Identity Construction of Roman Catholic Religious Sisters in the ...

commitment‖ (p.120). In other words the companionship of others in community facilitates in
a myriad of ways the instances of living out the evangelical counsels. In as much as chastity
is a gift of grace it encounters enormous challenges, which come from the world‘s ―ravaging
eroticism‖ (ET # 13), and the individual‘s weakness. Therefore, to combat these challenges,
the community is expected to be a support system which preserves chastity through the
―common life in true brotherly [sisterly] love‖ (PC #12) sustained by ―relationships of
friendships‖ (ET #39).
b) Poverty
Through the vow of poverty the religious forms a spirit of detachment from material things
for the sake of the kingdom. This frees her to attach herself to God and the things of God.
The vow of poverty brings the religious to imitate Christ‘s dependence on God, just as ―the
Son…receives everything from the Father, and gives everything back to the Father in love‖
(cf. Jn. 17:7). Likewise, the religious receives from her congregation what she needs for her
life and apostolate and she in turn, is a total gift, at the disposal of the congregation (SHCJ
const. 24). Furthermore, Nolan (2007) argues that the vow of poverty is a promise to share
with others in the community rather than be seen as opting to be ―poor, needy and destitute‖
(p.5). O‘Murchu (1991) describes religious poverty as having an underlying value of shared
talents, time, care and concern for all created things. In other words it is a vow that is
experienced through relationships not just with others in community but identifying with
Jesus who became poor in order to enrich the world (cf. 2 Cor. 8).
c) Obedience
The religious who vows obedience does so in imitation of Christ who was obedient unto
death. The ultimate motive of religious obedience is a loving desire after the example of
Jesus, to do God‘s will (Pitts, 2009). It involves the act of listening in order to discern
(CICLSAL, 2007; O‘Murchu, 1991, 1999), and the concern for the religious is to discover
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