1

Module Lesson 14: Religious Life at the Service of Charity

Objectives:
 Expounds how commitment to the religious life means dedication to the service of God’s Kingdom.
 Be grateful persons who constantly respond to God’s call.
 Support vocations to the religious life.

A. Introduction

For Those Who Follow Jesus

Mark 10: 28-31

Peter spoke up and said, “We have given up everything to follow you.” Jesus answered, “Truly, there is no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands for my sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive his reward. I say to
you: even in the midst of persecution he will receive a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands in
the present time and in the world to come to eternal life. do pay attention: many who now are first will be last, and the last, first.”

Reflection
he promise of Jesus for those who left their home, brothers
Whatand
didsisters,
Jesus mean
for hiswhen
sake?he said “many who are first will be last and the last firs

Jesus assures in the Gospel that anyone who has forsaken everything to follow him will never go unrewarded. God will always provide
their needs and they will inherit eternal life. The first should make themselves last and should be the servants of all, the least important
in the community should be prized as most important, childhood is a better model of discipleship than adulthood and those who give
up all they have are greater than those who are wealthy.
B. Lesson Proper
Consecrated Life

Following Christ more closely has been the life of Virgins who are consecrated by the diocesan Bishop with an approved
Liturgical rite and the virgin is mystically betrothed to Christ, God’s Son: the virgin is dedicated to the service of Holy Mother Church.
With the rite on Consecratio Virginum, the consecrated virgin is considered a sacred person, a sign that is transcendent, an
eschatological image of the Bride of Christ.
 2

The order of virgins, just like other forms of consecration, established the woman or the nun in prayer, penance, service to
others, apostolic activity, among others according to the state of life and spiritual gifts endowed. During the first century, religious life
was character, public profession of vows, fraternal life in community, witness to the unity of Christ with his Church.

Multiple Structures of Charitable Service in the Social Context of the Present Day

Despite faster multimedia, and great achievements in science and technology, fact is, there is still much suffering in this world:
poverty in both material and spiritual sense. Numerous organizations for charitable purposes are established for humanitarian solutions
either for social or political problems. The Catholic Church through John Paul II teaches in the encyclical, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis that
the Catholic Church is always open to cooperate with other churches and communities for human charity.

The Distinctiveness of the Church’s Charitable Activity

The increase of the many different organizations and activities to meet the human needs is due to the power of Christianity
spread beyond the world and the charitable activities of the Catholic Church which are not merely social assistance.

Essential Elements of Christian and Ecclesial Charity:

1. Christian charity as an example given by the Good Samaritan is a simple response to a human immediate need- feed the
hungry, clothe the naked, care and heal the sick, visit the prisoners, among others. Those who care and deal in charity need
also professional training. Charity workers need the “heat formation” that is an encounter with God in Christ to cultivate the
love of neighbor from one’s faith, an active faith because of love.
2. Christian charitable activity must not be equated with Marxism or other parties of ideologies. The Christian program is the
heart of Jesus for his people. Where love is needed, the heart sees and the hands act accordingly.
3. The deepest cause of suffering is the absence of God. Christian charity must not impose religion but the love of God because
God is love. All members of Church’s charitable organizations must have the formation of credible witnesses of Christ in their
words, silence, and example.
Responsible for the Church’s Charitable Activity:

1. The Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops states specifically the charitable duty and responsibility of the Diocesan
Bishop and the whole Church. Charity is essential in the Church’s mission from the beginning, like the ministry of the Word
and Ministry of the Sacraments.
2. Catholic charitable organization’s staffs and workers are persons whose hearts Christ has conquered with his love that
awakens in them the love of neighbor and inspire the love of Christ to reach, act, and spread Christ’s practice of love.
3. Summing up the reflection of love by ecclesiastical service for any activity is nothing if it does not express a love nourished by
Christ’s encounter in man.
4. Humility is the disposition of one who serves charity because it follows or imitates the humility of Christ , who took the Cross
as his place to be. The people who serves are just instruments of God’s love where duty is a grace; those who serve and the
ones served are reciprocal in humility and service.
5. Prayer is drawing new strength from Christ that charitable workers are not drawn from the world’s temptations of doubt,
discouragement or a mere of ideology of service. Blessed Teresa believed charitable workers need a deep connection with
God by prayer.
6. Christian charity workers must place prayer as truly important especially as confronted by activism and secularism.
Obedience to his will and a personal relationship with God can let one encounter the Father of Jesus Christ, as well as asking
in the grace of consolation of the Spirit in the charitable work of compassion of God.
7. Believing in the goodness and loving kindness of God, Christian charity workers remain steadfast in the belief that God’s love
as a Father is forever, it admits suffering and it seems his silence is not understood completely.
8. Christian charity workers hold in their hearts faith, hope, and charity. The virtue of patience is a practice in hope to continue
doing good in spite of failure. By humility, one can accept the mystery of God and trust in him at all times. Faith assures that
Jesus is God’s love for us. Love triumphed on the cross despite the process of darkness.

The Vows Professed by the Religious

The vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are not easy to follow. But priests and the religious fully assume these
evangelical counsels as vows. The consecrated life or religious life is a privileged means of effective evangelization. Called to a greater
service of the Kingdom, the religious bind themselves freely to observe the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

C. Synthesis/ Closure/ Wrap Up

Remember!
 3

- Religious life is a gift received from the Lord, a gift she offers as a stable way of life to the faithful called by God to profess the
counsels.
- The consecrated life or religious is a privileged means of witnessing God’s kingdom to all people. They are of two distinct
groups: the Contemplative Institutes and the Active Institutes.
- The life consecrated through the profession of the evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity, and obedience is a stable form of
living by which the faithful member of the Church follows Christ who is poor, chaste, and obedient to the will of the Father.

D. Enrichment Activity

It is said that, “The vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are not easy to follow but priests and the religious fully assume these
evangelical counsels as vows.” With this, though we are not professed and religious, are also invited to embrace the vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience in our own way. How will you exercise these vows in your life? Write your reflection inside the boxes below.

VOWS Application into my life…

Poverty

Chastity

Obedience