Religious Life and The Three Vows

Vatican Council places chastity as the first -- the most characteristic of all as the others are one way or other common to all faithful. Celibate chastity has a special place in religious life and it is the distinguishing mark of our consecration for two reasons. First, it is the only vow whose content has been constant factor in all forms of religious life throughout history. Second, it is the only evangelical counsel in the traditional sense of a gift and not addressed to al Christians.

Poverty and obedience are concerned with ways of handling goods, which we cannot finally renounce but must use in some way, namely, material resources and personal freedom. Although poverty and obedience are structured differently in the life of a religious the they are in the life of a married or single Christian, religious are certainly not the only Christians to whom the evangelical challenges of poverty and obedience to God are addressed.