God is love. He longs for our love also.
YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson
145
Ave Maria series
145 Why does Jesus want there to be Christians
who live their whole lives in poverty, unmarried chastity, and obedience?
God is love. He longs
for our love also. One form of loving
surrender to God is to live as Jesus did—poor, chaste, and obedient. Someone who lives in this way has head,
heart, and hands free for God and neighbor.
[914-933, 944-945]
Saint
Katharine Drexel, S.B.S., (1858 –1955) was an American heiress,
philanthropist, religious sister, educator, and foundress. In 2000
she became the first American born citizen to be canonized as a saint by
the Roman Catholic
Church. In January 1887, the sisters were received in
a private audience by Pope Leo XIII. They asked him for missionaries to
staff some Indian missions that they had been financing. To their surprise, the
Pope suggested that Katharine become a missionary herself. Drexel decided to
give herself to God, along with her inheritance, through service to American
Indians and Afro-Americans. …..145
In every age individual Christians let themselves be
completely taken over by Jesus, so that “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven”
(Matthew
19:12) they give everything
away for God—even such wonderful gifts as their own property,
self-determination, and married love.
This life according to the evangelical counsels in poverty, chastity,
and obedience shows all Christians that the world is not everything. Only an encounter with the divine Bridegroom
“face to face” will ultimately make a person happy.
And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, “You
lack one thing; go, sell what you have…and come, follow me.” (Mark
10:21)
“After I recognized that there is a God, it was impossible
for me not to live for him alone.”
Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916, Christian hermit in the Sahara
Desert)
[914-933,
944-945]
THE CONSECRATED LIFE
914 "The state of life which is constituted by the
profession of the evangelical counsels, while not entering into the
hierarchical structure of the Church, belongs undeniably to her life and
holiness."(Lumen gentium 44 §
4)453 –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
915 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.(compare Lumen gentium 42-43; Perfectae caritatis 1)454 –CCC
916 The state of consecrated life is thus one way of
experiencing a "more intimate" consecration, rooted in Baptism and
dedicated totally to God.(compare Perfectae
caritatis 5)455 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.(compare Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 573)456 –CCC
One great tree, with many branches
917 "From the God-given seed of the counsels a
wonderful and wide-spreading tree has grown up in the field of the Lord,
branching out into various forms of the religious life lived in solitude or in
community. Different religious families have come into existence in which
spiritual resources are multiplied for the progress in holiness of their
members and for the good of the entire Body of Christ."(Lumen gentium 43)457 –CCC
918 From the very beginning of the Church
there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty, and
to imitate him more closely, by practicing the evangelical counsels. They led
lives dedicated to God, each in his own way. Many of them, under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or founded religious families.
These the Church, by virtue of her authority, gladly accepted and approved.(Perfectae
caritatis 1)458 –CCC
919 Bishops will always strive to discern new gifts of
consecrated life granted to the Church by the Holy Spirit; the approval of new
forms of consecrated life is reserved to the Apostolic See.(compare Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 605)459 –CCC
920 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."(Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 603 § 1)460 –CCC
921 They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the
mystery of the Church, that is, personal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the
eyes of men, the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom
he has surrendered his life simply because he is everything to him. Here is a
particular call to find in the desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the
glory of the Crucified One.—CCC
Consecrated virgins and widows
922 From apostolic times Christian virgins(compare 1 Corinthians 7:34-36)461 and widows,(compare
John Paul II, Vita consecrata 7.
463 Matthew 19:12)462 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 status of virginity or perpetual chastity
"for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven."(Matthew 19:12)463 –CCC
923 "Virgins who, committed to the holy plan of
following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop
according to the approved liturgical rite, are betrothed mystically to Christ,
the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of the Church."(Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 604 § 1)464 By this solemn rite (Consecratio virginum),
the virgin is "constituted . . . a sacred person, a transcendent
sign of the Church's love for Christ, and an eschatological image of this
heavenly Bride of Christ and of the life to come."(Ordo
Consecrationis Virginum, Praenotanda 1)465 –CCC
924 "As with other forms of consecrated life," the
order of virgins establishes the woman living in the world (or the nun) in
prayer, penance, service of her brethren, and apostolic activity, according to
the state of life and spiritual gifts given to her.(compare Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 604 § 1; Ordo
consecrationis virginum Praenotanda 2)466 Consecrated virgins can form themselves into
associations to observe their commitment more faithfully.(compare Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 604 § 2)467 –CCC
Religious life
925 Religious life was born in the East during the first
centuries of Christianity. Lived within institutes canonically erected by the
Church, it is distinguished from other forms of consecrated life by its
liturgical character, public profession of the evangelical counsels, fraternal
life led in common, and witness given to the union of Christ with the Church.(compare Codex Iuris Canonici,
cann. 607; 573; UR 15)468 –CCC
926 Religious life derives from the mystery of the Church.
It is a gift she has received from her Lord, a gift she offers as a stable way
of life to the faithful called by God to profess the counsels. Thus, the Church
can both show forth Christ and acknowledge herself to be the Savior's bride.
Religious life in its various forms is called to signify the very charity of
God in the language of our time.—CCC
927 All religious, whether exempt or not, take their place
among the collaborators of the diocesan bishop in his pastoral duty.(compare Christus Dominus
33-35; Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 591)469
From the outset of the work of
evangelization, the missionary "planting" and expansion of the Church
require the presence of the religious life in all its forms.(compare Ad gentes 18; 40)470 "History witnesses to the outstanding
service rendered by religious families in the propagation of the faith and in
the formation of new Churches: from the ancient monastic institutions to the
medieval orders, all the way to the more recent congregations."(John Paul II, Redemptoris
Missio 69)471 –CCC
Secular institutes
928 "A secular
institute is an institute of consecrated life in which the Christian faithful
living in the world strive for the perfection of charity and work for the
sanctification of the world especially from within."(Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 710)472 –CCC
929 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."(Pius XII, Provida Mater;
compare Perfectae
caritatis 11)473 "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."(compare Codex Iuris Canonici,
can. 713 § 2)474 –CCC
Societies of
apostolic life
930 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.( Compare Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 731 §§ 1 and 2.)475 –CCC
931 Already dedicated to
him through Baptism, the person who surrenders himself to the God he loves
above all else thereby consecrates himself more intimately to God's service and
to the good of the Church. By this state of life consecrated to God, the Church
manifests Christ and shows us how the Holy Spirit acts so wonderfully in her.
And so the first mission of those who profess the evangelical counsels is to
live out their consecration. Moreover, "since members of institutes of
consecrated life dedicate themselves through their consecration to the service
of the Church they are obliged in a special manner to engage in missionary
work, in accord with the character of the institute."(Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 783;
compare RM 69)476 –CCC
932 In the Church, which is like the sacrament- the sign and
instrument - of God's own life, the consecrated life is seen as a special sign
of the mystery of redemption. To follow and imitate Christ more nearly and to
manifest more clearly his self- emptying is to be more deeply present to one's
contemporaries, in the heart of Christ. For those who are on this
"narrower" path encourage their brethren by their example, and bear
striking witness "that the world cannot be transfigured and offered to God
without the spirit of the beatitudes."(Lumen gentium 31 §
2)477 –CCC
933 Whether their witness is public, as in the religious
state, or less public, or even secret, Christ's coming remains for all those
consecrated both the origin and rising sun of their life:
For
the People of God has here no lasting city, . . . [and this state]
reveals more clearly to all believers the heavenly goods which are already
present in this age, witnessing to the new and eternal life which we have
acquired through the redemptive work of Christ and preluding our future
resurrection and the glory of the heavenly kingdom.(Lumen gentium 44 § 3)478
--CCC
IN BRIEF
944 The life
consecrated to God is characterized by the public profession of the evangelical
counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in a stable state of life
recognized by the Church. --CCC
945 Already
destined for him through Baptism, the person who surrenders himself to the God
he loves above all else thereby consecrates himself more intimately to God's
service and to the good of the whole Church. –CCC
Saint Katharine Drexel
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