Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience

The Consecrated Life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit. By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus — the chaste, poor and obedient one — are made constantly "visible" in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in history, even as it awaits its full realization in heaven (Vita Consecrata, Pope John Paul II).

Chastity

"The evangelical counsel of chastity assumed for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, as a sign of the future world and a source of more abundant fruitfulness in an undivided heart, entails the obligation of perfect continence in celibacy. Its practice assumes that persons consecrated by the vows of religion place at the center of their affective life a "more immediate" relationship with God through Christ, in the Spirit." (Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life)

Poverty

The evangelical counsel of poverty in imitation of Christ who, though He was rich became poor for us, entails, besides a life which is poor fact and in spirit, a life of labor lived in moderation and foreign to earthly riches, a dependence and a limitation in the use and dispostion of goods according ot the norm of the proper law of each institute. (Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life)

Obedience

The evangelical counsel of obedience, undertaken in a spirit of faith and love in the following of Christ, who was obedient even unto death, requires submission of the will to legitimate superiors, who stand in the place of God when they command according to the proper consitutions. Further, all religious "are subject to the supreme authority of the Church in a special manner and are also bound to obey the Supreme Pontiff as their highest superior by reason of the sacred bond of obedience. (Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life)

Read the Directives for Religious Life at this link: DIRECTIVES ON FORMATION IN RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES (1990) (vatican.va)