A life consecrated to God is characterized by professing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church. There are several forms of consecrated life including eremetic life, consecrated virgins and widows, religious life lived within canonically erected institutes, secular institutes whose members commit to evangelization in the world, and societies of apostolic life whose members pursue particular apostolic purposes without vows. The evangelical counsels aim to live in intimacy with God through trusting dependence and willing surrender to God's will.
A life consecrated to God is characterized by professing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church. There are several forms of consecrated life including eremetic life, consecrated virgins and widows, religious life lived within canonically erected institutes, secular institutes whose members commit to evangelization in the world, and societies of apostolic life whose members pursue particular apostolic purposes without vows. The evangelical counsels aim to live in intimacy with God through trusting dependence and willing surrender to God's will.
A life consecrated to God is characterized by professing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church. There are several forms of consecrated life including eremetic life, consecrated virgins and widows, religious life lived within canonically erected institutes, secular institutes whose members commit to evangelization in the world, and societies of apostolic life whose members pursue particular apostolic purposes without vows. The evangelical counsels aim to live in intimacy with God through trusting dependence and willing surrender to God's will.
A life consecrated to God is characterized by professing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church. There are several forms of consecrated life including eremetic life, consecrated virgins and widows, religious life lived within canonically erected institutes, secular institutes whose members commit to evangelization in the world, and societies of apostolic life whose members pursue particular apostolic purposes without vows. The evangelical counsels aim to live in intimacy with God through trusting dependence and willing surrender to God's will.
Life A life consecrated to God is characterized as one in
which the individual professes the evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity, and obedience) within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church.
“The state of consecrated life is thus 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.” (CCC 916)
Forms of Consecrated Life:
Eremetic Life
Without always professing the three evangelical
counsels publicly, hermits “devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance.” (Catechism ¶920)
Consecrated Virgins and Widows
From apostolic times Christian virgins and widows,
called by the Lord to cling only to him with greater freedom of heart, body, and spirit, have decided with the Church’s approval to live in the respective states of virginity or perpetual chastity “for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.” (Catechism ¶922)
Consecrated Religious
Religious life was born in the East during the first
centuries of Christianity. Lived within institutes canonically erected by the Church, it is distinguished Consecrated from other forms of consecrated life by its liturgical character, public profession of the evangelical Life counsels, fraternal life led in common, and witness given to the union of Christ with the Church. (Catechism ¶925)
Secular Institutes
By a “life perfectly and entirely consecrated to [such]
sanctification,” the members of these institutes share in the Church’s task of evangelization, “in the world and from within the world,” where their presence acts as “leaven in the world.” “Their witness of a Christian life” aims “to order temporal things according to God and inform the world with the power of the gospel.” They commit themselves to the evangelical counsels by sacred bonds and observe among themselves the communion and fellowship appropriate to their “particular secular way of life.” (Catechism ¶929) (ref. www.secularinstitutes.org)
Societies of Apostolic Life
Alongside the different forms of consecrated life are
“societies of apostolic life whose members without religious vows pursue the particular apostolic purpose of their society, and lead a life as brothers or sisters in common according to a particular manner of life, strive for the perfection of charity through the observance of the constitutions. Among these there are societies in which the members embrace the evangelical counsels” according to their constitutions. (Catechism ¶930) Consecrated The Evangelical Counsels Life through the lens of the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross: Poverty
“In consecrated poverty we seek to share the lot of the
poor and to unite in their cause, trusting in the Lord as provider.” (¶ 44)
Chastity:
“In consecrated celibacy we wish to love with the free-
dom, openness and availability that can be recognized as a sign of the kingdom.” (¶ 44)
Obedience:
“In consecrated obedience we join with our brothers in
community and with the whole church in the search for God’s will.” (¶ 44)
In General:
“Great is the mystery and meaning within these vows.
And yet their point is simple. They are an act of love for the God who first loved us. By our vows we are com- mitted to single-hearted intimacy with God, to trusting dependence upon God and to willing surrender to God. We wish thus to live in the image of Jesus, who was sent in love to announce God’s rule and who beckons to us to follow him.”(¶ 43) Consecrated Dates of Note Life for Holy Cross Religious: • Our Lady of Sorrows (Sept 15th) • St. Joseph (March 19th) • Sacred Heart (June 12th, 2015) • Fr. Moreau (January 20th) • St. Andre (January 7th) • Fundamental Pact (March 1st, 1837) • Fr. Moreau’s Perpetual Vows (August 15th, 1840)