Page 24 - SJC Constitution

Consecrated Chastity

ìThey are virgins, these follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits
for God and the Lamb. (Rev. 14:4)

Sacrifice of Love

22 Religious are to become a sacrifice of love to be offered,
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together with Jesus, to the Father and His People . This
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entails that we totally consecrate ourselves to Jesus as a
chaste bride . The vow of chastity is our means to consecrate
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ourselves to Jesus as persons without blemish before God
and the Church, as persons pure in body and soul, so as to
make ourselves totally available, through Jesus, to God and
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His People, thereby glorifying God with our body .
An Inestimable Gift
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23 Chastity is, indeed, a gift given by God the Father to His
chosen ones through His Son. It enables us to belong to Jesus
totally with an undivided heart and to render service of
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love to thousands even on earth by renouncing marriage and
family life for the sake of the Kingdom of God .
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24 The vow of chastity endows us with the blessing of being
the chosen virgins of God, who, by renouncing marriage
and family life, accept and serve Jesus alone as their life-
partner. Therefore we are bound by this vow to forgo the
mental and physical fulfillment due to married state and
family life and observe perfect continence. We shall be able
to acquire and preserve the power and fortitude for this only
by daily fostering and deepening a life of intimacy with Jesus,
our divine Spouse, which is to be nurtured through constant
prayer, Eucharistic life and discipline of mind and body.

25 The Church, through her marriage and the offering of her
body to her only spouse, Christ, partakes of the self-emptying
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