Religious Life
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Date
1997-03
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Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
In this context, Religious Life is a consecrated way of life that people choose voluntarily
in order to dedicate themselves fully to the service of God. Religious life is sometimes
referred to as the consecrated life. It stands at the very heart of the church as a decisive
element of its holiness and mission'. Prayer, service to the community, community living,
characterizes this way of life. It also demands that people living it show good witness to
society around them. They should lead a simple and yet valuable kind of Christian life. In
order to achieve this kind of life style, people that pursue this life follow some guidelines.
These are rules that have been bound together in what I could call Religious vows. These
rules are actually based on scripture.
In this essay, I would like to highlight these rules or vows as they are commonly called
and relate them to some aspect of scripture and the general day today living of the
religious. I will make reference to the rules in the constitution of my own congregation as
an example. Rules of many congregations would be similar to these. I would also like to
write about how people live them out; what is good about them and how challenging they
are I would also like to write about how people live these vows when they are under
temporal vows and how they live them when they have attained their final vows. In order for me to come out with some concrete information. I have tried my best to conduct some
interviews with people in Religious Life, mostly from my own congregation. These are
people under temporal vows I have also talked to people under final vows and have tried
to find out from them if they have met their expectations. I have not forgotten to talk to a
few people who were once in religious life but have since left. It was good to listen to
them I will also base my arguments on what the scriptures say. Religious vows cannot be
lived out fully without putting them in the scripture context The writings by the Pope in
"The Consecrated Life" cannot be left out also. This hide book gives an insight on the
expectations of a religious person. The various constitutions of the various congregations also have expectations on the
religious person. I have tried also to look at these expectations. Most importantly, I have
enjoyed talking to the actual persons who have made these final vows. Have they so far
met their expectations as religious? This is the big question for this essay. If they have
not, where did they go wrong or what is missing in religious life?
Description
Keywords
Before First Vows, Peoples' Expectations after First Vows, Final Vows, Biblical Interpretation of Religious life, Importance of Religious Life Today, Experiences of The professed after first Vows