Vocations to the Consecrated Life
What is the Consecrated Life?
The state of consecrated life is one way of experiencing a “more intimate” consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God. In the consecrated life, Christ’s faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come.
“Consecrated life means going to the very root of the love of Jesus Christ with an undivided heart and putting nothing ahead of this love.”
— Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
The Evangelical Counsels
Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.
Poverty
By imitating Christ’s poverty, they profess that he is the Son who receives everything from the Father, and gives everything back to the Father in love. (Vita Consecrata, St. John Paul II.)
Chastity
By embracing chastity, they make their own the pure love of Christ and proclaim to the world that he is the Only-Begotten Son who is one with the Father. (VC, St. John Paul II.)
Obedience
By accepting, through the sacrifice of their own freedom, the mystery of Christ’s filial obedience, they profess that he is infinitely beloved and loving, as the One who delights only in the will of the Father.(VC, St. John Paul II.)
Practically speaking, these three counsels allow a religious man or woman a certain freedom to follow Christ and proclaim him to the world. Without any possessions, a poor religious can freely go about the world, detached from any worldly desires, and preach the Gospel by their lives.
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At last I have found my vocation: My vocation is love.”
— Saint Thérèse of Lisieux