The Vows

Hold back nothing of yourself for yourself, so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally.

St. Francis of Assisi

The Vows

The vows a religious takes are three ways of imitating Jesus, who was poor, chaste and obedient. The vows are the response to God’s invitation of love to each person to be consecrated totally for His glory and the salvation of souls. They are a radical living out of the Christian life by committing to live as Jesus Himself lived.

Religious vows are a deepening of our baptismal promises. Speaking of the fundamental connection between religious profession and baptism, Pope St. John Paul II writes, “This profession, in imitation of Christ, manifests a particular consecration which is ‘rooted in that of baptism and is a fuller expression of it’ (PC 5). The fuller expression recalls the hold of the divine Person of the Word over the human nature which He assumed, and it invites a response like that of Jesus: a dedication of oneself to God in a way which He alone makes possible and which witnesses to His holiness and absoluteness. Such a consecration is a gift of God: a grace freely given” (Essential Elements of Religious Life 7). This Church teaching has guided our community’s custom of retaining our baptismal names as a sign that religious profession is a deepening and fuller expression of our baptism.

Religious profess First or Temporary Vows after completing their novitiate. In our community, members profess the vows for one year at a time and renew them annually. In our community, Final Vows are professed 3-5 years after First Vows.

POVERTY frees each person from the goods and anxieties of the world to live totally for God. Detachment and dependence on one’s community are essential. A spirit of poverty is not enough. As Franciscans, we take very seriously living the vow of poverty both in fact and in spirit. Jesus gives us the ultimate example of poverty on the Cross.

CHASTITY frees each person to love God above all things, and in turn to love each person one encounters in a holy, wholesome and detached way. It entails giving a total gift of oneself to God through a celibate life.

It also has an eschatological (pointing to our final goal) value: by saying that God is enough, the religious remind all people that our home is not here, but hereafter, to be united totally to God in His Kingdom that will have no end.

OBEDIENCE is the free renunciation of the will, allowing the friar or sister to be conformed to the will of God the Father, just like Jesus was obedient unto death.

Obedience also entails trust–trust in God’s providence, and that His will is what fulfills the deepest desires of the human heart. In religious life, obedience in practice includes submitting to the direction of one’s superior, who acts as God’s representative in the community. (Source: See Perfectae Caritatis, #s 12-14 also Directives on Formation, #s 13-15)