English
Scrutiny on our Vow of Obedience
“scrutinium obedienza”
Scrutiny on The Vow of Obedience
Questions to ask ourselves and discuss at our community meeting –
- Share one example from your religious experience so far where the vow of obedience required much sacrifice from you.
- Am I glad to have professed this evangelical counsel, or do I have regrets at having done so?
- Which of the points/articles from the constitutions do I find most easy to accept and live by?
- Which of the points do I find most difficult to accept and live by?
- Has my vow of obedience helped me to surrender myself, my will, totally to God?
- Do I “sacramentalize” this obedience by a humble yet mature submission to the guidance of a superior? and by a sense of accountability to my salesian family?
- Do I allow Jesus to use me without having to consult me first, when he commissions me to a task via my superiors?
- Re-reading the articles of my vow of obedience (64-71 constits and 49-50 regs), how do I feel about it?
- How much inner tension / resentment do I experience in living “obediently”?
- If my vow of obedience is not “costing” me much effort, is it because I’m not living it to the full?
- Am I open to a change of responsibility or of community?
- Are there discrepancies in the way different members of our community understand and abide by the above principles of obedience?
- Do I see it together with my other 2 vows, as essential to my fulfilling my vocation?
Additional general questions on the evangelical counsels:
- Have the vows become so part of my nature, that to be true to my own self, I cannot but be true to them?
- Are they still only vows I have professed, or have they grown into genuine personal virtues? Visible virtues which other people recognise? - Do people really see the difference my vows make in my life?
- What does fidelity to my vows cost me? Make a list of the specific sacrifices entailed.
- Do I experience them as crutches with which I limp or wings that help me "fly"? Do I regard them as burdens, constraints, handicaps, or rather as liberating forces in my life, increasing my capacity to love?
- Are they still relevant to our world? (Winston Churchill once used the comparison: to be as irrelevant as a monk to the modern world! Am I?)
- Do I feel comfortable when we pray with the psalmist: "My vows to the Lord I will fulfil before all his people!"?
