The Religious State is one of the most brilliant manifestations of the life of the Trinity, one of the surest ways of imitating Jesus Christ and on of the most authentic and richest forms of Christian spirituality.

It is a stable way of life, in which a community of men, grouped under the Constitutions of the Society, not content with keeping the Commandments, strive by the practice of the Evangelical Counsels of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, to attain the ideal traced by the Saviour. "Be you therefore perfect as also your Heavenly Father is Perfect." Devised by the sovereign Wisdom, from all eternity, proposed by the Master to His disciples, it is one of the exquisite fruits of the Redemption: a vigorous and immortal offshoot growing at the very foot of the Tree of the Cross, watered and nourished by the Blood of Jesus.

Religious Life is not a human discovery. Considered, not in the multiplicity and variety of its accidental forms, but in the immutable substance, there can be no doubt as to its divine origin. The Saints, who, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, have raised through the centuries so many Orders and Congregations, have merely carried into effect, while defining and adapting it, the fundamental idea of Our Lord, that they are the contractors of a work of which Christ was the architect.

The Gospels, indeed, do not merely give us a few vague outlines of this way of life, but in definite terms, reveal its essential and characteristic features: poverty, chastity and obedience. A young man questions Jesus: "Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting? ... But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments - all these have I kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me? - If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." So much for poverty.

Now for chastity. "For there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it." For it is not granted to all to appreciate and carry out this ideal of purity. It is the privilege of an elite. Saint Paul echoes this teaching of the Master by proclaiming the eminent dignity of virginity. "Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give counsel as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful."

As for obedience, is it not expressed in the words, "Come follow me"? To follow Jesus is to imitate Him, especially in His total, universal obedience. His whole life was an ecstasy of love in submission to His Father, a fiat of conformity with and surrender to the Divine Will. Obedience was the food of His soul and the  quintessence of His whole religion.

A life of poverty, chastity and obedience; let us repeat that this is a nobler ideal, but an optional one offered by Our Lord Himself to generous souls, athirst for sanctity.

Renounce Sin

The first step in following a Religious vocation is the renunciation of sin - a total and definite renunciation. By his vocation, the religious is an official candidate for sanctity. Now nothing so impedes the perfect union with God as sin, when it does not completely destroy it. How could the consecrated soul, who is a living hymn of praise to the Trinity, dare to prove unfaithful, and to dishonour its Father, its Friend, its Heavenly Spouse, and ignominiously to outrage all His Infinite Perfections? and if it be true that the religious is a holocaust, has not God made it clear that He will accept only those sacrifices which are holy and unblemished?

Any one considering a religious vocation should already be laying a good foundation in his prayer life: attending Holy Mass [daily, if possible], frequent confession, a structured prayer life, having recourse to a spiritual director with whom you are discussing your vocation.

If you are living a life of sin, and remaining apart from God due to the absence of a well founded prayer life, there is not much of a sign that you are conscious of a religious vocation.

The Call

The Religious State can be the portion only of an elite: that is to say, of chosen souls. A special vocation is required for those who aspire to walk this narrow and uphill path. One cannot become a religious, just by wanting.

A vocation means "a call." The religious vocation, therefore, might be merely a call to leave the world, to enter a religious Order or Congregation, and therefore to consecrate oneself for life tot the service of God. In fact this call, when it concerns the priesthood or the religious state, is twofold - a call of grace and a call of Authority; the latter being merely the official verification and, as it were, the authentic confirmation of the former. The first comes directly from God, the second from God's representatives. Together, they make up a true vocation in every sense of the term.

Considered under its ascetical and mystical aspect, the vocation is the echo of a divine choice. From all eternity, God has determined a state of life for man created by Him; marriage, celibacy, ministry, or religion. It is the duty of each one to keep watch for that message.

So we see that no one can enter religion, unless he be called by God. Furthermore, in order to answer this call, he must hear it. One mistake, on this essential point, can entail grave, sometimes irreparable results; a life that is out of joint, barren if not evil, an eternity that is jeopardized. "The perfection of Christian life is not to rush into a cloister, but to do the will of God; that is our food, according to Our Lord. 'My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me.' "

How can one discover, with certainty, what is this divine Will? There is nothing simpler or more complicated, more luminous or more obscure, more painful or sweeter, more natural or more astounding than the birth of a vocation.  To begin, one must ask himself if he has the following:

• A desire to have a religious vocation, together with the impression that God is calling one to His service. This desire is generally most strongly felt when the soul is calm;

• A growing attraction for prayer and holy things in general, together with a longing for a hidden life and a desire to be more closely united to God;

• A conviction of the emptiness of the world and of its insufficiency to satisfy the soul. This feeling is often strongest in the midst of worldly amusements;

• A longing to sacrifice oneself and abandon all for the love of Jesus Christ;

• A longing for God's glory, a realization of the value of immortal souls, and a desire to cooperate in their salvation;

• A willingness to be received in any capacity is a proof of a real vocation;

• The happiness which the thought of religious life brings, its helps, its peace, its merit and reward;

• A desire to atone for sin, to make reparation;

• A desire to devote one's whole life to obtain the conversion of souls;

• It is sometimes the sign of a vocation when a person fears that God may call him; when he prays not to have it and cannot banish the thought from his mind. If the vocation is sound, it will eventually give place to an attraction. Though St. Thomas Aquinas explains that one need not have a natural inclination for the religious life; on the contrary, a Divine vocation is suitable with a natural dislike for that state.

If you have a sincere desire to fulfill these things, you may very well have a religious vocation.


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