Prepared by Gary Devery OFM Cap
Being “secondary” signifies knowing what one transmits does not originate from oneself, and that it is possessed only in a fragile and provisional way. This implies, among other things, that no historical construction has anything definitive. It needs to be always reviewed, corrected and reformed.
(Remi Brague, Contro il cristianismo e l’umanismo – 2015: my translation)[1]
Böckenförde describes this homogeneity as the socio-psychological condition of a ‘we consciousness’, which is in perennial need of construction. It not only embraces diversity but is necessitated by it: homogeneity creates agreement over those things that cannot be voted upon. As such, it can be reconciled with a liberal position.
(Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein in Böckenförde, Ernst-Wolfgang, Constitutional and Political Theory: Selected Writings Volume 1 (Oxford Constitutional Theory) 2016)[2]
Summary
The four preceding articles by Maranesi, Calloni and Cargnoni can assist in contextualising the perpetual profession of vows in this current time and place. The adaptability of the friars is a striking feature of the first decades of the Capuchin reform. But is this not a continuation of perennial reform that is a characteristic of the Franciscan movement because of the permanent need of review and correction so as to maintain the essential homogeneity of the ‘we consciousness’ in being of the same mind as Francis in following in the footsteps of the poor, chaste and obedient Christ?
This contextualisation is not a once off for the time and place of perpetual profession of vows. This solemn, public profession is a renewal of the baptismal vows. As with baptism, it opens the friar in a particular way to the dynamic reality of Christian life that calls for permanent review, correction and reform. The friar is also committing himself to permanent, ongoing formation in seeking to maintain the ‘we consciousness’ of homogeneity in the life of the friars and transmitting the particular gift of the Capuchin charism as a good for the Church and wider society.
We see this dimension at work in our founder, Francis. Pietro Maranesi in his excellent book, La fragilitá in Francesco d’Assisi (2018), using the dictated writing of “true and perfect joy”[3] sees Francis, in the last years of his life and as a precursor to the La Verna experience, living his life with the brothers as if before a closed door. On his side, the outside, with his faithful companion Leo, and the new generation of friars on the inside. The refusal of entry – even to the nomination that it is “Br Francis” who is standing knocking at the door but who has become bothersome to the brothers – is accompanied by the disparaging send-off suggesting Francis go and seek welcome at the Crosier’s place, the place of the lepers, that foundational place he recalls at the beginning of his Testament. This experience gives rise to an unexpected and turbulent question in regard to the truth of his heart: are you truly the lesser brother, Francis? Stripped of every possession and honour in the eyes of the friars on the inside, Francis is obliged to experience anew his being “secondary”, that is, minor, so as to definitively verify what is the logic guiding his heart and, therefore, what is his truest and profoundest identity. Francis needs to review, correct and reform himself according to the Spirit of the Lord and his holy operation by once again being reminded that what he transmits does not originate from himself, and that it is possessed only in a fragile and provisional way. He has to rediscover and enter more profoundly into the logic of the Cross, he needs to go to La Verna.
As for Francis, also for each generation of friars. The articles by Maranesi on the Intentio Francisci and minoritic Constitutions: an identity in cammino help to highlight this continual need for review, correction and reform. The article by Calloni on the “States” of the Capuchin reform from 1528-1596 serves to both confirm this and remind us, as with Francis, even within the lifetime of the individual friar there is to be found this constant tension of review, correction and reform. The “Magdalene crisis” demonstrates how for one of the founding Capuchin friars, Eusebio Fardini da Ancona, who was engaged with the composing of the initial 1536 Constitutions, finds himself at the end of his life, like Francis, standing before a closed door, called to review, correct and reform himself. The profession of perpetual vows is the leaving of the period of initial formation so as to enter into the state of permanent, ongoing formation.
“But to what will I compare this generation?”
In the second half of the nineteenth century Dostoevsky in The Idiot, will write the often quoted and misunderstood sentence, “Beauty will save the world”. It was a century that was still in the throes of throwing off the last vestiges of the medieval to become the modern period. The true, good and beautiful as transcendentals were still holding their own, but only just. Descarte, born at the closing of the sixteenth century, was one of the revolutionaries who had rotated the gaze of humanity a straight angle from the medieval gaze outward and upward to downward and inward, “Cogito, ergo sum”. Nietzsche dies at the opening of the twentieth century. The downward and inward gaze was victor. God was pronounced dead, along with the transcendentals. The subjective tyrannies of ideologies ravaged the twentieth century. Such were the horrors that humanity not only lost faith in God and the transcendentals but also in itself. Technology is now the Messiah that, even if it cannot save us from ourselves and death, can at least anaesthetise us to the existential pain of what our downward and inward gazed has exposes us to:
What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Wither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as though through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?[4]
The public profession of vows today takes place in a period of tectonic change. The true, good and beautiful of nature have been substituted for the relative values of rights and justice founded in the shifting sand of public opinion. Nature has been replaced by relativistic culture. This downward, inward majority gaze of our contemporary society is counterpose to the very opening paragraph of Vita Consecrata: “By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus – the chaste, poor and obedient one – are made constantly “visible” in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in history, even as it awaits its full realisation in heaven”. The contemporary struggle of Western humanity is that of “being”. Brague notes that, “Anthropology only appeared with modernity. Before, the question of man concerned less his essence than the paradox of his condition[5]…Today’s discussions concerning the status of the embryo repeat at the level of ontogenesis a dispute begun, at least implicitly, with modernity itself”.[6] The contemporary public profession of vows will often be valued as of little worth by the majority public opinion, but this does not cancel the essentiality of this prophetic outward and upward gaze on Beauty who saves the world.
The public profession of vows is outward and upward looking, a sign that is to be rejected today, as those who profess them seek to “become, day after day, conformed to Christ, the prolongation in history of a special presence of the Risen Lord”.[7] The opening paragraphs of Vita Consecrata reminds those professing these vows that they require an “undivided” heart – not one that shifts like sand according to whatever is the prevailing wind of relativistic opinion – that because it is taking up the human task of love “which finds expression in a radical gift of self for love of the Lord Jesus and, in him, of every member of the human family”.[8]
Unchanging, essential elements
The post-noviciate conferences have attempted to indicate what are the unchanging, essential elements of the Capuchin reform. Various lists can be compiled, such as Paul Hanbridge listing 15 characteristics of the Capuchin charism. Costanzo Cargnoni cuts the list down to three essentials: primacy of holy prayer and devotion; highest seraphic poverty; apostolate as an excess of love. Pietro Maranesi will state that it was in minority, more than poverty, that the Capuchins placed the centre of their identity and their fidelity to Francis’ genius of following in the footsteps of the poor and crucified Christ.
Minority, poverty, mental prayer, chastity, lively faith, serving the poorest, obedience, following in the footsteps of the Lord in the same mind of Francis according to the Rule, the Testament and the witness of the first companions, and so forth – all have their own importance and together they help build the Capuchin life. Hopefully the article by Pietro Maranesi on the minoritic Constitutions and that by Carlo Calloni on the “states” of the Capuchin reform read together help to understand that different charisms will be emphasised at different times and places, according to the particular tensions in play, whether political, economic, philosophical, sociological, religious and so forth. This will mean a pluriformity of emphases on particular charisms amongst the Capuchins dispersed throughout the globe. It is the responsibility of each generation of friars, in their own particular and peculiar jurisdiction, to discern in the Spirit of the Lord, how the holy operation of living the Capuchin life is to be responded to in the contemporary time and place. Hopefully, both articles held together demonstrate that there can be no returning – anachronistically – to a time and place where all the essentials elements of the Capuchin life were lived out in some quasi perfect harmony.
The article by Costanzo Cargnoni on the Rule of Saint Francis in Capuchin Tradition serves to indicate the way of carrying out permanent formation that is entered upon with the perpetual profession of vows at the completion of initial formation. The unchanging, essential elements of the Capuchin reform require continual discernment according to the Spirit of the Lord and its holy operation. Bernardine of Paris, writing in the second half of the seventeenth century, reminds us that this ongoing discernment is not just an individual exercise but needs to involve the fraternity. Some workable mechanism needs to be found to assist in this fraternal discernment. To this end the local chapter, provincial mid-term assemblies and provincial chapters can be helpful instruments.
Profession formula
Let us finish this brief reflection on the profession of perpetual vows by way of a simple reflection on the profession formula. The footnotes are there for private reflection, primarily composed of quotes from the 1536 Constitutions, Perfectae Caritatis and Vita Consecrata.
For the praise and glory of the Most Holy Trinity!
Moved by divine inspiration
to follow more closely the Gospel and the footprints of our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the presence of my brothers,
and into your hands, brother N.,
I, brother N.,
steadfast in faith and will,
vow to God the Father, holy and all-powerful,
to live for my entire life
in obedience, without anything of my own, and in chastity.
At the same time, I profess the life and Rule of the Friars Minor,
confirmed by Pope Honorius,
promising to observe it faithfully
in accordance with the Constitutions of the Order of the Capuchin Friars Minor.Therefore I entrust myself
with all my heart to this brotherhood,
so that by the working of the Holy Spirit,
after the example of Mary Immaculate,
and through the intercession of our Father Francis,
and of all the saints,
with the help of my brothers,
I may constantly strive for the fullness of love
in the service of God, of the Church, and of all people.Telos:
For the praise and glory of the Most Holy Trinity!
A journey, a pilgrimage, needs to know its telos. “Reverence to the Most High Trinity” both opens and closes the Constitutions of 1536.[9] A prayerful and considered reading of the Constitutions manifest that these are not some formalised and verbose embellishments to a juridical text. The authors of the 1536 Constitutions distil into the text an itinerary of following in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ, always by way of Mount Alverna and reaching beyond to a life lived in the Trinity. The telos of perpetual profession of vows is participation in the Trinitarian life.[10]
Baptismal consecration:
Moved by divine inspiration
The beloved Son commences his itinerary of salvation by responding to the impulse of love of his Father calling him to enter into the waters of the Jordan to be baptised by John, as recalled at the beginning of the 1536 Constitutions.[11] The profession of vows can never be reduced to a human project. It is “approved and authenticated” by the eternal Father as a plan of love, as His divine initiative, as Dei Verbum making known the hidden purpose of the Father’s will.[12] Approached by this initiative of love by the Word of the divine Father the person is called to responsibility, to giving his Amen to this invitation of taking on the lifelong task of living his baptismal consecration in a particular way within the Church: the prolongation in history of the chaste, poor and obedient One, [13] an eschatological sign of what we hope for: participation in the life of the Trinity.
to follow more closely the Gospel and the footprints of our Lord Jesus Christ
Gospel and footprints, words and deeds place us in the language of sacrament. [14] The mystagogical text of 1 Peter 2:21-25 leaves no doubt that baptism draws us into prolongating in our own time and place the kenosis and paschal mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ. Perpetual profession of vows extends this in a radical way, after the Bonaventurian example of Saint Cecila, to “continually bear deeply engraven on our hearts the facts of Christ’s life”.[15] “Thus unencumbered, like pilgrims on the earth and citizens of heaven, with fervent spirit, they might run along the way of God”.[16]
in the presence of my brothers,
The theological and Christological dimensions of the vowed life are entered via the ecclesiological dimension. Baptism incorporates us into the risen Christ, head of his body, the Church, the People of God. The solemn profession of vows is a public profession of faith. It is a renewal of baptismal vows. It is an ecclesial event. The annunciation of the angel to the Virgin Mary establishes the holy family of Nazareth. Love is diffusive and continues to create communities of faith. The Annunciation propels Mary into an itinerary of faith, a holy pilgrimage that is not journeyed alone. The familiar visitation of Mary to the home of Elizabeth induces another incipient community of faith, with the mothers and children of the wombs rejoicing in the mutual presence of each under the impulse of the Spirit of the Lord and its holy operation. The brother professes himself into such an itinerary of faith with his brothers as companions in following in the footprints of Jesus Christ: “we direct the friars not to go about alone but with their companion, according to the example of the holy disciples of the most holy Saviour… each one is to strive to spiritually obey and serve his companion, regarding each other as brothers in Christ.”[17]
and into your hands, brother N.,
I, brother N.,
steadfast in faith and will,
vow to God the Father, holy and all-powerful,
An act of ‘being secondary’ takes place.[18] The friar is not setting out on his own life project. He is giving his public profession and Amen to what has been handed on to him. In a minoritic act, the friar kneels before his Minister, renouncing his own will and welcomes the task given to him, transmitted via the Church to follow this particular evangelical way of consecrated life. The sacramental nature of the Church is expressed. The friar does not vow directly to God the Father. His vow is mediated by way of the Minister: into your hands. The initiative is of God the Father who has handed over his Son to us. In this kenotic gesture the friar places his hands into those of the Provincial Minister. Freedom is linked to obedience. The friar places himself under authority. It is not his personal project; not an ideology he is striving to implement. It is an act of faith and will, a crucifying his own will to do the will of another. It is made in this time and place to this particular brother who has been entrusted with the authoritative task of leading the brothers on this itinerary of faith. It is made in the confidence that the Minister is the servant of the brothers, as expressed in the Rule (10.6). The authority of the Minister comes from beyond him, from the Author of all life and the history of salvation, the one into whose hands Jesus entrusted himself (cf. Lk 23:46).
The friar can only give back what has been given, as an overflowing of love by the grace of the Holy Spirit: “This is the meaning of the call to the consecrated life: it is an initiative coming wholly from the Father (cf. John 15:16), who asks those whom he has chosen to respond with complete and exclusive devotion […] This is why, with Saint Thomas, we come to understand the identity of the consecrated person, beginning with his or her complete self-offering, as being comparable to a genuine holocaust” (VC 17). The friars are to “imprint Blessed Christ upon their hearts and to give themselves into His serene possession so that through the superabundance of love He may be the one who speaks in them, not only with words but especially through their deeds” (Const. 1536 n. 112).
to live for my entire life
in obedience, without anything of my own, and in chastity.
Here is expressed the particular emphasis of the common baptismal consecration[19] that the friar is called and tasked to live out. In relation to the graceful approach of God the Father, mediated by his Son, the friar is prompted and gifted by the Holy Spirit[20] to respond with the entirety of his life, both in height, depth and length (cf. Eph 3:18-20). It is the dialogue of divine love and human responsibility.
This height, depth and length is a following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The friars living their common life are a sacrament of Jesus Christ, making “a prolongation of his humanity”[21] lived out in obedience, without anything of his own, and in chastity.[22] “The evangelical counsels, by which Christ invites some people to share his experience as the chaste, poor and obedient One, call for and make manifest in those who accept them an explicit desire to be totally conformed to him” (VC 18).
Obedience[23] takes the friars to the height of crucifying his own will to do that of the divine Father, poverty[24] moves the friar to the depths of living minority without his life secured by clinging to things, persons, power and ambition, and chastity,[25] by way of the renunciation of the permanent good of marriage, is the nuptial dimension[26] of making the duration of his life a sincere gift of himself to God and to others.
Ecclesiological space in which particular baptismal consecration is lived out:
At the same time, I profess the life and Rule of the Friars Minor,
confirmed by Pope Honorius,
promising to observe it faithfully
in accordance with the Constitutions of the Order of the Capuchin Friars Minor.
The Rule the Friars Minor is a distillation of the Gospel life. The very title indicates the central characteristic and attitude of the gospel life that will identify the friar in his ecclesial context and his relationship to his own time and place: minoritic relationship. Fraternal life lived in obedience, without anything of one’s own, and in chastity will sought to be lived in such a way that the friar and his fraternity are felt to be of the ordinary people and, especially, at ease with the poor, marginalised and suffering.
The friar will be prepared to remain in the tension of always seeking to discern the intentio Francisci in the life and Rule of the Friars Minor. The hermeneutical keys assisting this discernment will be the papal interpretations, [27] interventions and admonitions given over the centuries,[28] the Testament, which is referred to 12 times in the 1536 Constitutions, and the tradition continuously preserved and developing in the dynamics of the Constitutions. There is to be always present the healthy tension of the renewal of the Constitutions as the current norms indicating how the life is to be lived according to the contemporary times and places.
Lest in our weakness we are daunted and overwhelmed by making such a great promise, the friars who composed the 1536 Constitutions invite us:
Beloved fathers and brothers let us often recall that holy and memorable theme upon which our Seraphic Father gave a very solemn sermon to more than five thousand friars: We have promised great things to God, but God has promised greater things to us. Therefore let us observe the things that we have promised. With ardent desire let us long to come to those good things that have been promised us… (n. 150).
Although the things we have promised may be great, nonetheless they are nothing in comparison to that eternal reward that God wants to give us if we will observe these things faithfully. Therefore let us act as men and not trust our strength. The good Father who created us and has given us evangelical perfection to observe and who knows the clay of which we were made, will give us the strength with His help. Moreover He will give His heavenly gifts in such profusion and abundance so that once all the obstacles are overcome, we will not only be able to obey His most fair Son but also follow and imitate Him with great joyfulness and simplicity of heart, perfectly despising visible and temporal things and always yearning after those that are heavenly and eternal (n. 151).
Theological, Ecclesiological and Missionary space in which telos is fulfilled:
Therefore I entrust myself
with all my heart to this brotherhood,
so that by the working of the Holy Spirit,
after the example of Mary Immaculate,
and through the intercession of our Father Francis,
and of all the saints,
with the help of my brothers,
I may constantly strive for the fullness of love
in the service of God, of the Church, and of all people.
The professing brother and the welcoming fraternity mutually exchange their Amen as the fraternity is expanded and an ongoing place of conversion is reinforced. This is both beautifully and practically expressed in the 1536 Constitutions:
So that the purity of the Rule be better observed with due order in divine matters, along with most high poverty, we order that there be no less than six and no more twelve Friars in our places. Assembled in the fair name of the gentle Jesus, let them be of one heart and one mind, striving always to tend towards greater perfection. To be true disciples of Christ himself let them love one another from the heart, bearing one another’s faults always. Exerting themselves in divine love and fraternal charity let them strive to give the best example to each other and to every person, even by doing continuous violence to their own passions and depraved inclinations. For as our Saviour says, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent plunder it, that is, those who vigorously do violence to themselves (n. 139).
The profession, promise and entrustment are expressions of the friar seeking to be responsible to the Spirit of the Lord and its holy operation.[29] It is a seeking to have the same feelings, desire, mind, heart and will as Jesus (cf. Philippians 2: 1-11) lived out within the communion of saints, and whose telos is the holocaust of minoritic love in the service of God, of the Church, and of all people.
- “Essere “secondari” significa sapere che ciò che si trasmette non proviene da sé stessi, e che lo si possiede solo in modo fragile e provvisorio. Questo implica tra l’altro che nessuna costruzione storica ha niente di definitivo. Deve essere sempre rivista, corretta, riformata.” Grimi, Elisa. Contro il cristianismo e l’umanismo (Italian Edition). Edizioni Cantagalli. Kindle Edition, location 2501-2515. ↑
- Böckenförde, Ernst-Wolfgang, Constitutional and Political Theory: Selected Writings Volume 1 (Oxford Constitutional Theory), edited by Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein, 2016, Oxford, Oxford University Press – Kindle Edition, page 34 – Location 743. ↑
- FA:ED, vol. 1, 166-167; “Negli ultimi anni della sua vita Francesco stava vivendo un po’ come davanti a una porta chiusa. Quel rifiuto, accompagnato dalle parole del portinaio, che con disprezzo gli suggeriva di andare presso l’Ordine dei Crociferi, costituiva per Francesco una domanda imprevista e violenta riguardo alla verità del suo cuore: sei tu veramente «frate Francesco»? Denudato di ogni suo possesso e gloria, il Santo era obbligato a sperimentare nuovamente la sua fragilità per verificare definitivamente quali fossero le logiche che guidavano il suo cuore e, dunque, quale fosse la sua vera e più profonda identità.”Pietro Maranesi. La fragilità in Francesco d’Assisi. Quando lo scandalo della sofferenza diventa grazia (Italian Edition). Edizioni Messaggero Padova. Kindle Edition, location 631. ↑
- n. 125 (Kaufmann, 181). Quoted by Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, p. 41. ↑
- Brague, Rémi. The Kingdom of Man (Catholic Ideas for a Secular World). University of Notre Dame Press. Kindle Edition, p. 84. ↑
- Ibid. p. 105. ↑
- Vita Consecrata, 19. ↑
- Vita Consecrata, 3. ↑
- Cf. Constitutions 1536 article 1: Therefore, so that the Friars may always keep before their mind’s eye the teaching and life of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and after the example of the virgin Cecilia always carry the sacred Gospel in their heart of hearts, we direct that in each place the four Evangelists, in reverence to the Most High Trinity, be read three times a year, that is, one each month.Final article (152): Consubstantial and coequal with the Father and co-eternal Holy Spirit, one God who lives and reigns, to whom be eternal praise, honour, majesty and glory for ever and ever. Amen. ↑
- LG 47: Let everyone who has been called to the profession of the counsels take earnest care to preserve and excel still more in the life in which God has called him, for the increase of the holiness of the Church, to the greater glory of the one and undivided Trinity, which in Christ and through Christ is the source and origin of all holiness. ↑
- Const. 1536, 1: Moreover His eternal Father approved and authenticated it in the river Jordan and on Mount Tabor when He said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am pleased, listen to Him.” Therefore we proclaim that it alone teaches and shows us the straight way to go to God. ↑
- Cf. Dei Verbum (Vatican II) articles 1 and 2. ↑
- Const. 1536, 1: Hence all men are obliged to observe this teaching, especially Christians who have promised it in sacred Baptism. And we friars have an even greater obligation because Saint Francis was explicit at the beginning and end of this Rule about the observance of the holy Gospel.Perfectae Caritatis (PC) 1: Under the impulse of love, which the Holy Spirit pours into their hearts (cf. Rom. 5:5), they live more and more for Christ and for his Body, the Church (cf. Col. 1:24).PC 5: The members of each institute should recall, first of all, that when they made professions of the evangelical counsels they were responding to a divine call, to the end that, not merely being dead to sin (cf. Rom. 6:11) but renouncing the world also, they might live for God alone. They have dedicated their whole lives to his service. This constitutes a special consecration, which is deeply rooted in their baptismal consecration and is a fuller expression of it.PC 6: They who make profession of the evangelical counsels should seek and love above all else God who has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn. 4:10). In all circumstances they should take care to foster a life hidden with Christ in God (cf. Col. 3:3), which is the source and stimulus of love of the neighbor, for the salvation of the world and the building-up of the Church. Even the very practice of the evangelical counsels is animated and governed by this charity. For this reason, members of institutes should assiduously cultivate the spirit of prayer and prayer itself, drawing on the authentic sources of Christian spirituality.VC 14: This special way of “following Christ”, at the origin of which is always the initiative of the Father, has an essential Christological and pneumatological meaning: it expresses in a particularly vivid way the Trinitarian nature of the Christian life and it anticipates in a certain way that eschatological fulfilment towards which the whole Church is tending. ↑
- Const. 1536, 1: … the most fair Son of God brought us the totally pure, heavenly, supremely perfect and divine Evangelical teaching, which He promulgated and taught by both deed and word, and it alone teaches and shows us the straight way to go to God. ↑
- Saint Bonaventure. (1881). The Life of Christ. (W. H. Hutchings, Ed.) (p. 88). London: Rivingtons; cf. Course notes on Review of Capuchin Constitutions 1535, 1552 and 1575: It is all about Cecilia.Const. 1536, 1: Therefore, so that the Friars may always keep before their mind’s eye the teaching and life of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and after the example of the virgin Cecilia always carry the sacred Gospel in their heart of hearts, we direct that in each place the four Evangelists, in reverence to the Most High Trinity, be read three times a year, that is, one each month.PC 1: They follow Christ who, virginal and poor (cf. Mt. 8:20; Lk. 9:58), redeemed and sanctified men by obedience unto death on the cross (cf. Phil. 2:8).PC 2: Since the final norm of the religious life is the following of Christ as it is put before us in the Gospel, this must be taken by all institutes as the supreme rule.VC 18: They strive to become one with him, taking on his mind and his way of life […] The evangelical counsels, by which Christ invites some people to share his experience as the chaste, poor and obedient One, call for and make manifest in those who accept them an explicit desire to be totally conformed to him. Living “in obedience, with nothing of one’s own and in chastity,” consecrated persons profess that Jesus is the model in whom every virtue comes to perfection. ↑
- Const. 1536, n. 69. ↑
- Const. 1536, 46: Furthermore we direct the friars not to go about alone but with their companion, according to the example of the holy disciples of the most holy Saviour. If one does not amend himself when evangelical correction has been observed, the friars are to report one another’s defects to their superiors. Nor may they go about without written obedience from their superior and sealed with the seal of the Father Vicar or the seal of the place. Therefore we order that each place have its own seal according to the ancient practice of Religious. Along the journey, the friars should not separate from each other or argue together. With all humility and charity, after the example of blessed Christ, each one is to strive to spiritually obey and serve his companion, regarding each other as brothers in Christ. ↑
- Cf. opening quote above by Remi Brague. ↑
- Paul VI, Magno guadio, 23 May 1964: Hence it follows that the profession of the evangelical vows is a super-addition to that consecration which is proper to Baptism. It is indeed a special consecration which perfects the former one, inasmuch as by it, the follower of Christ totally commits and dedicates himself to God, thereby making his entire life a service to God alone.Lumen Gentium (LG) 44: “He consecrates himself wholly to God, his supreme love. In a new and special way he makes himself over to God, to serve and honour him. True, as a baptised Christian he is dead to sin and dedicated to God; but he desires still more abundant fruit from the grace of his baptism. For this purpose he makes profession in the Church of the evangelical counsels. He does this for two reasons: first, in order to be set free from hindrances that could hold him back from fervent charity and perfect worship of God, and secondly, in order to consecrate himself in a more thoroughgoing way to the service of God.VC 6: They have sought to follow him by living in a particularly radical way, through monastic profession, the demands flowing from baptismal participation in the Paschal Mystery of his Death and Resurrection.VC 14: For in such a life baptismal consecration develops into a radical response in the following of Christ through acceptance of the evangelical counsels, the first and essential of which is the sacred bond of chastity for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.VC 30: In the Church’s tradition religious profession is considered to be a special and fruitful deepening of the consecration received in Baptism, inasmuch as it is the means by which the close union with Christ already begun in Baptism develops in the gift of a fuller, more explicit and authentic configuration to him through the profession of the evangelical counsels. ↑
- VC 19: It is the Spirit who awakens the desire to respond fully; it is he who guides the growth of this desire, helping it to mature into a positive response and sustaining it as it is faithfully translated into action; it is he who shapes and moulds the hearts of those who are called, configuring them to Christ, the chaste, poor and obedient One, and prompting them to make his mission their own. By allowing themselves to be guided by the Spirit on an endless journey of purification, they become, day after day, conformed to Christ, the prolongation in history of a special presence of the Risen Lord.VC 30: But Baptism in itself does not include the call to celibacy or virginity, the renunciation of possessions or obedience to a superior, in the form proper to the evangelical counsels. The profession of the evangelical counsels thus presupposes a particular gift of God not given to everyone, as Jesus himself emphasizes with respect to voluntary celibacy (cf. Mt 19:10–12). This call is accompanied, moreover, by a specific gift of the Holy Spirit, so that consecrated persons can respond to their vocation and mission. For this reason, as the liturgies of the East and West testify in the rite of monastic or religious profession and in the consecration of virgins, the Church invokes the gift of the Holy Spirit upon those who have been chosen and joins their oblation to the sacrifice of Christ, he profession of the evangelical counsels is also a development of the grace of the Sacrament of Confirmation, but it goes beyond the ordinary demands of the consecration received in Confirmation by virtue of a special gift of the Spirit which opens the way to new possibilities and fruits of holiness and apostolic work. ↑
- LG 44: Furthermore the religious state constitutes a closer imitation and an abiding re-enactment in the Church of the form of life which the Son of God made his own when he came into the world to do the will of the Father and which he propounded to the disciples who followed him.VC 76: The specific contribution of consecrated persons, both men and women, to evangelization is first of all the witness of a life given totally to God and to their brothers and sisters, in imitation of the Saviour who, out of love for humanity, made himself a servant. In the work of salvation, in fact, everything comes from sharing in the divine agape. Consecrated persons make visible, in their consecration and total dedication, the loving and saving presence of Christ, the One consecrated by the Father, sent in mission. Allowing themselves to be won over by him (cf. Phil 3:12), they prepare to become, in a certain way, a prolongation of his humanity. The consecrated life eloquently shows that the more one lives in Christ, the better one can serve him in others, going even to the furthest missionary outposts and facing the greatest dangers. ↑
- VC 30: But Baptism in itself does not include the call to celibacy or virginity, the renunciation of possessions or obedience to a superior, in the form proper to the evangelical counsels. The profession of the evangelical counsels thus presupposes a particular gift of God not given to everyone, as Jesus himself emphasizes with respect to voluntary celibacy (cf. Mt 19:10–12). This call is accompanied, moreover, by a specific gift of the Holy Spirit, so that consecrated persons can respond to their vocation and mission. ↑
- Paul VI, Magno guadio, 23 May 1964: Religious obedience is and must remain a holocaust of one’s own will which is offered to God.VC 16: 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 (cf. Jn 4:34), to whom he is perfectly united and on whom he depends for everything. ↑
- VC 16: 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 (cf. Jn 17:7, 10). ↑
- VC 16: 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 (cf. Jn 10:30, 14:11). ↑
- VC 19: The consecrated life thus becomes a particularly profound expression of the Church as the Bride who, prompted by the Spirit to imitate her Spouse, stands before him “in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27). The same Spirit, far from removing from the life of humanity those whom the Father has called, puts them at the service of their brothers and sisters in accordance with their particular state of life, and inspires them to undertake special tasks in response to the needs of the Church and the world, by means of the charisms proper to the various Institutes. ↑
- For example, Gregory IX, Quo elongati (1230), Innocent IV, Ordinem vestrum (1245), Nicholas III, Exiit qui seminat (1279), Nicholas III, Exivi de Paradiso (1312). ↑
- LG 43: Guided by Spirit, Church authority has been at pains to give a right interpretation of the counsels, to regulate their practice, and also to set up stable forms of living embodying them.LG 45: It is the task of the Church’s hierarchy to feed the People of God and to lead them to good pasture (cf. Ezek. 34:14). Accordingly it is for the hierarchy to make wise laws for the regulation of the practice of the counsels whereby the perfect love of God and of our neighbour is fostered in a unique way. ↑
- Rule 10.7. ↑