Lest You Remain

intellect, memory, will, feelings, whole mind, whole soul, interior and exterior senses, and my body, leaving absolutely nothing for myself, so that henceforth I may be the servant of the Almighty and the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Therefore, I promise Them, that I will serve to the end of my life in chastity and in zeal, this Company of Marian Clerics of the Immaculate Conception (which, by the grace of God I intend to found). Further, I will to accommodate my manner of life to its laws, decrees, and rites that I will never cause or permit or agree, even indirectly, to be abolished or altered in any way or any dispensation from them be granted, except for a very serious and lawful necessity. Moreover, I promise a judiciously understood obedience to His Holiness, the Vicar of Christ and to his lawful delegates, as well as to all my direct and indirect superiors and this, that I will own nothing privately, but that I will regard everything as common property. I confess that I believe everything that the Holy Roman Church believes and what she will tell me to believe in the future; above all I proclaim that Mary, the Most Holy Mother of God, was free from original sin, from the first moment of her conception. Therefore, I promise to promote and defend her honor and to lay down my life, if necessary. So help me God and the Holy Gospels of our Lord. Topic III : EVANGELICAL COUNSELS The Word of the Lord (Phil 3:7-21) Righteousness from God . [But] whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and [the] shar- ing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Forward in Christ. It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may pos- sess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus}. Brothers, I L EST Y OU R EMAIN W ITHOUT W ORK IN THE V INEYARD OF THE L ORD 34