THE VOWED LIFE
Since 1856 when our Foundress and her first companions made private vows before their priest, we have understood ourselves as consecrated religious fulfilling our Baptismal vows. Our vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience form a three fold cord of love by which we are bound to God in the context of our community. It is a binding love which sets us free.
POVERTY
We give up the opportunity for worldly success, position and personal possessions in order to put our trust in God alone, to share in the freedoms of Christ by sharing in the poverty of Christ. This freedom is expressed in the Community’s motto: “Nihil habentes, Omnia possidentes” (“As having nothing, yet possessing all things.”) (II Cor. 6:10)
CHASTITY
Proper to all Christians, for Religious there is also a commitment to the celibate (unmarried) state. This vow opens us to respond to the love of God in a single-hearted way; to love all whose paths cross ours; to love those whom we have never even met but whose needs and concerns become our own in intercessory prayer.
OBEDIENCE
This obedience to our Rule and Constitutions and to our superiors frees us to live directed by the Holy Spirit, through the surrender of our wills, without concern for personal success. It frees us from the compulsion to get ahead, and allows us to live fully in the present moment.