V.J.E.
This year, as we celebrated the First Vows of our sisters, we want to share with you a series of reflections on how living our religious life and professing the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience allow us to live in freedom, totality, faithfulness, and fruitfulness each day. This series is inspired by St. Pope John Paul II’s reflections in the Theology of the Body.
This reflection on totality is written by Sr. Katherine Joseph Marie Allensworth, HMSS.
Give God Everything
To give God all that I am and all that I have is the call of religious life. To be totally free, totally available, and totally given to God and whatever He asks of me is a radical way to live. How does anyone live that out each day?
I think it starts with receiving from God. It all flows from His love—His total gift of Himself to us. His Heart burns to love all of who He made us to be. God desires to love us and give us His very life. It is from Him that I am able to give who I am and all that I have.
We receive His love each time we receive Him in the Eucharist at Mass and adore Him in the Blessed Sacrament. It is by first receiving that I am able to give totally. He shows me what it means to give without reserve. He gives Himself to me in the Eucharist—no questions asked, no conditions, no restrictions. It is the gift of Someone madly in love with me, and all He desires in return is to be loved. He simply wants me to love Him with my whole heart.
How do I do that? How do I even begin to return this total love?
As a consecrated religious, my beacons in loving God with all that I have and all that I am are my religious vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience. These vows guide me in learning how to live totally for God. They are the starting point, not the end. They are like a lens through which I can view my thoughts and actions each day. They point me to Jesus because this is how He lived. Living them takes shape in the ordinary moments of my day, not only in the heroic ways I may be called to embrace the vows. By imitating Jesus’ example, I learn to live totally for God by first receiving His love and then giving it to others, just as He did.
It always comes back to receiving from God. We can only give totally when we have first received. Everything we give in religious life is an overflow of the love God has poured—and continues to pour—into our hearts. Without His love, I cannot give totally of all that I have and all that I am. I was made by God in love, to receive His love, and to love Him in the people He places in my life. This reality—how I am made and His continual gift of love to me—is the reason I can give myself totally to Him.
I never need to be afraid to give God everything because I know that whatever I give Him, He will return to me, shaken down and overflowing with His love. For a heart totally given to God, there is no fear, because the One who gives me life will always love me.