The evangelical counsels are a particular expression of God’s call to holiness made to all Christians (1 Thess 4:3). In vowing poverty, chastity and obedience, those taking vows of religion offer themselves to God in a special dedication of their life and activity to Christ’s mission. In vowing obedience, Religious surrender the value of making personal, autonomous choices about activity and service. They forgo this human value in order to follow the greater good of a more radical commitment to the will of the Father within an institute specially dedicated to the Lord’s service. In vowing poverty, Religious forgo the value of making personal choices regarding the use of goods and services so that these choices can be made within a community seeking to live out the expression of Christ’s mission within a specific religious charism. In vowing chastity, Religious give up the good of love within the partnership of marriage and family life to dedicate themselves to God "with an undivided heart" (vita consecrata 21). In this way they are available for a wider service of love to the human family and have a greater freedom to bring that love wherever it may be needed.

Living the evangelical counsels is the daily expression of "an explicit desire to be totally conformed to him...[since] consecrated persons profess that Jesus is the model in whom every model comes to perfection." (vita consecrata 18). The evangelical counsels are a particular way of leaving everything in order to follow the Lord. They express a way of life which is rooted in God’s call. This call of the Father is complemented by the work of the Holy Spirit who inspires both a response in individuals, despite the difficulties entailed, as well as a response in communities founded to live out specific charisms for service to Christ’s mission. This means that spiritual discernment is a central aspect of both religious vocation and the missionary activity of religious institutes in the Church.

Africa is undergoing a time of growth in vocations to the Priesthood and the Religious life. The increase in vocations stretches the resources of the Church here. Nevertheless, it is most important that vocational discernment and initial formation be accompanied by adequate spiritual discernment and an effective spiritual accompaniment of candidates and young Religious. The evangelical counsels are "above all a gift of the Holy Trinity"(vita consecrata 20). And the Holy Trinity is also the source of the Church’s mission which, "according to the plan of the Father ...has its origin in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit" (AG2). Now "the call to consecrated life is closely linked to the working of the Holy Spirit" (vita consecrata 19). And it is the same Spirit who gives specific charisms to religious institutes for their missionary activity. For this reason, discernment of religious vocation within a particular Religious community should manifest a sign of the presence of the institute’s charism within the individual who feels called to it. In the same way an effective spiritual discernment is essential in the daily living out of the evangelical counsels. Discernment also impinges on the role of the Church authority in Religious Institutes since it "has the duty, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, of interpreting these evangelical counsels, of regulating their practice and finally to build on them stable forms of living" (LG 43).

St Paul tells us that there are many gifts given by the one Holy Spirit for the building up of the body of Christ (Rom 12, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4). All Christians are beneficiaries of God’s call and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In living the evangelical counsels some Christians manifest a more radical commitment to a life in God’s service (vita consecrata 18). In doing so they witness to the power of God’s presence in the world today.

References

AG Ad Gentes Divinitus. Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity. Vatican II.

LG Lumen Gentium. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Vatican II.

vita consecrata.

Post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul II to the bishops and clergy, religious orders and congregations, societies of apostolic life, secular institutes and all the faithful on the consecrated life and its mission in the church and in the world. Rome, 1996.