Comment on our formula of profession
Our formula of profession
During my life I had many occasions to participate to religious professions of members of different congregations. I had also the chance to take in hand the constitutions of many congregations, especially of sisters. I am not afraid to say that I never saw a formula of profession so deep and complete as ours. I can say that it is the spiritually richest and theologically most meaningful formula I ever saw.
This formula condensate in few words the reality of our charism, of our vocation and also of our life. Let us see some points of it.
Responding: The call to religious life is not our initiative or something that one day we decide to do for the Lord. It is God's initiative and we respond to it.
to the love of God: is a call of love for a life of love. God calls us because he loves us. He loved us from the beginning, each one of us with a particular love, ad particular is the vocation he gives us. So vocation is something beautiful, precious which should be treasured. The one who loves us and calls us is God himself, the creator of everything, the one who knows how things are and go.
which calls me to follow Christ: This is the object of our vocation. As we said above, religious life is primarily a fellowship of Christ. Christ is the model to be followed in our life.
more closely: It is important to underline this two words because all Christians are called to follow Christ but we religious have to do it in a special way. The vows are what mark the difference with the baptismal consecration of all Christians.
With complete freedom: This speaks of both inner and external freedom. Nobody can force me to become a religious, neither my parents, nor my spiritual director. The vocation is ours and ours alone. But we should be free also internally. We have seen in the previous chapters what inner freedom means. This is not to deny the importance of spiritual direction. Spiritual direction is actually very important in the process of discernment. We ask a person with more experience to help us to verify our motivations; but at the end the decision is ours not his.
I offer myself totally: What we offer is not a material good or a precious item, but the whole of ourselves, life, desires. This reminds me of the prayer St Ignatius of Loyola put at the end of his Spiritual exercises: “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my intellect, and all my will -- all that I have and possess. Thou gavest it to me: to Thee, Lord, I return it! All is Thine, dispose of it according to all Thy will. Give me Thy love and grace, for this is enough for me”.
to the Father to be consecrated by him to a new life through Christ in the Holy Spirit: The whole Trinity is involved. We go to the Father, the Father makes us holy through the blood of Christ by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. What we start at the moment of our first profession is a new life, a life “informed”, moulded on the shape of the Trinity. It is a second creation and a second baptism.
I commit myself: So far God was the centre of all our statements. Now comes our part: we commit ourselves, we risk our life. It is a contract like the one of marriage and the counterpart is ourselves. What do we promise?
to live in the Orionine family: to become part of a family, a vast various family united by a charism, so we are called to make our own the style of Don Orione.
in communion with my brothers: The community life is much more than just living together and working together. I always wondered if this word communion of life has the same meaning as the word “communion” which we use for the Eucharist. If it is so, then, it is a commitment of becoming one with the others, of taking up on ourselves their failures and shortcomings, and laying down our life for their salvation. This is what Christ did when he got in communion with us.
adhering to Jesus Crucified: The fellowship of Christ is up to the end. We do not follow the miracles maker or the preacher. The death on the Cross is the highest moment of his love for us and of his sharing of our nature. It is the central part of his life. Jesus himself said: “If you want to follow me, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). Don Orione has wonderful expressions about the Cross: we should stay at the feet of the Cross; being crucified with him; the Congregation was born on a Holy Friday; it will flourish if it will stay united to the Cross of Jesus; etc.
in faithfulness to the Church and to the Pope: This is the central aspect of our Charism, the reason for which we chose this Congregation and not another one.
serving our poorest brothers and sisters: Also this is a pillar of our Charism and of our apostolate as we have mentioned in the passages about our charism. Don Orione insisted always that we should be serving the poorest.
for the sake of the Kingdom of God: All the preaching and acting of Jesus was focused on the coming of the kingdom of God. We are just continuing his mission as he has commanded: “Proclaim this message: the kingdom of God is near” (Mt 10: 7); “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation” (Mk 16:15).
Each one of the above points will be properly developed in one chapter of the same constitutions.
Thus trusting in the help of Mary, Immaculate Mother of God and Mother of the Church: The forth of the big pillars indicated by Don Orione, or, as he would call them, the forth big love. Here Mary is seen as the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, and the one who helps us (Mother of Divine Providence).
and trusting in the intercession of our Blessed Founder and of our Patron Saints: The saints who are in heaven are an integral part of our family because they are not dead but they live the eternal life. If the purpose of God is to have everyone to participate to this life of love, how much more those people can be active now than they were before, since now they are in direct contact with God. This is an answer to those protestant theories which reject the intercession of the saints. So the saints are part of the Church, the most important part because they are the part which already fulfilled the plan.
to you, N.N. Director of our Congregation (or to you, N.N., who take the place of the Director of our Congregation): the superior is the one who represents the family to which we come to be part, but also represents the Church by whom he is recognized. Now with the vows we take a new place in the Church and so the presence of a representative of the Church is the ratification of such position.
and before all you here present: All the participants are called to be witnesses of what happens. They too represent the Church, not in its hierarchical structure (that is done by the superior), but in the basic part as people of God. They represent also all the members of the religious family.
I, N.N. It is a personal commitment so nobody can substitute the person. We already spoke about it in the chapter on freedom.
make vows of chastity, poverty and obedience (and of special faithfulness to the Pope): The vows, which are the centre of our consecration and the way of living it, will be widely commented in their relative chapters.
for one year (for life): The fact that the profession is valid only for one year does not make it less serious or less valid. It is a canonical requirement to give a period of 3 – 9 years to verify the authenticity of the vocation. Of course any test will be effective only if taken seriously and lived at the best of capacities.
according to the Constitutions of the Little Work of Divine Providence. The one we commit ourselves to is a very clear path, well indicated by our rule of life (see introduction about rules).
May the grace of God and your brotherly communion help me to be faithful. Amen. This sentence is a humble acknowledgement of our weaknesses and of the need of the support of our brothers.
As we can see all the chapters in our constitutions are dealt with in this formula: the consecration, the religious family, the vows, the community, the prayer, the apostolate, the authority. Administration only is missing.