Consecrated Life: A Life of Chastity
All in the congregation are obliged to live in perfect chastity … For Chastity is a gift of God … [Hence] all the prayers of the community must be directed for the perpetual attainment of this gift. (OOCC, II, pp. 44 - 45).
The consecrated life is a life of chastity. By accepting chastity as a way of life, the consecrated person frees his heart for the greater love of God and of his neighbor. A life of chastity implies that a person lets go of all forms of exclusive relationships that are found in marriage. Chastity entails that a person totally surrenders his intellect, will, heart, body and sense to God. The love the living of chastity brings in a consecrated person, expands his perspective in life, and enables him to offer himself for the loving service of human persons through his diverse apostolic endeavors. St. Vincent insisted that the freedom to love genuinely which a consecrated person experiences as the result of living the vow/promise of chastity, must be primarily directed towards the community of which he is a member, and secondarily to those persons who live outside the community. To live the life of chastity in a perfect manner, St. Vincent advised followers to practice both internal and external mortification which purifies a person’s thoughts, feelings and actions. Internal and external purification gives a person mastery over temptations. Fervent prayer, especially to the Blessed Virgin Mary, also helps a person to live perfect chastity. Practice of the virtue of humility is of great help for the consecrated person to live the life of chastity.
Do I believe that consecrated life is a life of chastity? Does the life of chastity open me to a genuine love of God and neighbor? Does the life of chastity free me to provide the loving service of others in the apostolate? What are some of the means I use to live the life of chastity in a perfect manner?
I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband. (II Cor. 11: 2)