Consecrated virginity - Embodying the pure bride of Christ

[Cecilia]

Embodying the Pure Bride of Christ

Joanne Whittering, a consecrated virgin and Oxford theology graduate, shows how such consecrated living is seen by the modern magisterium as a powerful embodiment of a key meaning of femininity.

Joanne Whittering FAITH Magazine January-February 2013

 

The Catechism says of the vocation of consecrated virginity:

"From Apostolic times Christian Virgins, called by the Lord to cling only to Him with greater freedom of heart, body and spirit, have decided with the Church's approval to live in a state of virginity "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven". (Mt 19:12) Virgins who, committed to the holy plan of following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop, according to the approved liturgical rite, are betrothed mystically to Christ the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of the Church." (CCC 922-4).

In today's culture the language of spousal love is unlikely to be the most obvious way in which a young woman will understand or express her love for Christ, much less His relationship to her. It seems either a bit alien, or in fact a bit presumptuous! What came naturally to St Catherine of Siena and Elizabeth of the Trinity does not come naturally to us any longer. But perhaps that is because it hides a confusion. What is being spoken of here is not the state of "mystical marriage" of which so many of the great contemplative saints were writing.

When the candidate is asked by the bishop in the Rite of Consecration, "are you resolved to accept solemn consecration as a bride of Jesus Christ the Son of God?", what he is asking is whether the candidate is called to embody the vocation of the Church herself as the Bride of Christ the Bridegroom. The language is not that of ecstatic mystical marriage, it is that of St Paul and the Apocalypse, and of the Church Fathers. But it still needs some unpacking for all that.

St Paul writes to the church at Corinth: "I have espoused you to Christ as a bride to her only husband" (2 Cor 11:2). And he works that imagery through more completely in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5, when he speaks of the mystery of the marriage between Christ and the Church providing the pattern for human marriage. There is background for this imagery in the Old Testament in the relationship between God and the people of Israel. It is an ambiguous image in that sometimes, as in Jer 14:17 and 31:4, it is the "virgin daughter Zion" or "Israel" who is betrothed to God in covenant fidelity, while at other times, as in the prophets Hosea and Ezekiel, Israel is the prostitute or adulterous wife.

The latter, however, is an image of infidelity on the part of the people, of breaking the covenant with God through sin. An image concerning sexual morality is not just about the moral value of chastity in itself. It connotes something beyond the morality of the particular act, namely fidelity or rejection of relationship with God.

So when St Paul picks up this language he also is using sexual purity, virginity, as an expression of ultimate fidelity to God: "I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband." And so he writes to the Ephesians:

"Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her having washed her with the cleansing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:22-30).

As Pope John-Paul wrote in Mulieris Dignitatem 25, the whole Church and all its members are the Bride. The Fathers understood this clearly, and one can find such beautifully expressive passages as this from Bl Issac of Stella:

"The Son, pleading for his bride, says to the Father, 'I desire that as you and I are one, so too they may be one with us.' The bridegroom [Christ] then is one with the Father, and one with his bride. All that he found alien in her he took away by nailing it to the Cross. He took upon himself what was her own proper nature and clothed himself in it; what was his own as God he gave to her. He took away what was of the devil: what was human he took upon himself; what was divine he conferred on her, so that all that belongs to the bride should become the bridegroom's" (Sermon 11).

That is a profound reflection for all the baptised in their relation to Christ, but what makes it applicable to the consecrated virgin in particular is that her virginity embodies the purity and fidelity of the Church to Christ. It is in that sense that it has a value beyond simply its own moral good. The prayer of consecration itself picks up this language when it speaks of this vocation in relation to marriage. It is careful to affirm that "the honour of marriage is in no way lessened", but it continues in a thoroughly Pauline language: "Yet your loving wisdom chooses those who make the sacrifice of marriage for the sake of the Mystery of which it is the sign. They renounce the joys of marriage but cherish all that it foreshadows".

It is obvious from this embodiment that there must be, as Archbishop Burke has said, actual virginity to offer to Christ and his Church.[1] One cannot embody, or consecrate, something one does not possess. And once consecrated the virgin cannot be dispensed from her consecration. In all these senses it is a different charism from a religious vow of chastity, even if its practical prospective effect is similar. Of this distinctive vocation, Mgr Paul Marie Guillaum, wrote the following in 2006, reflecting on the teaching primarily of Pope John Paul II but also of Pope Benedict, drawing out much of the biblical and patristic imagery discussed above:
 

"From a certain perspective, the [consecrated] vocation is a call to 'an interior encounter with the love of Christ, which is a redemptive love'. Christ calls you 'with an immense interior love'; it is a 'love of election', which invites you to belong no longer to yourself, but to belong exclusively to Him" (Redemptions Donum n 3,7).

Vita Consecrata affirms that consecrated virgins "constitute an eschatological image of the Heavenly Espousal and of the future life, in which they find the final plenitude of life in Christ their Spouse."[2]

There is a very personal relationship here between the individual and Christ. Her embodiment of the Church's vocation is not simply functional or representative. It denotes the relationship which she is called to have with Christ, without presuming on any special mystical state, which is a separate matter. It is probably true to say that this is a relationship which only begins to make real sense, rather than just theoretical sense, after the consecration itself.

Something of its character may be grasped, however, in reflecting that the other dimension to the spousal relationship is that the Church is primarily embodied in a personal way by the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is by immersing oneself in the Marian vocation - what has come to be called in the theology of von Balthasar and Pope Benedict "the Marian Profile"[3] - of the Church that the consecrated virgin will grasp the true spirit of her personal vocation to love and fidelity to Christ.

Marian Vocation

The Church has consistently referred all consecrated women to the Blessed Virgin as their model. And this teaching has recurred particularly in the teaching of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Blessed John Paul said to consecrated women:

"Love Mary of Nazareth, model of Christian Virginity ... She had the fullness, in her body and in her spirit, of that which you desire with all your might to be: virgin in her heart and in her body, espoused with a total and exclusive adhesion to Christ; Mother by the gift of the Spirit. My dear sisters, Mary is your sister, your Mother, the Mistress of your life" (Discourse, 2 June 1995).

 

"The example of Mary contains all the beauty of virginity and encourages all those who are called to the consecrated life to follow her example. The hour has come to re-evaluate virginity in the light of Mary. The hour has come to propose anew to young men and women [virginity as] a serious way of life. Mary is our aide to engagement, as in her appears the nobility of a total gift of the heart to God, and her fidelity strengthens our perseverance, always in moments of difficulty or danger" (29 March 1995, on The Virgin Mary and the Consecrated Life).

It is clear from the papal teaching that these two aspects, the Marian and the ecclesial, are inextricably linked. It is an inseparable link, which is clearly made in relation to the feminine in general in Redemptoris Mater 46:

"The Marian dimension of the Church's life takes on special importance in relation to women and their status. In fact femininity has a unique relationship with the Mother of the Redeemer... the figure of Mary of Nazareth sheds light on the vocation of womanhood as such by the very fact that God, in the sublime event of the Incarnation of his Son, entrusted himself to the ministry, the free and active ministry, of a woman. It can be said that women, by looking at Mary, find the secret of living their femininity with dignity."

At an essential level Our Lady's response is the perfect response of the created order to God the Father, in Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That perfect response is one which she, free from original sin, is able to make perfectly, but which we can only make by the redeeming grace of God, through our incorporation into the Body of Christ in its sacramental life. The life of redeemed humanity in the Church is one of full, humble, faithful, obedient response, one which Our Lady in her assent at the Annunciation, her faithful service of Christ in His ministry and in the life of the Apostolic Church, and her Assumption prefigures and exemplifies. It is that Christocentric Marian understanding which par excellence describes the vocation of consecrated virginityin particular.

"To give your undivided attention to the Lord."

St Paul's exploration of the vocation to Virginity in 1 Cor 7 provides the final aspect of the theological underpinning of this vocation. Fr Lucien Legrand explores this in depth in his The Biblical Doctrine of Virginity.[4] The Pauline view is that to be completely concentrated on the reality of salvation, that is to be completely concentrated on Christ, requires a certain extrication from worldliness which is more easily achieved in virginity than in marriage:

"The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord, but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs ... and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman, or a virgin, is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs ... I say this ... to secure your undivided attention to the Lord." (1 Cor 7:32-35).

The perspective here is that which the Catechism uses in referring to the words of Christ in the Gospel, that it is "celibacy for the sake of the kingdom" (Mt 12:19). Mulieris Dignitatem defines this as
 

"voluntary celibacy chosen for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, in view of man's eschatological vocation to union with God. ... it represents an 'innovation' with respect to the tradition of the Old Testament... celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, or rather virginity, is undeniably an innovation connected with the Incarnation of God. From the moment of Christ's coming, the expectation of the people of God has to be directed to the eschatological kingdom which is coming and to which he must lead the New Israel."[5]

It is in such a context that 1 Cor 7 needs to be understood as a complete affirmation of the vocation to be wholly concentrated on Christ, in anticipation of that time when Christ will be "all in all" in the Kingdom of God. As with the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, virginity is a radical orientation towards Christ, living the Gospel in the here and now, which is thereby an efficacious sign in the present of that final salvation which will be fully realised in the eschatological Kingdom at the end of time.

[1]'Burke, R.L. Archbishop Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi: the Rite of Consecration and the
vocation of Consecrated Virginity lived in the worldpaper given at Rome 2008 International
Congree of Consecrated Virgins (16 May 2008) para 15.
[2]Guillaum Mgr Paul Marie "D'un Pape a L'autre" 1 January 2006 Christi Sponas: Ordre
des Verges Consacrees from which I have made a rough translation.
[3]Von Balthasar and Ratzinger, Mary: the Church at the Source Ignatius Press 2005.
[4]Lagrand Fr Lucien MEP The Biblical Doctrine of Virginity Chapman 1963 pp 92-3.
[5]Mulieris Dignitatem 20.

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By Joanne Whittering

[Cecilia]

Consecrated Virginity in the World. What is it?

Article: 01.05.12

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Joanne Whittering FAITH Magazine May – June 2012

Miss Whittering was recently commissioned as a consecrated virgin in Folkestone Parish. Here she beautifully brings out the relevance of this ancient vocation to parish life today.

Consecrated virginity, the perpetual commitment of a woman who is a virgin to remain in that state, in faithfulness to Jesus Christ and prayerful service of His Church is, to say the least, counter-cultural. It is also very little understood even within the Church despite having existed from Apostolic times. It fell into disuse in the 10th century AD, only being revived after the Second Vatican Council, and is still a rare vocation at the diocesan level.[1]

That a phenomenon of women remaining virgins, dedicated to prayer, and living within the community, existed is clear in the New Testament in the central passage of 1 Cor 7. Later there is some evidence for virgins taking formal vows and living either in their own home or in a group under the guidance of bishops such as St Athanasius and St Ambrose, and this continued for centuries until monastic life became the dominant form of female consecrated life. The Second Vatican Council revived the ancient Order of Virgins in the life of the Church, in which the individual is consecrated to virginity, to a life of prayer and penance, and to the service of the Church under the jurisdiction of the bishop.

A Positive Affirmation of Love

Perhaps one of the most important points to make at the outset is that this vocation is not a negative asceticism but a positive response of the whole person to the love of Jesus Christ. It is often described as sequela Christi, following Christ, and the virgin as Christi sponsa, spouse of Christ, in a relationship classically described as epitomising the marriage of Christ and His Church. As the Rite of Consecration says:

The Church is the Bride of Christ. This title of the Church was given by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church to those like you who speak to us of the world to come, where there is not marrying or giving in marriage. You are a sign of the great mystery of salvation, proclaimed at the beginning of human history and fulfilled in the marriage covenant between Christ and His Church.

This chastity shares the same eschatological perspective as that of all consecrated life, that it is "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19:12). As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, it is "an eschatological image of this heavenly Bride of Christ [the Church] and of the life to come" (922-4).

The Rite is at pains to place a high value on the more common vocation of marriage, which is not to be considered as denigrated by implication, but it affirms the positive value of the vocation to consecrated virginity in itself. The candidate does not ask the Church to discern this vocation out of disparagement for the married state, much less out of a fear of her own sexuality, but as a joyous and full commitment of these potentialities to a complete love of Christ. The attitude of the candidate is that of Psalm 64: O God, You are my God, for You I long, for You my soul is yearning ... therefore I have gazed upon You in the sanctuary, to behold Your power and glory. It can only be understood in the context of a profoundly personal relationship between the individual and Christ,which is why it is considered primarily as a contemplative vocation. The bridal imagery invoked throughout the Fathers and in the Rite itself may sound awkwardly to modern ears, yet it contains a profound truth about the absolute fidelity to which the virgin is called.

A Vocation in the Church

Although this vocation is at heart profoundly personal and interior, it is at the same time completely rooted in the life of the Church. As Pope Benedict said to the Congress of Consecrated Virgins in 2008:

Your vocation is deeply rooted in the particular church to which you belong. It is your Bishop's task to recognise the charism of virginity in you, to consecrate you, and possibly to encourage you on your way in order to teach you the fear of the Lord as they commit themselves to do during the solemn liturgy of consecration.

The Code of Canon Law defines the Order of Virgins as distinguished by these twin aspects: "Virgins are consecrated to God, mystically espoused to Christ, and dedicated to the service of the Church when the diocesan bishop consecrates them" (Canon 604). Theirs is a vocation in the Church not simply at the representative level already referred to, but, as Pope Benedict emphasised, because the vocation is discerned, and the consecration conferred, by the Bishop with whom the candidate has a relationship. It is given its raison d'etre by living the Prayer of the Church both in the Sacramental life and in the obligation to pray the Divine Office. It is defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as being a vocation to "prayer, penance, and the service of her brethren"(CCC 923). In practice this vocation is embraced by women engaged in all manner of work, not all of which will be directly for the Church, and there are also hermits whose life of service is a hidden one. But normally the life of the consecrated virgin is rooted in the particular situation of her parish, in which she will wish to be a supportive and unobtrusive presence, in cooperation with her parish priest, and to serve as he considers appropriate. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, the particularity of her service will vary according to her gifts.

The virgin's recitation of the public prayer of the Church, even when prayed privately, unites her to the whole Body of Christ with whom she joins in the prayer of Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In that sense, even in her private prayer she can be said to be set apart from all and yet united to all. At a personal level the prayer of the Divine Office also strengthens the virgin in her own seeking of Christ by uniting her with the whole Church, and that discipline and objective reality of the Office will sustain her in the inevitable times of aridity in her spiritual life.

That two-fold balance of the interior vocation and exterior service permeates the Rite itself: May she give You glory through holiness of action and purity of heart. May she love You and fear You, may she love You and serve You (Prayer of Consecration). The candidate must hold these two aspects in balance in the way she lives out her vocation as they are inseparable.

Virginity, a Necessary Condition and a Spiritual State

Some may wonder whether actual virginity is a necessary condition of this consecrated state, and if so why? Such questions may arise because people confuse the vocation of consecrated virginity with the taking of vows of celibate chastity by religious and the consecration to celibacy of the secular priesthood. It is important to say at the outset that the consecration of virginity is the consecration of an existing state of virginity and not a prospective vow of chastity, even if the two have the same practical effect concerning the future; a further important distinction is that consecrated virginity is a permanent state from which one cannot be dispensed.

The remarks of Archbishop Burke on the necessity of actual virginity in his commentary on the Rite elucidate the point very precisely:

Once the virgin has knowingly and willingly given up her virginity, even by a single act, she no longer has the gift of virginity to offer to Christ and His Church. In the case of rape or involuntary incest, one can rightly say that the woman still has the gift of her virginity to offer, for she has not knowingly and willingly given it up.[2]

Why is the state of virginity in itself a precious one? There are two answers to this. First, it is the preservation of a state of faithfulness to Christ and the moral teaching of His Church, which has value in itself as never having been subject to grave sin. That is a good in itself, and the Fathers are quite clear that although repentance may restore spiritual virginity it is never to be considered equal in value to that of unblemished fidelity (see St Basil's treatise on virginity). Secondly, picking up on the latter point, virginity throughout Scripture is an image of obedient, covenantal faithfulness between Israel and God, and between the Church and Christ; it is this fidelity that the virgin is called to embody in herself.

Consecrated virginity cannot, of course, be simply an exterior discipline: without a chaste mind and heart, the life of the virgin would not be truly chaste. There is a complex interplay, therefore, between "spiritual virginity" and the exterior state, in the sense that each is the necessary complement of the other and neither is sufficient on its own. St John Chrysostom made precisely that point, that consecration is physical integrity mirrored in purity of heart. As Selvaggi writes, "the nature of consecrated virginity [is] holiness of body and soul, the one inseparable from the other, both for the glory of God in humble service and modest living in a stable way of life."[3]

As such it requires a degree of maturity, both spiritual and psychological, in the individual undertaking it; she must have lived long enough as a virgin in adulthood to be "serene in the practice of chastity by which she is able to fulfil her resolve to remain in the virginal state over a lifetime" (Archbishop Burke op cit para 17). It is a vocation that requires the capacity to dedicate her whole self: a capacity for warmth and friendship which understands and respects the nature of her focus without stifling the capacity for a generous relationship with others; a blend of purity and simplicity of intention in seeking Christ, with a well-rounded humanity. That is perhaps why it is normally suggested that the vocation is not suitable for those still young in their adult and spiritual lives, though the discernment needs to be made at the individual level.

Notes
[1] There is a Consecration of Virginity for religious, often practiced in enclosed monastic communities, but that is outside the remit of this discussion.
[2] Burke, R.L. Archbishop Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi: the Rite of Consecration and the Vocation of Consecrated Virginity lived in the world. Paper given at Rome International Congress of Consecrated Virgins (May 16th 2008) para 15. ]
[3] Selvaggi, Anne Marie "An Ancient Rite Restored: Consecrated virgins living in the world." Canadian Catholic Review January 1997.

[God's Beloved]

Cecilia, thanks for putting these articles here.  Truly enriching !

"When the candidate is asked by the bishop in the Rite of Consecration, "are you resolved to accept solemn consecration as a bride of Jesus Christ the Son of God?", what he is asking is whether the candidate is called to embody the vocation of the Church herself as the Bride of Christ the Bridegroom. The language is not that of ecstatic mystical marriage, it is that of St Paul and the Apocalypse, and of the Church Fathers. But it still needs some unpacking for all that."

I think this is a deep reflection by Joanne Whittering on which we could reflect further.

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Since quite some time i have been reflecting on  the information about our vocation that comes on the www.  on various occasions.  There is a common thread running through most of it to suggest that CV's dedication to the service of the Church is specifically & almost limited to a dedication to serve by praying for the community and that's it.  Very little is written about CVs being involved or encouraged to be actively involved in services that have a preferential option for the poor and marginalized.  The vocation tends to be romanticized too much with focus on love of God with hardly anything concrete about love of neighbour.  What could be the reasons for this?  Isn't this a reason why CV tends to be confused by some with a feminine alternative to the vocation of hermits [ although hermits can be men or women]?

The CCC mentions as follows:

924 "As with other forms of consecrated life," the order of virgins establishes the woman living in the world (or the nun) in prayer, penance, service of her brethren, and apostolic activity, according to the state of life and spiritual gifts given to her...."

For the state of life of a CV living in the world, the information I received in response to a query from the Congr. for cons.life in Rome about a decade ago, suggested that CV are called to give witness through active service in the Church & / or the world.

During a recent dialogue with the Pastor of my diocese i was told that he sees CV as a very active life and those whose primary calling is contemplative prayer need the support of community life to enable it......... and I think he is right from a psychological point of view.  Hermits however would disagree with this i guess.

 

 

 

 

[marietherese]

Excellent 

[Cecilia]

You are welcome -- the Bishop circulated JoAnne Whitterring's reflections to us.

I comprehend your points. Some women - who are consecrated virgins -- might have a life more of contemplation than active service. But this scenario is different to having no service - at all. If the spouse of Christ is absorbed in herself - this is not fruitful. She cannot be an ardent spouse - of Christ -- if she doesnt love or serve him -- in his brothers and sisters.

[MarysLittleFlower]

I agree that a spouse of Christ would love others whom He loves and serve them, but I suppose this could be done through active work or prayer and offering daily duties? Depending on the type of life. I don't know enough about CVs, maybe they are active and if Rome said so, - but I'm just thinking hypothetically  

[Cecilia]

A consecrated may actualise her love for Christ -- in myriad ways -- yet properly the works of mercy, spiritual and corporeal, befit Christ's spouse. It would seem unlikely -- that a devout bride of Christ, did not spend any time -- on the mercy works unless she had a sound reason -- of which her supervising bishop approved.

[God's Beloved]

Indeed, how else could a CV give witness to being a good mother!