The Vows

“The vows with which one commits oneself to live the evangelical counsels confer their radicalness as a response to love. Virginity opens the heart to the measure of Christ’s heart and makes it possible to love as he loved. Poverty frees one from slavery to things and to artificial needs which drive consumer society and leads to the rediscovery of Christ, the only treasure worth living for. Obedience places life entirely in Christ’s hands so that he may use it according to God’s design and make it a masterpiece.”

—Starting Afresh From Christ, n.22

Chastity

Through consecrated chastity, we witness to that love which always gives first place to Christ our divine Spouse who gave his life for us. We fix our hearts on him, for we are called to live with him and to receive every good thing from him. Consecrated chastity is a joyous manifestation of divine charity that enlarges the heart's capacity to love, leaving it undivided and free, just as God wishes his brides to be free and attached only him. It inclines the heart to contemplate the things of God, because "the person who already has a pure heart, finds in all things a joyful and chaste and pure, spiritual, happy and knowledge of God". (Cf. OCD Nuns’ Constitutions #27)

Poverty

In order to share in the poverty of Christ who “rich though he was, made himself poor to make us rich” (2Cor.8, 9), we embrace by vow the evangelical counsel of poverty. It demands a life that is poor in fact and in spirit, hardworking, sober and detached from earthly goods. The choice of poverty, as a basic element of the Teresian Carmel, demands detachment from earthly goods, humility and sobriety in the use of things, diligence in work, and trustful abandonment to Providence. (Cf. OCD Nuns’ Constitutions #30,31)

 Obedience

By professing with a vow the evangelical counsel of obedience, we imitate Christ who came into the world in order to do the will of the Father (Jn. 4, 34; 5, 30) and who made himself obedient unto death on a cross (Phil. 2,8). Following his example, we offer to God the full dedication of our will as a self-sacrifice, thereby uniting ourselves more intently to the salvific will of the Father.

The foundation of the consecrated life is obedience, the sure way for clinging to the will God and reaching perfection. We imitate our Spouse, Yahweh’s Servant, by making ourselves slaves of God, branded with the mark of the cross, so that we may be spiritually at the service of all our sisters and brothers in Christ, and more specifically, at the disposition of the entire community and of each one of the sisters. (cf. OCD Nuns’ Constitutions #40, 41) 

“All my longing was and still is that since He has so many enemies and so few friends that these few friends be good ones. As a result, I resolved to do the little that was in my power; that is, to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could and strive that these few persons who live here do the same.

—St. Teresa of Jesus