, ‘Christ is my love’s choice.’ And that’s true for me, but it’s because of the overwhelming reality that he chose me first. He chose me. He saved me. He redeemed me. He provides for me. He adorns me.”
Sweeter than the finest Valentine’s Day chocolates, Sahlezghi’s union with Christ as an “icon of the Church” makes real God’s profound love for his people.
Over the years, she’s lived that love by ministering in several Denver apostolates, like Christ in the City, Catholic Charities of Denver, Marisol Health and now St. John Paul the Great High School in Denver. Even as we celebrate Valentine’s Day, she’s learning how better to love and serve students with disabilities with the FIRE Foundation of Denver.
At the core of her service, though, is a profound love for Christ.
“His people are my people,” she said matter-of-factly and with a smile. “I’m so privileged to have all of those apostolates, ways of outpouring into others. I think it speaks to the maternity of my vocation, where Christ is my spouse, and his people are my people now. He entrusts who he entrusts to me.
“Love is diffusive; it desires to give itself. Love overflows and generates. And it’s really neat the way he does that in obvious ways and in this hidden work of prayer that he’s also given to me,” she continued.
As we reflect on love — human and divine — this Valentine’s Day, Sahlezghi had a simple exhortation to take to heart on this day dedicated to heartfelt matters: “Return to the first love.”
“We get distracted by really silly things, and we also get distracted by really noble things. But all of it should come from an encounter with Jesus first. And so to myself first and to whoever else reads this, remember that he’s with us, that he desires to be with us, and that he’s always waiting for us. And so, on a day where we celebrate love, remember that he loves us first, not just loved us first,” she said, emphasizing God’s incredible love for us in the present moment.
“Jesus cares about the reality of our lives: the desires, sorrows, joys and uncertainty. All of it. He is Emmanuel, and he cares about all of it. Simply desiring to be with each of us,” she continued. “So often, we think we have to be something or someone for him. All he wants is for us to give him permission to encounter us and to love us. So, let him. What a first love to return to! So, return there. Practically, return to the moment of your conversion. Remember and repeat those graces and ask him to make all things new in your heart because there really is always more with the Lord.”
Drawing inspiration from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who herself lived a consecrated virginity and a profound closeness to Christ as his mother, Sahlezghi finds herself continually encouraged to grow in hospitality, encountering and receiving Christ’s people with love.
“She is a companion in this life for me. She really does show me what it means to serve and to give and to love and encounter others, and she points me back to him when I have failed,” she said.
