Religious of the Society of the Immaculata profess the simple Vow of Poverty, which is the renunciation of the right to dispense licitly of anything whatever having a monetary value, without the permission of the legitimate Superiors. To "dispose licitly" means to give it, sell it, to exchange it, to borrow it, to lend it, to use it, etc. To dispose licitly is to dispose without violating any law. Man has the natural right to dispose freely of his possessions. The Religious gives up this right by the simple vow of poverty.

The Vow of Poverty is most excellent in and of itself: "They who give alms sacrifice to God a part of what they possess; whereas they who vow poverty offer Him a perpetual holocaust" (St. Gregory).

It is perfect in its consequences, for it helps powerfully to practice chastity and obedience:

• pertaining to chastity: in that it deprives us of the means of satisfying sensuality through the numberless little gratifications which money can procure and it compels us to live a life of labour, frugality, constraint, exterior humility, mortification of the senses - all of which are eminently proper to subdue concupiscence.
• pertaining to obedience: it effectually despoils us of temporal goods, and places us in the state of material subjection and dependence on our Superiors, to whom we must have frequent recourse for permissions. This dependence is a great help to humility of heart and submission of will and judgment, which constitute religious obedience.

The Vow of Poverty is taken by Religious:

• To imitate Our Lord, "Who being rich became poor for your sakes: that through His poverty you might be rich" (2 Cor. 8:9).
• To follow the counsel of the Divine Master: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast" (Matt. 19:21).
• To be at liberty to devote themselves exclusively to the service of God and of the Society.

The Vow of Poverty relieves the Religious from the unceasing anxieties, disquieting desires and endless schemes which are inseparable from the management of temporal affairs. It exempts them also from the worry of providing for their own material wants which are amply supplied by the Society.

• To be free from covetousness and the many earthly temptations arising therefrom.
• To reach a more complete detachment from earthly riches and a more intimate union with God.
  

Material Goods are gifts from God that are necessary but, among us, no one calls what he possesses his own. Among us, all is shared in common, and ought to serve the needs of the community.

Called to follow Christ and “to preach in the steps of the Apostles who were poor” (RM 2), we take upon ourselves to live a life of apostolic poverty.

The Monfortian spirit desires that we be poor, first of all, before God. We must wait upon Him for everything, as did the Immaculata, who is the perfect example, and we must commit ourselves completely to His work of salvation.

As regards material possessions, this fundamental spiritual attitude makes itself concrete by an expression that is at the same time:
        -personal: we own nothing which might divide us from community life, nothing to divert us from our apostolate;
        -communal: we must not become permanently settled in any one place, but remain missionaries ready for every call.

Apostolic poverty is very exacting, because it means a life dependent on Divine Providence and on our fellow man. It refuses to put its trust in money or in the power that money can give. Such poverty demands detachment which commits us to imitate Christ, even to the point of His own self-emptying on the Cross.

By relying on God Alone, we show the world that God is the source of all good and it is He Who gives ultimate meaning to our lives. In our Society, where all is in common, poverty is a sign of the coming of Christ's Kingdom.

Our Montfort Consecration to Jesus through Mary is a school of availability, where we learn to place ourselves side by side with the very poor. Thus we enter into the very movement which brought Wisdom to unite Himself to our human nature by His Incarnation.

We should love poverty as a mother, and according to the measure of holy discretion we should, when occasions arise, feel some effects of it. By this, we will have a true detachment from worldly goods.

By our Vow of Poverty we commit ourselves neither to dispose of nor to use any material possession without the permission of the Superiors. We are called to live by sharing, and, both as individuals and as a community, to use moderately the goods at our disposition.

We retain radical ownership of the goods of our patrimony.

A missionary may acquire a patrimony or increase it:
        -by a transaction between living members of his family up to the fourth degree,
        -by receiving a legacy on the death of another person, whoever he may be.

Given continual inflation, the Superior General may permit to whoever requests it that the interest of his patrimony be added to the capital, to avoid loss of value.

For a Perpetually Professed missionary to renounce his patrimony, in whole or in part, the authorization of the Superior General is required. (CIC 580.3).

Whatever a religious may acquire over and above his patrimony, by whatever title, belongs to the Society. The fruit of our work, pensions, allocations, insurance, gifts we receive, in a word, all that we can acquire, comes to the Society.

Our state of dependence in the use of material possessions, including money, can be shown in a variety of ways, according to circumstances. In all cases, the religious must give an account of expenses incurred as agreed with the Superior concerned.

A life of poverty means neither indigence nor easy-going comfort. Our vow will restrict us to a modest standard of living, exempt from luxury, undue profits, or the accumulations of funds or property. We must make use of material things with a moderation becoming to those who are voluntarily poor, giving thanks to God.

In a spirit of poverty, great care must be taken in all our houses that food is never wasted.

Individual houses of the Society will share their material possessions, those more fortunate helping those less so.

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