Jesuit Vows

Ignatius imagined religious life in nonconventional terms. For Ignatius, his monastery was the world; his prayer, to find God in all things; his work, whatever helped people.  In this setting, the vows become instruments to enable Jesuits to do the work of the Kingdom.

Chastity centers on one’s affective, sexual life.  It is a vow which orients one’s energies to a love people can trust.  Jesuits should be men of generous acceptance and availability.  Their chastity is the willingness to be available to all, not exclusively to one person or to one family.  The Society of Jesus looks for men capable of directing their affective life towards all people, caring about them with the integrity of Christ.

"This life of chastity consecrated to God offers a living witness that Christ can engage human beings in so comprehensive a love and a prophetic reminder that we were created finally for that future life with God in which the children of the resurrection will "neither marry nor give in marriage" (Luke 20:34-36).  In this way living unmarried for the sake of the kingdom of heaven preaches the Gospel in deed rather than words..."  (from General Congregation 34, Decree 8, #8)

Poverty focuses on using one’s energies, talents, time and resources for the good of other people. In an age when possessing means power over others, Jesuits take a serious promise to live in a public way as Christ did, believing that people are more important than things.

"Our poverty is apostolic because it witnesses to God as the one Lord of our lives and the only Absolute; it distances us from material goods and frees us from all attachment so that we can be fully available to serve the Gospel and dedicate ourselves to the most needy. In this way, poverty is itself a mission and a proclamation of the Beatitudes of the Kingdom."  (from General Congregation 34, Decree 9, #4)

Obedience, the touchstone of Jesuit life, does not simply concern the individual Jesuit and his Superior. Like Jesus, Jesuits look at the horizon of obedience, the Kingdom, and together, as brothers in the Lord, seek how best to follow God’s design. The role of the Superior in Jesuit life is to listen, to consult, to pray and then to direct his brother Jesuits toward specific goals. In such a context obedience touches on fraternal trust, openness, vision and communication. Obedience is a common call to all Jesuits to find and to follow, in imitation of Christ, the lead of God in their lives and works.

"Impelled by the love of Christ, we embrace obedience as a distinctive grace conferred by God on the Society through its founder, whereby we may be united the more surely and constantly with God's salvific will, and at the same time be made one in Christ among ourselves..."  (from General Congregation 31, Decree 17, #2)