DOCSLIB.ORG

Serving Religious As a Psychologist

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Serving Religious As a Psychologist SERVING RELIGIOUS AS A PSYCHOLOGIST Assessments and Some Treatment Considerations Outline ■ About Religious life and other forms of consecrated life – Important for Identity and discernment – 8 Essential Elements of Religious Life ■ Assessment – Informed Consent – Clinical Interview ■ Attachment Theory ■ Particular questions – Tests – Feedback Session and possible treatment considerations ■ The psychologist – Integrity—objectivity – Awareness of your own transference – Not deciding if person has a genuine call or not ■ Summary and Q&A History of the Congregation for Religious/Consecrated Life ■ Prior to Vatican Council II – Sacred Congregation for Consultations about Regulars- Pope Sixtus V 1586 – Congregation of the Affairs of Religious 1908 – Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes by Pope Paul VI 1967 ■ After Vatican Council II – Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life John Paul II (CICLSAL) ■ In the U.S.: LCWR and CMSWR History cont. ■ The Church’s relationship with psychology – Dr. Carl Rogers and Dr. William Coulson – Treatment of religious ■ Removing habit ■ Disregard for their obligations ■ Lost many vocations ■ Plenty Statements from the Church re: psychology Consecrate Life-Forms of ■ State of Life—Permanent Choice – Latin Status-stable (According to Canon Law (1983) ■ Religious Institutes ■ Secular Institutes ■ Consecrated Virgins ■ Hermits ■ Societies of Apostolic Life ■ “Other Forms” Secular Institutes A secular Institute is an institute of consecrated life in which the Christian faithful living in the world strive for the perfection of charity and work for the sanctification of the world especially from within. (Can. 710) – (Schoenstatt) ■ Do not profess vows as a religious. In place of vows they make a commitment. ■ Are in the world, plant the seeds of the Gospel Consecrated Virgins and Hermits ■ Through their pledge to follow Christ more closely, virgins are consecrated to God, mystically espoused to Christ and dedicated to the service of the Church, when the diocesan Bishop consecrates them according to the approved liturgical rite (Can. Law 604) ■ A hermit is recognized by law as one dedicated to God in consecrated life if he or she publicly professes in the hands of the diocesan bishop the three evangelical counsels…and observes a proper program of living under his direction (Can. 603). Societies of Apostolic Life ■ Societies of apostolic life resemble institutes of consecrated life; their members, without religious vows, pursue the apostolic purpose proper to the society and, leading a life in common as brothers or sisters according to their proper manner of life, strive for the perfection of charity through the observance of the constitutions (Can. 731) – Daughters of Charity – The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (Pontifical Right) – Work joins them together. Do not profess evangelical counsels. Many do, but do not have to. Renew vows every year—not perpetual “Other Forms” ■ Das Werk -The Spiritual Family “The Work” – Founded in German--community of lay people (families), priests and sisters – Only community with papal approval that is under “other forms” or Pius Institute Ecclesial Movements ■ Not a canonical form—Need to be a bigger group-”stable” – Examples: ■ Communion and Liberation ■ Focolare ■ Neocatechumenal Way Confraternities ■ Gatherings of the Faithful – Holy Name Society – Confraternity of the precious Blood Vocation ■ Discernment – 3 ways from St. Ignatius: ■ Clear overwhelming call from the Lord which can hardly be doubted. Typically the individual knows where/when and recalls the moment with great fondness. ■ A gentle drawing that persists over time. Much like being pursued ■ The person clearly sees the choices of vocations and chooses religious life Religious Life ■ Stable form of Life – Not an intermediate state between lay and the clerical states. – Undeniably belongs to the life and holiness of the Church (Lumen Gentium, par. 44) – Evangelical Counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience. Some profess a 4th vow. Religious Life ■ Private Association of the Faithful—Less than 40 members ■ Diocesan Rite—at least 40 or more members ■ Pontifical Rite—at least 80-100 members Religious Life cont. 8 Essential Elements ■ 1) Consecration by public vows ■ 2) Communion in Community ■ 3) Apostolate and Mission ■ 4) Prayer ■ 5) Asceticism ■ 6) Public Witness ■ 7) Relation to the Church ■ 8) Formation ■ 9) Government Vows ■ Vow, Deliberate and free promise made to God about a possible and better good, must be fulfilled by reason of the virtue of religion (Can. 1191. 1). ■ Public ■ Binding Vows ■ By them [the vows], the religious gladly dedicates the whole of life to God's service, regarding the following of Christ "as the one thing that is necessary, and seeking God before all else and only him" (Perfectiae Caritatis, par.5). Public Vows ■ The very nature of religious vocation involves a public witness to Christ and to the Church. Religious profession is made by vows which the Church receives as public. A stable form of community life in an institute canonically erected by the competent ecclesiastical authority manifests in a visible way the covenant and communion which religious life expresses. A certain separation from family and from professional life at the time a person enters the novitiate speaks powerfully of the absoluteness of God. At the same time, it is the beginning of a new and deeper bond in Christ with the family that one has left. This bond becomes firmer as detachment from otherwise legitimate relationships, occupations, and forms of relaxation continues to reflect God's absoluteness publicly throughout life. A further aspect of the public nature of religious consecration is that the apostolate of religious is in some sense always corporate. Religious presence is visible, affecting ways of acting, attire, and style of life. (EE., par. 10) Public Vows ■ Religious consecration is lived within a given institute according to constitutions which the Church, by her authority, accepts and approves. This means that consecration is lived according to specific provisions which manifest and deepen a distinctive identity. The identity derives from that action of the Holy Spirit which is the institute's founding gift and which creates a particular type of spirituality, of life, of apostolate, and of tradition (cf. MR 11 (cf. ET 51; EE, par 11). Religious Life cont. ■ For Religious, prayer and the common life is central. – First “call”—who religious are (eschatological witness, the life of religious is Worship of God-i.e. the Virtue of Religion) – Second “call” is to the apostolic work ■ Danger of work taking over times of prayer, common life, relationships with Sisters Community Life ■ Communion in Christ is expressed in a stable and visible way through community life. So important is community living to religious consecration that every religious, whatever his or her apostolic work, is bound to it by the fact of profession and must normally live under the authority of a local superior in a community of the institute to which he or she belongs. ■ Normally, too, community living entails a daily sharing of life according to specific structures and provisions established in the constitutions. Sharing of prayer, work, meals, leisure, common spirit, "relationships of friendship, cooperation in the same apostolate, and mutual support in community of life chosen for a better following of Christ, are so many valuable factors in daily progress" (ET, 39). Prayer Life ■ Religious life cannot be sustained without a deep life of prayer, individual, communal, and liturgical. ■ The religious who embraces concretely a life of total consecration is called to know the risen Lord by a warm, personal knowledge, and to know him as one with whom he or she is personally in communion. ■ Knowledge of him in faith brings love….This joy of love and knowledge is brought about in many ways, but fundamentally, and as an essential and necessary means, through individual and community encounter with God in prayer. This is where the religious finds "the concentration of the heart on God" (CDm, 1), which unifies the whole of life and mission (Essential Elements) Public Witness ■ Christ came to manifest the primacy of God’s love ■ Religious, too, in their own times, are called to bear witness to a similar, deep, personal experience of Christ and also to share the faith, hope, love and joy which that experience goes on inspiring…recalling the words of Pope John Paul II: "What counts most is not what religious do, but what they are as persons consecrated to the Lord" (Message to the Plenary Assembly of the SCRIS, March 1980). ■ Eschatological Reality Public Witness ■ Religious Habit – Witness to others – For the religious ■ As an expression of poverty Psychological Assessment https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/566749934349180189/ https://www.psychologywizard.net/flooding.html Assessment Process ■ Informed Consent – Who is paying and who gets the report ■ Clinical Interview – What you would normally do.. – Attachment Theory: Why? Natural, Common life, authority figures Assessment cont. – thorough relationship History: ■ Family, boyfriends, girlfriends, significant attachments: teachers, priests, coaches ■ Emotional dependency/needs ■ Sexual history: pornography, other addictions, birth control, abortions, partners—number and sex, masturbation, abuse ■ Try to ascertain if they came from a family/environment where they had to “sneak around” to do things either because of strictness or
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Profession Class of 2020 Survey
    January 2021 Women and Men Professing Perpetual Vows in Religious Life: The Profession Class of 2020 Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate Georgetown University Washington, DC Women and Men Professing Perpetual Vows in Religious Life: The Profession Class of 2020 A Report to the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations United States Conference of Catholic Bishops January 2021 Thu T. Do, LHC, Ph.D. Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ, Ph.D. Table of Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 2 Major Findings ................................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 6 Institutes Reporting Perpetual Professions .................................................................................... 7 Age of Professed ............................................................................................................................. 8 Country of Birth and Age at Entry to the United States ................................................................. 9 Race and Ethnic Background......................................................................................................... 10 Family Background .......................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 2019 Fall Mountaineer
    The United States Conference of Secular Institutes November 2019 Volume 12, Issue 3 The Mountaineer From the President: consecrated persons, to reflect the life of Christ, to radiate his love, to serve as he served. Our Dear Friends, circumstances are different, but God has As the leaves turn golden and ruby and determined an original way for each of us to the winds become brisk and filled with the aroma climb the mountain of sanctity. of fall (at least here in Nebraska), my thoughts Many of you will remember the days turn to some of my favorite feasts, that of All when we made numerous trips in and out of Saints and All Souls. These are the day when the church, and back in again, to pray for the Church remembers and celebrates the unsung deceased on All Souls Day. Now the Church has heroes of holiness throughout the millennia. given us an octave to gain indulgences for them Above all, I like to celebrate those saints “with a (November 1-8), just by visiting a cemetery and small s” that I knew personally: my Lutheran praying for them. I make it a point to alter my grandfather Ole, Terese from my institute who drive home to pass by a cemetery, pulling over to literally brought people into the Church through pray. In a special way we want to pray for all the her conversations over homemade bread, an deceased members of secular institutes, auxiliary bishop so humble and caring. remembering that we build on their shoulders. And that said, I want to let you know that In Gaudete et Exsultate Pope Francis reminds us in the past two months I have received inquiries that saints are not perfect: from three different people who are interested in “To recognize the word that the Lord founding new institutes.
    [Show full text]
  • SECULAR CONSECRATION: Section Two - Chapter One
    SECULAR CONSECRATION: Section Two - Chapter One We now come to the heart of what membership in a secular Institute entails, what distinguishes it from other associations of the faithful. It is the full profession of the evangelical councils of celibate chastity, poverty and obedience. Secular institutes are parallel to Religious institutes such as Jesuits and Franciscans in that both profess the evangelical counsels and are recognized by the Church. Other associations may live in the “spirit” of the counsels such as “Third Orders” (often now called “secular orders”) which often creates confusion between them and secular institutes but there are key differences. Third orders do not profess vows and do not commit themselves to lives of celibate chastity. It is the commitment to perpetual celibate chastity that distinguishes Religious or Secular Institutes from of groupings of Christians. Secular and Religious Institutes make vows or similar promises that are morally binding. They place themselves under the Superiors of these Institutes who have real authority over their members that are morally binding. The Code on Canon Law dealing with secular Institutes state that the profession of the counsels in a secular Institute may be made by vow, oath or another recognized expression of consecration. All members of secular institutes must make a binding profession by vow or oath to celibate chastity and make vows or binding promises of poverty and obedience. While not trying to appear excessively juridical it is important to understand that profession in a secular institute entails a full, total and complete consecration of self no less than in vowed Religious life.
    [Show full text]
  • Life and Works of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux
    J&t. itfetnatto. LIFE AND WORKS OF SAINT BERNARD, ABBOT OF CLA1RVAUX. EDITED BY DOM. JOHN MABILLON, Presbyter and Monk of the Benedictine Congregation of S. Maur. Translated and Edited with Additional Notes, BY SAMUEL J. EALES, M.A., D.C.L., Sometime Principal of S. Boniface College, Warminster. SECOND EDITION. VOL. I. LONDON: BURNS & OATES LIMITED. NEW YORK, CINCINNATI & CHICAGO: BENZIGER BROTHERS. EMMANUBi A $ t fo je s : SOUTH COUNTIES PRESS LIMITED. .NOV 20 1350 CONTENTS. I. PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION II. GENERAL PREFACE... ... i III. BERNARDINE CHRONOLOGY ... 76 IV. LIST WITH DATES OF S. BERNARD S LETTERS... gi V. LETTERS No. I. TO No. CXLV ... ... 107 PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. THERE are so many things to be said respecting the career and the writings of S. Bernard of Clairvaux, and so high are view of his the praises which must, on any just character, be considered his due, that an eloquence not less than his own would be needed to give adequate expression to them. and able labourer He was an untiring transcendently ; and that in many fields. In all his manifold activities are manifest an intellect vigorous and splendid, and a character which never magnetic attractiveness of personal failed to influence and win over others to his views. His entire disinterestedness, his remarkable industry, the soul- have been subduing eloquence which seems to equally effective in France and in Italy, over the sturdy burghers of and above of Liege and the turbulent population Milan, the all the wonderful piety and saintliness which formed these noblest and the most engaging of his gifts qualities, and the actions which came out of them, rendered him the ornament, as he was more than any other man, the have drawn him the leader, of his own time, and upon admiration of succeeding ages.
    [Show full text]
  • Seek God's Wisdom Deacon Denis Mailhot
    Seek God’S Wisdom ╬ Religious Education Leading Students to a Life of Prayer Deacon Denis Mailhot, MPS In memory of my former pastor and friend Rev. Conrad ‘Happy’ L’Heureux who saw the Lord’s gift within me and formed my gifts to be shared with others as a Permanent Deacon To my students in the CCD Class of 1995 Kim Mike Robin Christina Sean Mellissa Mary Carl Tracy Christine Nicole L Daleana Amy Nicole M Jessica S Matt Sarah Nicole S Jen Angus Betsy May the prayers once created in your hearts continue echoing in your souls, grounded in the faith and love of Jesus Christ, your Savior, Mentor and Best Friend who walks with you sharing life’s joyful and difficult moments, always by your side prepared to help whenever you call on Him. Blessings, your catechist, Deacon Denis Mailhot, MPS Parish Social Ministry and Outreach Coordinator Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Auburn Special thanks to Dr. Lori Dahlhoff, who in her love for and dedication to the catechists and students of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, summoned great energy editing and completing the enormous task of bringing “Seek God’s Wisdom’ worthy of publication. Copyright 2020. All rights reserved Table of Contents Forward Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine .................................................................................................. 1 Class Opening and Closing Prayers ..................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Abbess-Elect Envisions Great U. S. Benedictine Convent Mullen High to Take Day Pupils Denvircatholic Work Halted on Ten Projects
    Abbess-Elect Envisions Great U. S. Benedictine Convent Mother Augustina Returns to Germany Next Month But Her Heart Will Remain in Colorado A grgantic Benedioine convent, a St. Walburga’s of ser of Eichstaett. That day is the Feast of the Holy Name In 1949 when Mother Augustina visited the German as Abbess will be as custodian and distributor of the famed the West, is the W jo c h o p e envisioned by Mother M. of Mary, a name that Mother Augustina bears as'' a nun. mother-house and conferred with the late Lady Abbess Ben- St. Walburga oil. This oil exudes from the bones of the Augustina Weihermuellcrp^perior of St. Walbutga’s con­ The ceremony will be held in St. Walburga’s parish church edicta, whom she has succeeejed, among the subjects con­ saint, who founded the Benedictine community and lived vent in South Boulder, as she prepares to return to Ger­ and the cloistered nuns of the community will witness it sidered wJs the possibility of transferring the heart of the 710-780. Many remarkable cures have been attributed many to assume her position as, Lady Abbess at the mother- ffom their private choir. order to America if Russia should:overrun Europe! to its use while seeking the intercession o f St. Walburga. house of her community in Eidistaett, Bavaria. That day, just two months hence, will mark the first At the great St. Walburga’s mother-house in Eich­ 'Those who have heard Mother Augustina in one of her Mother Augustina’s departure for Europe is scheduled time that an American citizen ,has returned to Europe to staett, she will be superior of 130 sisters.
    [Show full text]
  • Vocation Campers Learn About Virtues, Gain Discipline and Have
    Inside Archbishop Buechlein . 5 Editorial . 4 Question Corner . 11 Sunday and Daily Readings . 11 Serving the ChurchCriterion in Central and Souther n Indiana Since 1960 CriterionOnline.com August 12, 2005 Vol. XXXXIV, No. 44 75¢ Pope urges young people to make God most important part of life CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS)— World Youth Day. Adoring God means recognizing his pres- The theme of the Aug. 16-21 celebra- coverage of World Youth Day ence as creator and lord of the universe tion in Cologne, Germany, is “We Have Criterion and ensuring that God is the most impor- Come to Worship Him.” During the Archdiocese of Indian- take part in the pilgrimage to Cologne, tant part of one’s life, Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict said an attitude of wor- apolis’ pilgrimage to World Youth Day Germany, along with Pope Benedict XVI said. ship and adoration is the attitude that has from Aug. 10-22, Criterion reporter and hundreds of thousands of youth With about 2,000 people packed into marked the lives of saints throughout Brandon A. Evans will be posting the from all over the world. the courtyard of his summer villa south Christian history. It involves recognizing latest news, pictures and videos from the The pilgrims also will spend time in of Rome and several thousand more peo- the greatness of God and the gift of salva- trip at www.CriterionOnline.com. Italy in Rome and Assisi. ple gathered in the square outside the tion in Jesus with gratitude that “arises About 170 youth and adults, led by Check the Criterion’s website often to villa on Aug.
    [Show full text]
  • Statute of the Neocatechumenal Way
    STATUTE OF THE NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY INDEX Title I: Nature and implementation of the Neocatechumenal Way Art. 1: Nature of the Neocatechumenal Way Art. 2: Implementation of the Neocatechumenal Way Art. 3: Tasks of the International Responsible Team of the Way Art. 4: Temporal Goods Title II: Neocatechumenate Chapter I: Fundamental Elements of the Neocatechumenate Art. 5: Recipients Art. 6: The Neocatechumenate is implemented in the parish Art. 7: The Neocatechumenate is implemented in the small community Art. 8: Initial catecheses, neocatechumenal itinerary, “tripod” and team of catechists Chapter II: Initial Catecheses Art. 9: Kerygma and celebrations Art. 10: Birth of the neocatechumenal communities Chapter III: Word, Liturgy and Community Section 1: Word of God Art. 11: Weekly celebration of the Word Section 2: Liturgy Art. 12: Paschal Vigil Art. 13: Eucharist Art. 14: Penance, prayer, liturgical year, practices of piety Section 3: Community Art. 15: Community dimension and convivence Art. 16: The experience of koinonia and the fruits of the community Art. 17: Missionary initiation Art. 18: Vocational initiation Chapter IV: The Neocatechumenal Itinerary: phases, steps and passages Art. 19: 1st phase : rediscovery of the precatechumenate Art. 20: 2nd phase: rediscovery of the catechumenate Art. 21: 3rd phase: rediscovery of the election Title III: Ongoing education in faith: a way of renewal in the parish Art. 22: Ongoing education in the small community Art. 23: A way of renewal in the parish Title IV: Baptismal Catechumenate Art. 24: Catechumens Art. 25: Neophytes Title V: Form of service to the catechesis Art. 26: Diocesan bishop Art. 27: Pastor/parish priest and presbyters Art.
    [Show full text]
  • Caritas in Veritate and Chiara Lubich: Human Development from the Vantage Point of Unity
    Theological Studies 71 (2010) CARITAS IN VERITATE AND CHIARA LUBICH: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT FROM THE VANTAGE POINT OF UNITY AMELIA J. UELMEN Within the vibrant life of the Catholic Church today, many currents of spirituality and specific projects can shed light on the encyclical’s themes and provide examples of what its principles might look like in practice. This note focuses on how Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity might offer a helpful way for people to understand how to live these principles in their everyday lives. It also discusses how the “Economy of Communion” and other concrete projects and prac- tices of Focolare, the movement Lubich founded, foster economic justice and human development. T A CERTAIN POINT in his marvelous and still timely essay on love, AJosef Pieper struggled with whether the idea of universal love might make any practical difference in the world. He wrote: On the one hand, universal human love cannot accomplish anything practical in the world; man’s historical predicaments cannot be solved by love. But on the other hand . universal love is not simply an unrealistic fantasy. Rather it is an innate potentiality reminiscent, as it were, of paradise, which is revealed for a moment solely in the exceptional figures of great lovers [such as Francis of Assisi].1 One might trace a similar skepticism in some of the initial commentary on Caritas in veritate. For example, for George Weigel it was not immedi- ately clear how poverty might be defeated through “increasing openness, in a world context, to forms of economic activity marked by quotas of AMELIA J.
    [Show full text]
  • The Core of a Sustainable City
    The human being: the core of a sustainable city “The human being: the core of a sustainable city” Rio+20, 19 June 2012, 19:30-21:00 P3-E, Riocentro Convention Center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil THE HUMAN BEING: THE CORE OF A SUSTAINABLE CITY 1. FOREWORD The case dealt with in this paper is a development project that took place at Salvador Bahia, Brazil, between 2001 and 2006. The “protagonist” is AVSI1, an Italian NGO of Catholic inspiration linked 2 with the Communion and Liberation movement. This project is defined as “urban upgrading” in the terminology of cooperation for development and consists of the integration in the city of informal areas or “favelas”. It is part of a process that began in the early 1990s, when Card. Moreira Neves, The Archbishop of Salvador Bahia, struck by the inhuman living conditions of the inhabitants of the favela of Novos Alagados, requested the help of AVSI who had been collaborating with pastoral initiatives to improve and legalize the living conditions of the favela population in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. That was the beginning of AVSI’s charitable presence in Novos Alagados, with educational activities, in a favela inhabited by 15,000 people, 30% of whom lived in houses built on pile- dwellings (palafittes) along the bay shoreline. The advantage of such shanties was that nobody owned them or the area, so it was possible to occupy them. Through a series of steps, this charitable activity developed into such a sizeable project that it now affects the living conditions of 500,000 inhabitants of the Bahia favelas.
    [Show full text]
  • Ordination to the Diaconate
    Ordination to the Diaconate ARCHDIOCESE OF GALVESTON-HOUSTON His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo Archbishop of Galveston-Houston Ordaining Bishop Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart Houston, Texas February 20, 2021 Deacons are ordained by the laying on of hands, a tradition handed down from the apostles, so that through sacramental grace they may effectively fulfill their ministry. Therefore, even from early Apostolic times, the Catholic Church has held the holy Order of the Diaconate in high honor. "Insofar as competent authority assigns them, it pertains to the deacon: to administer Baptism solemnly; to protect and distribute the Eucharist, assist at and bless marriages in the name of the Church, bring Viaticum to the dying; read the Sacred Scriptures to the faithful, instruct and exhort the people; preside over the prayer and worship of the faithful, administer sacramentals, and officiate at funeral and burial rites. Dedicated to duties of charity and administration, deacons should be mindful of the admonition of Saint Polycarp: 'Be merciful and zealous, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who made himself the minister of all.'"1 Rite of Ordination, nos. 173-174 1 Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, no 29. Candidates for Ordination David Carrasco Eduardo Alberto Mejia Frank Joseph Claydon Joseph John Millhouse Timothy Patrick Cullen Joseph Son Manh Nguyen Ferdinand De Jesus Alejandro Arturo Padilla Valdes Bruce Andrew Flagg Russell Glenn Pasket John Mark Goodly Miguel Rodriguez Jr. Michael Arthur Jones Jose Gregorio Romay Inciarte Franco Javier Knoepffler Jose Daniel Ruvalcaba William Lasalle Thomas Alvin Spicer Gustavo Macha Jason Paul Sulak Burt Michael Martin Pascual Guillermo Velasquez Carlin Walters Prelude The Spirit of the Lord Phillip W.J.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evangelical Counsels and the Total Gift of Self
    THE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS AND THE TOTAL GIFT OF SELF • Jacques Servais • “Gospel obedience, which is the interior form of the counsels, because it is the essential and decisive act of the gift of self, in effect conforms the consecrated person to the obedience of Christ who redeems the world.” 1. Obedience: the constitutive element of the evangelical counsels As St. Thomas Aquinas affirms, and with him the entire tradition, obedience is first among the three evangelical counsels. These counsels, of course, constitute an organic whole; it is impossible to separate them one from another. Like faith, hope, and love, they reciprocally complete each other in the one and multifaceted grace of the imitation of Christ. However, just as of the three that “abide,” “the greatest is love” (1 Cor 13:13), so too does obedience have pride of place among the counsels. Arranging them schematically, we could say that the question of marriage or virginity should be clarified before a person enters the novitiate, and the question of holding onto or freely renouncing one’s goods arises and finds its response as a rule at the moment of the profession. But it is the question of one’s free submission to Christ—who is known, loved, and followed in an obedience that is not only spiritual but also “carnal” (Péguy!)— which in a very special Communio 31 (Fall 2004). © 2004 by Communio: International Catholic Review The Evangelical Counsels and the Total Gift of Self 363 way will accompany the consecrated person through to the end of his life. As the initial counsel, virginity1 is also the most natural thing in the state of the counsels, and if one were to have difficulties in this area, it would be a sign that one is not really called to this state: for far from being something that needs to be cultivated for its own sake, virginity has no other meaning than to fix one’s attention on the Lord, as one chooses to be like him a “eunuch for the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:12), in an attitude of humility that forbids any self-regard.
    [Show full text]