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The Virtues Which Form the Object of the
Three Vows of Religion
There are many distinctions between the Vow
and the virtue of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.
1. The direct object of the Vows is a privation
that is imposed. For example, we deprive ourselves of the possession or free use of temporal
goods by the Vow of Poverty, while the virtue
aims at destroying irregular affections. The Vow
is therefore as the means, the virtue as the end.
Thus the virtue is, in this respect, something
better than the Vow, since it is to acquire the
virtue more surely, more easily and more fully
that the Religious decides on making the Vow.
This shows the unhappy inconsistency of those
Religious who, after having pronounced their
Vows neglect the Religious virtues, and remain
more imperfect than many Christians in the
world.
2. The Vow does not extend beyond what it
imposes under pain of sin, while the virtue can
be always elevated higher and higher in perfection. It is precisely by this growth in virtue that
we become good and fervent Religious.
3. If the Vow is a means relative to the virtue,
in another respect the virtue is also a means relative to the Vow. In the same way, therefore, as
the Vow serves to acquire the virtue, the practice
of the virtue seems to maintain the observance
of the Vow, and if you neglect the virtue, it will
be difficult for you to remain faithful to the Vow.
4. You can sin against the virtue without violating the Vow, as will be soon explained, while,
generally speaking, you cannot violate the Vow
without wounding at the same blow the virtue.
The taking of Vows creates another obligation
besides that of the Vows themselves, because the
taking of the Vows occurs in a Religious body,
and makes her who pronounces them a member
of that body. Consequently, it imposes on her
the obligation of submission to the Superiors and
Rules, without any regard to the special Vow of
obedience.
In other words, the taking of the Vows includes a contract, or donation which the Religious
makes of her person to the Institute which receives her. By this donation she yields the rights
she had over herself and her actions in order to
be used henceforward according to the Rule, in
the service of God, for which she has given her
self. The Vows embrace the most essential duties
of this engagement; all the rest is determined by
the Rules and prescriptions of Superiors.
It is from this incorporation of subjects in a
Religious Institute, by the utterance of the Vows,
that spring also the duties of charity and sisterly
union, which bind the members of an Institute in
a special manner to one another.
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