CONSECRATION (art. 18.1-18-3)
“In Christ, the Father offers each of us the special grace of consecration in the Company.” A gift is offered and consigned to us…it is enough to extend our hands… it is enough to open up our hearts…
We, always very earnest… would have willingly thought and perhaps would have been also disposed … to approach this vocational commitment by offering something…carrying who knows so many reserves of good works.
It is a personal gift and one for the community “To each of us reserved…There is a personal aspect…to each of us the grace of the vocation.
There is an aspect of the Company…to each one of us… that is, that in the way of the Company becomes unity, together: “united together to serve His divine Majesty”.
It has to do with a personal consecration and a community one… “in the Company”.
It is a singular gift It is not a gift to be copied, it is a gift incomparable. ..precisely singular: “you must thank Him infinitely that he has granted you so singular a grace…first and foremost you must desire to know what kind of thing such a choice entails and what a new and marvellous dignity it is. (Memoirs pr.5.8)
The answer is ours, and it happens through the undertaking of the evangelical counsels.
“With our response and through the taking up of the evangelical counsels, we express the firm and absolute will to give ourselves unconditionally to God and to be faithful to Him for all our life.”
It means to assume a commitment in life and for life…it means to respond to the grace of the call with a firm and absolute will…it means of a giving of unconditional fidelity… as Saint Angela indicates to us: “to have the firm intention of serving God in this form of life.” (Memoirs 1.2)
“Each one would want to be disposed to die than accepting of blemishing such a sacred jewel.” (Memoirs 9.23)
The Constitutions must define the form of the sacred bond. “We will undertake the evangelical counsels of obedience, chastity, and poverty, either with a “firm intention, or with a vow or with a promise.”
For the present Constitutions, and therefore for the Church, today it is possible to undertake the Evangelical Counsels of obedience, chastity and poverty either with a “firm intention” or with a vow or with a promise.
It is a juridical bond because it has to do with a consecration recognized by the Church.
“When they undertake the evangelical counsels it is taken in a concrete form. The substance does not change and cannot change even if the form of pronouncing the consecration is changed or intended the concrete form. It is always the same commitment, the same act, substantially strong, because it includes everything, the rest of one’s life, that in the form of consecration has been expressed’.” (Sarzi Sartori)
The evangelical counsels, proper to every form of consecrated life, are for us to be lived “in the secular state… in the form intended by the Foundress and presented in the Constitutions.”
It follows that they need to be lived and verified in the light of the secularity, the writings and the spirituality of the Foundress, of the present Constitutions: “let them be firm and settled in their intention and strive to observe the rule.” (Memoirs 5.26-27)
The choice of-the sacred bond is the duty and responsibility of each Company
“Each individual Company with, the deliberation of its Assembly will decide the form of the sacred bond, in conformity with its own, also recent history.”
It is not a work to be asked of experts or of church authority; it is the duty of the Company to decide.
“Regarding the spiritual patrimony of Saint Angela, all that has blemished the charism throughout the years must be purified and given a new brightness to this foundation willed by the Holy Spirit for the good and sanctify of all the Church. It is always the duty of those who must preserve and live the genuine charism of the Foundress, to choose the form that reveals most the specific physiognomy of this consecrated community in the world.” (T. Yanzetto)
It is a spiritual-juridical question that makes valid the act of consecration.
Because the Assembly could decide in conformity with its own history it must
- Remember that the form of the sacred bond does not change the substance of the consecration in its contents; neither the meaning of its value; neither the commitment and the duties that follow:” through taking up the evangelical counsels we express the firm and absolute will to give ourselves unconditionally to God and to our sisters and brothers and to be faithful for all our life.”
- Here there is in play the guardianship and the embodiment of the charism in the individual Companies; for the Companies it deals with a consequent legitimate act; to a right, recognized by the Constitutions.
- Every Company must know its own history, review it, and study it in relation to the sacred bonds for taking up the evangelical counsels. Research when the Company was founded in one’s Diocese, with what kind of bond were the Evangelical Counsels taken? For how many years the consecrated members had been with the same bond? If in the course of the history of the Company the form of bond has been changed, how and why? Review minutes, comments, rituals…
- One must know that the adopted bond, as a result of further profound study, can be modified with a new resolution of the Assembly of the Company.
- “Every Company will have its own way of unity to express the modality of undertaking the evangelical counsels, knowing however that even if the form is changed, it does not alter the sense of a decision which remains irrevocable: in respect to the choice of individuals.” (G.Sarzi Sartori)
- The resolution of the Assembly does not have a retreated effect; it is for all those who express their consecration in the Company from now onwards.
- She, who is in the period of temporary incorporation, could undertake the evangelical counsels with a new sacred bond different to that first expressed in the first consecration, in obedience to the last resolution of the Assembly.
- The sacred bond must be expressed in the formula of the consecration.
- The formula of consecration must contain:
- the sacred bond
- the legitimate person who receives the act of consecration in the name of the Church and of the Company;
- reference to the Rule of Saint Angela and to the Constitutions in force.
- The formula remains free on condition that the candidate expresses in a clear way the commitment of assuming the evangelical counsels of obedience, chastity, and poverty.
The consecration for life is…
• The definitive seal of the spousal covenant… “With our response, through taking up the evangelical counsels, we express the firm and absolute will to give ourselves unconditionally to God, and to our sisters and brothers, and to be faithful for all our life.” (Const. 18.1)
• “Incorporated in the Company with all effects”. Even from a juridical point of view, in assemblies, the consecrated member for life, besides voting, can be voted in. For the old ritual could be accepted in the final “order” the virgins known to be totally stable in their zealous love for the Lord (who during the previous period) had been always vigilant in their prayers; prompt in their fasting, humble in obedience, patient in adversity and fervent in the life of the Lord Jesus.” Formation that continues…
• It continues for the whole life: “the consecrated member will continue all her life to care for her formation…Then that you strive with all your might to remain as you are called by God and to seek and to desire all the ways and means necessary to persevere and make progress to the very end.” (Rule Prologue 9-11) Everyone knows how to start…in material as well as in spiritual things, but few know how to persevere all the days, for many days, for many years for all one’s life.
• It is a total formation: human, spiritual, intellectual, professional and apostolic … “Perfection pertains to God for which He is always Master; childhood and infancy belong to us who are always disciples… the title of children is for us, it is Spring for the whole life, because the truth that lives in us does not know old age and from truth our way of life is irrigated.” (Clemente Alessandrino)
• It is a responsible formation which values all the means offered by the Company, by the Church and society. “Formation is a vital process through which the person converts himself to the Son of God from the depth of his being, and at the same time, learn the art of looking for the signs of God in the reality of the world… The commitment for formation does never end.” Consecrated life, 68)
• It is a formation which has a goal: tending to a more radical donation to Christ in history … to be salt, light, yeast. The goal is never reached in such a way as to be able to enjoy the enthusiasm of the past, or to be able to stop in the present: every day is demanded of us to renew the commitment as if it were the first day of the last. Co-responsibility in the Company…
• Every consecrated member must feel responsible and co-responsible in the Company, for her formation, for her fidelity, for perseverance…co¬-responsible for the life and growth of the Company
• Every consecrated member will find a privileged place in the Company for evaluation, dialogue and support and for a journey of renewed fidelity.
An icon accompanies our journey… Let us be accompanied by an icon…that of Emmaus… It is the icon of the accompaniment of sisters and leaders along the journey through: the ways of the world; ways along which no one is alone; Him, the Risen One is with us…it is to us to recognize Him, to welcome Him as the Word who gives zeal to the heart, as broken Bread … ready to run along in a sisterly way to share such a mysterious presence.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the Encyclical published last Wednesday, by referring to the primacy of charity in the life of Christians and of the Church, I wanted to recall that the privileged witnesses of this primacy are the Saints, who made their lives a hymn to God-Love despite their thousands of different tones. We celebrate them every day of the year in the liturgy.
I am thinking, for example, of those whom we are commemorating in these days: the Apostle Paul with his disciples Timothy and Titus, St Angela Merici, St Thomas Aquinas, St John Bosco. These saints are very different: the first belong to the beginnings of the Church and were missionaries of the first evangelization; in the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas is the model of a Catholic theologian who found in Christ the supreme synthesis of truth and love; in the Renaissance, Angela Merici presented a path of holiness also to those who were living in a secular environment; in the modern epoch, Don Bosco, inflamed with love for Jesus the Good Shepherd, cared for the most underprivileged children and became their father and teacher.
In truth, the Church’s entire history is a history of holiness, animated by the one Love whose source is God. Indeed, only supernatural love, like the love that flows ever new from Christ’s heart, can explain the miraculous flourishing down the centuries of Orders, male and female religious Institutes and other forms of consecrated life.
In the Encyclical, I cited among the Saints most famous for their charity John of God, Camillus of Lellis, Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, Giuseppe Cottolengo, Luigi Orione and Teresa of Calcutta (cf. n. 40).
This array of men and women, moulded by the Spirit of Christ who made them models of dedication to the Gospel, leads us to consider the importance of consecrated life as an expression and school of love.
The Second Vatican Council emphasized that the imitation of Christ in chastity, poverty and obedience should be entirely oriented to the achievement of perfect charity (cf. Perfectae Caritas, n. 1).
Precisely in order to shed light on the importance and value of consecrated life, the Church celebrates this coming 2 February, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, as the Day of Consecrated Life. In the afternoon of that day, just as John Paul II liked to do, I will preside at Holy Mass in the Vatican Basilica, to which the consecrated men and women who live in Rome are specially invited. Let us together thank God for the gift of consecrated life and pray that it may continue to be an eloquent sign of his merciful love in the world.
Let us now turn to Mary Most Holy, mirror of love. With her motherly help may Christians and especially consecrated persons walk expeditiously and joyfully on the path of holiness.
~ Pope Benedict XVI, Sunday, 29 January 2006 – Saint Peter’s Square.
‘Witnessing Christ in Secular Life’. This is adapted from a message from Blessed John Paul II to members of secular institutes marking the 50th anniversary of Provida Mater Ecclesia.
The Church’s motherly concern and wise affection for her children who dedicate their life to Christ in the various forms of special consecration was expressed 50 years ago in the apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, which was meant to give a new canonical structure to the Christian experience of secular institutes.
Secular institutes show a way and form of life that had already been attracting many Christians for a century with men and women committed to following Christ chaste, poor and obedient, while remaining in the state of life proper to their own secular status. In this first phase of the history of secular institutes, it is beautiful to recognize the dedication and sacrifice of so many brothers and sisters in the faith, who fearlessly faced the challenges of new times. They offered a consistent witness of true Christian holiness in the most varied conditions of work, home and involvement in the social, economic and political life of the human communities to which they belonged.
In fact, today more than ever, the way of life of secular institutes has proved a providential and effective form of Gospel witness in the specific circumstances of today’s cultural and social conditions, in which the Church is called to live and carry out her mission. With the approval of these institutes, crowning a spiritual endeavour which had been motivating Church life at least since the time of St. Frances de Sales, the constitution recognized that the perfection of Christian life could and should be lived in every circumstance and existential situation, since it is the call to universal holiness. Consequently, it affirmed that religious life – understood in its proper canonical form was not in itself the only way to follow the Lord without reserve. It desired that the Christian renewal of family, professional and social life would take place through the presence and witness of secular consecration, bringing about new and effective forms of apostolate, addressed to persons and spheres normally far from the Gospel, where it is almost impossible for its proclamation to penetrate.
Years ago, in addressing those taking part in the Second International Congress of Secular Institutes, I said that they were “so to speak, at the centre of the conflict that disturbs and divides the modern soul.” With this statement I meant to re-examine several considerations of my venerable predecessor, Paul VI, who had spoken of secular institutes as the answer to a deep concern: that of finding the way of combining the full consecration of life according to the evangelical counsels and full responsibility for a presence and transforming action within the world, to mould, perfect and sanctify it.
February 1, 1997
Joannes Paulus II
