"Religious, building on the grace of their baptismal consecration, surrender to God and place their lives at the service of the Gospel with 'undivided heart.'  Their response is audacious; it arises from a keen awareness of being infinitely lovable in the eyes of the Lord...

Then, in gratitude for the goodness of God and in awe of His love, Religious seek to love Him in return with an additional consecration through vows of poverty, chastity and obedience."

-Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted
 

 
 
consecrated life: a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, entered freely in response to the call of Christ to perfection, and characterized by the profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. 
Poverty Chastity Obedience
 

By religious profession you freely renounce the goods of this world.  Therefore, it is very important that you be detached from these goods and that you avoid, as individuals and communities, the exaggerated seeking of comforts and expensive means of living.  It is impossible to live poorly without feeling the pinch of poverty.  Hence, I suggest that you take a look at your lives from time to time from this point of view....Poor in spirit through evangelical profession, receive into the whole of your life the salvific profile of the poverty Christ. 

- Pope John Paul II

    

Chastity frees the human heart in a remarkable manner (1Cor 7:32-37), so that it burns with a love for God and for all people.  One of the greatest contributions which religious can bring to humanity today is certainly that of revealing, by their life more than by their words, the possibility of a true dedication to and openness toward others, in sharing their joys, in being faithful and constant in love without a thought of domination or exclusiveness

(Directives , n. 13)

    

For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so too by one Man's obedience, many will be made righteous.

Obedience is the most divine and the most human expression and proof of love.  Loves wants to obey; it wants only to do the Will of the Beloved and does not even want to be considered while doing so.  Not because of 'self-denial', 'self-sanctification', 'mortification', or any other ascetic training, but out of the simplest necessity of love itself.  In all weakness, yet totally resolved, it offers itself: 'Do with me as You will.'

- Adrienne Von Speyr

  

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"By their very vocation, religious are intimately linked to the Redemption.  In their consecration to Jesus Christ, they are a sign of Redemption that He accomplished.  In the sacramental economy of the Church, they are instruments for bringing this Redemption to the people of God.  They do so by the vitality that radiates from the lives they live in union with Jesus, Who continues to repeat to all His disciples: 'I am the vine, you are the branches' (John 15:5)."

- Pope John Paul II

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"Only once did anyone come to Jesus after speech with Him and go away sad. This was the young man who had great desire to have everlasting life. But he also had ‘great possessions’. He did not know that for him the way to the joy of life was to accept the challenge of Jesus, ‘Go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven. And come follow me.’

He did not realize that his invitation to follow the poor Babe of Bethlehem, the poor man of Galilee, the poor outcast of Golgotha, was a call to enter the narrow path of perfect joy. He could not leave the things which sooner or later would leave him. He clung to his great possessions on earth rather than seek treasure in Heaven, and left the joy of willful poverty and the following of Jesus for the sadness of willful wealth and the service of Mammon."

-Fr. Vincent McNabb, O.P.

"Within religious life, there are two general forms of living: active or apostolic and contemplative. While all religious have prayer as their first and foremost duty, apostolic institutes are actively involved in the works of the Church--education, health care, serving the poor, or assisting in various ways in parishes, chanceries, or other ecclesial organizations. Contemplative religious, however, spend a major portion of their day in prayer, separating themselves from the world in order to offer their prayers and sacrifices for the needs of the Church and the world. They combine prayer with manual labor of various types, often in farming, crafts, or similar works. Contemplative women are called nuns and the men, monks." -USCCB, 2002
 
Contemplative Order Religious   Active Order Religious
 

 

  

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