Virginity No Longer A Requirement For Consecrated Virgins

"A consecrated virgin is a never-married woman who dedicates her perpetual virginity to God and is set aside as a sacred person who belongs to Christ in the Catholic Church." [1]

Virginity is supposed to be a requirement for a consecreted virgin before; but now, "[w]omen seeking to join the Order of Consecrated Virgins will no longer have to be virgins, according to the new guidelines for the vocation." [2]

Quoted below is also from Life Site News  [3]:

The new Instruction for the Order of Virgins, “Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago” (“Image of  the Bride-Church”), released July 4 by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, says the call to perpetual chastity as a consecrated woman living in the world cannot be reduced to “the symbol of physical integrity.”

Therefore, the instruction continues, “ ... to have kept her body in perfect continence or to have practiced the virtue of chastity in an exemplary way, while of great importance with regard to the discernment, are not essential prerequisites in the absence of which consecration is not possible” (ESI, 88).

It is interesting to note that the use of a word no longer needs to be tied strictly to the meaning and usage of the word.

This blogger wonders when the Vatican will issue new parallel instruction for all baptized Catholics, pronouncing that while it is of great importance for baptized Catholics to have believed in and abided by the Catechism of the Catholic Church in an exemplary way, faithful adherence is not an essential prerequisite in the absence of which considering oneself as a devout and holy Catholic is not possible.  In other words, any baptized Catholic can be deemed devout and holy even if the principles promulgated by the Catholic Church are ignored.



[1] http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=17794
[2] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-consecrated-virgins-no-longer-have-to-be-virgins
[3] Ibid.

Into An Intimate Relationship With The Lord

As unworthy as one may be, one must not hesitate to have a personal conversation with the Lord at any time of day or night on any matter big or small, while simultaneously acknowledging all of one's sinful imperfections and accepting humbly all of the challenges and sufferings one may be facing presently.  In this state of sincere honesty and contrition, the Lord will answer.  He answers not because one loves Him exceedingly and perfectly but that He loves abundantly and forgivingly anyone who believes in Him and goes to Him.  How can anyone comprehend fully His love?  One cannot because His love is not in the least comparable to the love one understands and can give since at no time can a sinner love the Lord, or anyone else for that matter, perfectly and exceedingly.

To love the Lord exceedingly and perfectly one must be like the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Who can be like Her when She was conceived without Original Sin and Who suffered quietly at all times when Her Son suffered?  How much empathy does one have and how often does one's heart hurt saying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary while recalling that Christ was scourged, that He wore a crown of thorns and carried a cross too heavy for him while being mocked and that He died an excruciatingly painful death on the cross while giving away His beloved Mother?  Not much empathy can be noted and not often does the heart feel anything while saying the Sorrowful Mysteries of rosary are probably the true answers for most Catholics, no matter how devout.

One's relationship with the Lord does not come to an end despite one's incomplete and defective love for the Lord.  From the Lord's Sacred Heart, wrapped by a crown of thorns and pierced by a sword, emanates love so abundant that anyone who is sincere about repentance and who goes to the Lord every time the body and the soul is wounded severely by self-inflicted sins will be enveloped by it. This love is in essence the blood of eternal life that washes away sins that has been transformed into eternal love that flows continuously from the Lord's Sacred Heart.

It is difficult for this blogger to accept that the Lord's love is always constant, abundant and forgiving because of how unworthy he is of it.  While this is true, it is also true that this love ought not to be ignored, rejected or unreciprocated, even though a sinner's reciprocal love is necessarily defective and incomplete.  An intimate relationship with the Lord is bi-directional even though the constancy, quantity and quality of love between the Lord and sinner can never be equated.  It is always the Lord Who is willing to have this relationship and it is always the sinner who chooses to forsake it.  Connect always with the Lord and the Blessed Mother (through Her Sacred Heart to Her Son's) and wait for their replies while being faithful, humble and patient no matter how difficult or painful may be the present.