Questions About Consecrated Virginity

[Sponsa-Christi]

 

 

Why CV is not religious life is actually quite easy. Professing the evangelical counsels is under the virtue of Religion which is about offering oneself to the service of God, to quote St. Thomas. Virginity is under the Virtue of Temperance not under the virtue of Religion.

 

I do think, though, that a vocation to consecrated virginity as a state in life is much more than just living out the virtue of virginity. I don’t recall the exact quote, but I know St. Augustine also noted a difference between simply being a virgin and deliberately consecrating one’s virginity.

 

Consecrated virginity is a call to make a permanent commitment to a life of virginity, which is intended as special eschatological witness and directly ordered to the service of the Church. And, according to our Holy Father Emeritus, the charism of consecrated virginity “…entails a total gift to Christ, an assimilation of the Bridegroom who implicitly asks for the observance of the evangelical counsels in order to keep your fidelity to him unstained.” (source)

[MarysLittleFlower]

God's Beloved,

 

I'm a little confused about what you said regarding constitutive and invocative blessings. It seems to me from this article, that religious also receive a constitutive blessing? I'd be interested in your thoughts :) http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/WHATBLES.HTM

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

I do think, though, that a vocation to consecrated virginity as a state in life is much more than just living out the virtue of virginity. I don’t recall the exact quote, but I know St. Augustine also noted a difference between simply being a virgin and deliberately consecrating one’s virginity.

 

Consecrated virginity is a call to make a permanent commitment to a life of virginity, which is intended as special eschatological witness and directly ordered to the service of the Church. And, according to our Holy Father Emeritus, the charism of consecrated virginity “…entails a total gift to Christ, an assimilation of the Bridegroom who implicitly asks for the observance of the evangelical counsels in order to keep your fidelity to him unstained.” (source)

 

Yes, but CV is not religious life, it is a Consecrated Life but it is a secular state. Anyone living a serious life striving for holiness is called to live the evangelical counsels, priests for example, but religious life by definition is a "state of perfection" where lives out the counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience by vow.

 

The Church has always held that just being a virgin is well, just being a virgin. The beauty and merit is that it is consecrated virginity. Even in religious life one is living virginity (either integral or "reclaimed") that is consecrated by the vow of chastity not just being celibate. It is not the virginity of the Consecrated Virgin but it is a virginity consecrated nonetheless. One is offering to God as a holocaust one's possessions, one's body and one's will.

 

If a person is called to religious life than being a consecrated virgin will not be "enough" for that person. And the other as well, if one is called to be a consecrated virgin, religious life will not be "enough" as well.

 

There are objective degrees of "perfection" and the Church has always considered religious life a "higher" state of life but that doesn't make the person living Religious life better or more holy.
 

[God's Beloved]

God's Beloved,

 

I'm a little confused about what you said regarding constitutive and invocative blessings. It seems to me from this article, that religious also receive a constitutive blessing? I'd be interested in your thoughts :) http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/WHATBLES.HTM

 

Dear MarysLittleFlower,

 

The theology of consecration of virgins through a Prayer of Consecration by a bishop  [ Early Church : 1st 4 centuries]  is a totally different paradigm from the theology of  consecration of religious through a Profession of vows at the hands of the Religious superior.

 

We cannot really compare the two paradigms .

 

In the consecration of virgins , the candidate is consecrated through a Constitutive blessing .viz. it is by the very words of the prayer of consecration [the rite is reserved to a Bishop] and which includes specific gift of the Holy Spirit -that her status is changed from lay to consecrated virgin.

 

In the perpetual profession of religious ,  the sister already belongs through temporary vows to a congregation or institute which has a public juridic status in the church and has certain church approved constitution :statutes or regulations and requirements like a specific period of formation , specific apostolate according to the charism of the institute etc.

 

So when the religious makes her final vows as a member of the institute , she is making a juridical act of consecration through vows according to their constitutions. These are 'constitutive vows' which are a sacrifice to God , a total consecration of self to God by the very words of the vows. This is followed by a prayer of invocative blessing because the Church does not intend to consecrate a religious through this blessing. The religious consecrates herself through vows.

 

That's why if  a religious after perpetual vows decides to leave the institute , she is totally freed from the vows and thus freed from the consecration according to the constitution of the institute.

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

"That's why if  a religious after perpetual vows decides to leave the institute , she is totally freed from the vows and thus freed from the consecration according to the constitution of the institute."

In the Dominican Order we have always held the ancient monastic understanding that with Profession one is consecrated BY GOD. It is two-fold movement--one vows oneself to God and He consecrates one to Himself. We never had the consecratory prayer or blessing for this reason.

In Solemn Vows the consecration remains but one is dispensed from the obligation of the vows. A human person, including the Pope, can't undo a consecration by God. He can only dispense from the obligations. Even if one is married that consecration remains.

[MarysLittleFlower]

Thank you for the reply :) I'm trying to relate this to the ewtn article... would you agree that there is something constitutive in both Rites, for Consecrated Virginity and Religious life? am I understanding correctly that in religious life it's the vows that do this, and in the consecration of virginity it's the words of the Bishop?

 

I seem to remember reading before (maybe I'm wrong) that there's a difference between Sisters and nuns... is it true that nuns who make the solemn profession can't be freed from their vows? what about Sisters?

[MarysLittleFlower]

"That's why if  a religious after perpetual vows decides to leave the institute , she is totally freed from the vows and thus freed from the consecration according to the constitution of the institute."

In the Dominican Order we have always held the ancient monastic understanding that with Profession one is consecrated BY GOD. It is two-fold movement--one vows oneself to God and He consecrates one to Himself. We never had the consecratory prayer or blessing for this reason.

In Solemn Vows the consecration remains but one is dispensed from the obligation of the vows. A human person, including the Pope, can't undo a consecration by God. He can only dispense from the obligations. Even if one is married that consecration remains.

 

That's what I meant too about Solemn Vows :) what about Sisters who don't say the Solemn Vows?

[abrideofChrist]

Yes, but CV is not religious life, it is a Consecrated Life but it is a secular state. Anyone living a serious life striving for holiness is called to live the evangelical counsels, priests for example, but religious life by definition is a "state of perfection" where lives out the counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience by vow.

 

The Church has always held that just being a virgin is well, just being a virgin. The beauty and merit is that it is consecrated virginity. Even in religious life one is living virginity (either integral or "reclaimed") that is consecrated by the vow of chastity not just being celibate. It is not the virginity of the Consecrated Virgin but it is a virginity consecrated nonetheless. One is offering to God as a holocaust one's possessions, one's body and one's will.

 

If a person is called to religious life than being a consecrated virgin will not be "enough" for that person. And the other as well, if one is called to be a consecrated virgin, religious life will not be "enough" as well.

 

There are objective degrees of "perfection" and the Church has always considered religious life a "higher" state of life but that doesn't make the person living Religious life better or more holy.
 

 

Sr. Mary Catherine.  I have requested that you look up St. Thomas Aquinas several times and you, even though you are a Dominican, are either not able to or are unwilling to quote from him regarding the vocation to consecrated virginity.  Strange that a Dominican would be unwilling to borrow from St. Thomas' practice of bringing up the other positions in his discussions.  But not very surprising when you take into consideration that he does have some powerful things to say about consecrated virginity that certain religious may wish to be suppressed.
 

I do not know how much you learned about the different vocations in the Church.  But it is interesting, is it not, that the Church does actually consider a consecrated virgin to be in a state of perfection, a fact which you appear to deny in your first paragraph.  If so, how do you reconcile that with the following which was written in an Apostolic Constitution:
 

 

5. To those who chose to make public external profession of perfection in any form the Church, like a good mother acquiescing in a child's request, has always given every kind of help for so holy a purpose. For individual profession of perfection - always "coram Ecclesia" in the face of the Church, and public - it was provided that the Church herself should receive it and recognize it. But the Church has always wisely given it the seal of her sanction and strenuously defended it and given it many canonical effects. This is seen in the primitive and venerable Blessing and Consecration of Virgins[7]  which had its own liturgical rite.

 

 

Or, take for example, the fact that the Church considers the consecration of religious, secular institute members, and consecrated virgins to be equal but different?

 

Another thing.  I don't know why you consider the CV vocation to be secular in nature.  If it were, then how would you explain the fact that the Consecration may be given to religious or the fact that by the consecration, a virgin is constituted a "sacred person"?  Just wondering.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I would have thought that a Dominican nun would have more access to sources pertinent to these matters than most of the lay women on this board.  I for one, am puzzled by the fact that a Dominican nun cannot explain why some Dominicans received the Consecration to a Life of Virginity.  I was always under the impression that something so drastic would be recorded in Dominican history along with some scholarly explanation for such a departure from the Order's charism.  Again, though, this is because I was under the impression that the nuns in the Order of Preachers were scholars.  Maybe I am quite mistaken in this notion.  If so, I apologize.

[God's Beloved]

"That's why if  a religious after perpetual vows decides to leave the institute , she is totally freed from the vows and thus freed from the consecration according to the constitution of the institute."

In the Dominican Order we have always held the ancient monastic understanding that with Profession one is consecrated BY GOD. It is two-fold movement--one vows oneself to God and He consecrates one to Himself. We never had the consecratory prayer or blessing for this reason.

In Solemn Vows the consecration remains but one is dispensed from the obligation of the vows. A human person, including the Pope, can't undo a consecration by God. He can only dispense from the obligations. Even if one is married that consecration remains.

 

 

Dear Sr.Mary Catharine,

 

My intention was to speak about 'Sisters' in Institutes with simple but Perpetual vows.

 

Vatican II --on which the New code of canon law is based --tried to remove the distinction between Institutes with Sisters of Simple vows   and  Orders with Nuns of Solemn vows  , leaving the distinctions to the 'internal' traditions.

 

So if the Dominican 'Order' as the very name suggests , has a certain tradition of understanding Solemn vows, I'm sure the Church respects it and acts accordingly. And I 'm obliged  respect it too !

[OnlySunshine]

Sr. Mary Catherine.  I have requested that you look up St. Thomas Aquinas several times and you, even though you are a Dominican, are either not able to or are unwilling to quote from him regarding the vocation to consecrated virginity.  Strange that a Dominican would be unwilling to borrow from St. Thomas' practice of bringing up the other positions in his discussions.  But not very surprising when you take into consideration that he does have some powerful things to say about consecrated virginity that certain religious may wish to be suppressed.
 

I do not know how much you learned about the different vocations in the Church.  But it is interesting, is it not, that the Church does actually consider a consecrated virgin to be in a state of perfection, a fact which you appear to deny in your first paragraph.  If so, how do you reconcile that with the following which was written in an Apostolic Constitution:
 

 

Or, take for example, the fact that the Church considers the consecration of religious, secular institute members, and consecrated virgins to be equal but different?

 

Another thing.  I don't know why you consider the CV vocation to be secular in nature.  If it were, then how would you explain the fact that the Consecration may be given to religious or the fact that by the consecration, a virgin is constituted a "sacred person"?  Just wondering.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I would have thought that a Dominican nun would have more access to sources pertinent to these matters than most of the lay women on this board.  I for one, am puzzled by the fact that a Dominican nun cannot explain why some Dominicans received the Consecration to a Life of Virginity.  I was always under the impression that something so drastic would be recorded in Dominican history along with some scholarly explanation for such a departure from the Order's charism.  Again, though, this is because I was under the impression that the nuns in the Order of Preachers were scholars.  Maybe I am quite mistaken in this notion.  If so, I apologize.

 

abrideofchrist, she might not have time to look up the sources you requested.  Even though she is active here, she doesn't post everyday and cloistered nuns are on a tight schedule because of prayer and work in the monastery.
 

[God's Beloved]

Thank you for the reply :) I'm trying to relate this to the ewtn article... would you agree that there is something constitutive in both Rites, for Consecrated Virginity and Religious life? am I understanding correctly that in religious life it's the vows that do this, and in the consecration of virginity it's the words of the Bishop?

 

I seem to remember reading before (maybe I'm wrong) that there's a difference between Sisters and nuns... is it true that nuns who make the solemn profession can't be freed from their vows? what about Sisters?

 

 

Consecrated virginity is the earliest form of consecrated life in the history of the church. Hence all the other forms of consecrated life that developed during the last two millennia  have continued some of the traditions related to consecrated virginity . Maybe one in ten thousand  who have studied theology  can understand  how not everything related to CV can be applied to Religious Profession.

 

From what I've read at least in the theology of Thomas Aquinas of the 13th century , Solemn Profession of vows  are Constitutive vows . I am extending this to Simple Profession of vows too.......just by logic.

 

However  I have a statement from the Congregation for Inst. of Cons. Life in Rome  , in reply to my queries  regarding difference between consecration of virgins and religious profession as follows :

 

Q .Canon 604#1 says that we are consecrated by  the Bishop. How exactly is this different from the Prayer of consecration in the Rite for the Profession of Religious Women ? In several theological articles it is said that in the Cons. Of virgins what is specific is the charismatic element in the Rite whereas in the Rite of Religious Profession what is specific is the ascetic element or the Profession of vows according to the Constitution of the Institute.

 

an extract from their response :

 

the candidate’s proposito expresses her intent and the solemn prayer of the Bishop consecrates her. This is distinct from the rite of religious profession in which the profession of the evangelical counsels---all other canonical requirements being in place ---consecrates the candidate to God [c 654]