DECREE ON THE UP-TO-DATE RENEWAL OF RENEWAL OF RELIGIOUS LIFE

                                                  Vatican II Perfectae Caritatis

Salient Points: 

1.   The pursuit of perfect charity by means of the evangelical counsels traces it origins to the teaching and example of the Divine Master and that it is a very clear symbol of the heavenly kingdom  (Lumen Gentium).  

2.   From the very beginning of the church, there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty and to imitate him more closely by practicing the evangelical counsels 

3.   The imitate Christ: pure, chaste and obedient. 

4.   The up-to-date renewal of the religious life comprises both a constant return to the sources of the whole of the Christian life and to the primitive inspiration of the institutes, and their adaptation to the changed condition of our time.  The renewal under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the church must be promoted in accordance with the following principles. 

a.   The following of Christ as it is put before us in the gospel must be taken by all institutes as the supreme rule. 

b.    For the good of the church, the institutes have their own proper characters and functions.

c.    All institutes should share in the life of the church. 

d.   Members of institutes must have proper understanding of men and women. Of the conditions of the times and the needs of the church so that capable of the wise judgement and greater zeal they may able to help men and women more effectively. 

e.    Religious life is ordered to the following of Christ by its members and to their becoming united with God by the profession of the evangelical counsels.  For this reason, it must be seriously and carefully considered that even the best-contrived adaptations to the needs of our time will be of no avail unless they are animated by the spiritual renewal which must always be assigned primary importance even in the active ministry. 

                                                             Sister Ma. Estelita Carbon, OP
                                          Sta. Catalina Convent
                                                     Lagao, General Santos City

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Last Updated: Saturday, December 01, 2001 01:02:27 PM