Instruction on the Vows of

Stability, Poverty Chastity and Obedience

in the Congregation of the Mission

CONGREGAZIONE DELLA MISSIONE

VIA DEI CAPASSO, 30 

CURIA GENERALIZIA

 00 1 64 ROMA                   

TEL. (06) 666.37 30/32/36           FAX (06) 666.3831

January 25, 1996

To the members of the Congregation of the Mission

My very dear confreres,

May the grace of Our Lord be always with you!

      Today I place in your hands the new Instruction on Stability, Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience in the Congregation of the Mission.  As I do so, I find myself reflecting on the words that St. Vincent addressed to the members of the Congregation just a year before his death:

Those who become detached from the desire for worldly goods, from the longing for pleasure, and from their own will become children of God.  They enjoy perfect freedom.  For it is only in the love of God that real freedom is found.  They are people who are free, who know no law, who fly, who go left and tight, who fly still more.  No one can hold them back. (SV XII, 301)

      This instruction is, of course, just an instrument.  It will be effective only if we use it as a tool for genuine personal renewal.  The vows, as you know, involve not just a single commitment made after a period of initial formation; rather, they call us to ever-deepening fidelity, to ongoing renewal, to placing ourselves more and more in the hands of the Lord as evangelizers and servants of the poor.

      As you may recall, the 38th General Assembly of the Congregation (1992) decreed that the Superior General should prepare this instruction.  I am very grateful to those who helped in the process: Frs.  José Ignacio Fernández de Mendoza, John Prager, Jaime Corera, Léon Lauwerier, Hugh O'Donnell, Miguel Pérez Flores, and Benjamín Romo.  Likewise, I want to thank the Visitors and their councils, as well as the members of the General Council, all of whom offered suggestions that contributed significantly to the writing of the final document.

      You will notice that the instruction treats the vow of stability first.  The decree of the General Assembly asked that special attention be given to this vow since permanent commitment is a formidable challenge in contemporary society.  St. Vincent too recognized the difficulty of life-long fidelity and for precisely that reason he proposed this vow to the members of the Company.  He reminded them: "There is no better way to assure our eternal happiness than to live and die in the service of the poor, within the arms of providence, and in a real renunciation of ourselves by following Jesus Christ" (SV 111, 392).

       Let me say a few words about the use of this document.

       1.    During its composition, all of us who were involved in preparing the instruction became aware of how difficult it is to take into account all of the cultural differences that exist within the worldwide Congregation.  You will note in the instruction that we allude from time to time to the variety of cultures.  But, as I trust all readers will understand, it proved impossible to treat these differences explicitly in all their concreteness.  That is a task that we must leave to the provinces, in their own cultural settings.  I want to encourage particularly those who are responsible for formation, both initial and ongoing, to use this document as a means for further inculturation of our Vincentian tradition, vows, and spirituality within your own local circumstances.

       2.    I am eager that this document be used, not placed on a shelf where it will soon be forgotten.  It has been written in obedience to a mandate of the General Assembly, the highest authority in the Congregation.  In that light, I ask the Visitors:

a. to provide a copy of this instruction for each confrere;

b. to provide for its use as a basis for reflection during the annual retreats of the confreres in the calendar year 1997;

c. to provide for its use also as the basis for ongoing formation sessions within the provinces during the calendar year 1997;

d.  to provide for its use in the internal seminary and in the theologates of the Congregation as a means of assisting our own   seminarians in preparing for vows.

       3.    1 ask each reader to allow himself to enter into the spirit of this document.  Surely, not everything which could have been said has been said.  Let your own background and experience in living the vows enter into open and creative dialogue with this current expression of their meaning.  In this way, I hope that each of us can be like the head of a household who keeps both the new and old in his storeroom (Mt. 13:52).

       It will take humility to sit down and allow this document to be an "instruction." There is a tendency (I often see it in myself!) to think that we "already know all that stuff." For that reason, I encourage you, like Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to be a humble listener.  In Luke's gospel, she hears what God is saying through words and events and she then puts it into practice steadfastly.  She knows how to turn things over in her heart, to meditate on them, and to treasure God's invitations.  I hope that all of us can do likewise with the help of this instruction and, as a consequence, deepen our life-commitment to follow Christ the Evangelizer of the Poor in chastity, poverty, and obedience.

Your brother in St. Vincent,

Robert P. Maloney, C.M.

Superior General