For all its members, belonging to the Community of the Beatitudes expresses desire to give oneself radically to God. This gift of self, which takes form in different ways according to one's condition of life and the commitment one has made, shall always be an aspiration to walk a way of holiness in the following of Christ, who became poor and obedient, even unto offering his life for love of the Father.

After the required period of discernment and formation, members of the Community who feel so called may consecrate themselves for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven by private vows, assuming the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience (cf. can. 573). In this way they shall embrace more closely the form of life that Christ lived in this world. Through the renouncements inherent in the vows they are to take up their cross in the footsteps of Christ in order to strive all the more for the fullness of the love of God and charity towards their neighbor.

The object of the vow of chastity is perfect continence lived out in celibacy embraced for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, assumed willingly, as a total gift to God of one’s heart and one’s body. This vow is a sign of the life to come and a source of greater fruitfulness in an undivided heart. Theconsecrated members of the Community commit themselves to a special intimacy with Christ in prayer, to custody of the heart from every affection contrary to the love of God, to a faithful vigilance over the senses and the eyes, so that nothing may interfere with this communion of love with the Spouse, and to a greater availability of the heart to others in order to love each person with Christ’s own love (cf. can. 599).

The object of the vow of poverty, in imitation of Christ who, though he was rich, became poor for our sake, entails not only a life that is poor in reality and in spirit, industrious and sober, and removed from earthly riches, but also a dependence and limitation in the use and disposition of goods, in accordance with the present Statutes and the Norms. More particularly, it requires the consent of the Superiors of one’s Branch for the use of any goods whatsoever, and the practice of a total renunciation of resources in accordance with the present Statutes and Norms. It also requires a detached and unselfish use of community goods (cf. can. 600).

The object of the vow of obedience is to offer to God the sacrifice of one’s own will. Undertaken in the spirit of faith and love in the following of Christ who was obedient even unto death, it obliges the submission of one’s will to one’s lawful Superiors, who act in the place of God in all that refers to the life and mission of the Community, when they give orders following the present Statutes and the Norms (cf. can. 601).

Community of The Beatitudes 2011