Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

148 the Holy Spirit teaches the Marian to participate in the Trinitarian life in the incarnate modality of the evangelical counsels. 31 Through the evangeli- cal counsels, man lives from the Father (entirely dependent upon Him), in the Spirit (breathing and acting in Love), with the Son (in imitation of His way of life). That is, inasmuch as the Son has received all in the gift of the Spirit from the Father, He returns all in the same Spirit in thanksgiving to the Father through His life of the evangelical counsels and especially through His Paschal Mystery (cf. Heb 9:14). The evangelical counsels form a unity when seen from the perspective of the Triune God of Love: they are the incarnate expressions of the di- vine Love become flesh in Jesus Christ and in His disciples and religious. The evangelical counsels thus incarnate and bring to completion the di- vine work of consecration of the human person. The total self-giving that is made in word through the Oblatio is lived out in the flesh of Stanislaus and of each of the Marians in their daily religious life. That is, through the ac- tion of the Spirit who consecrates, the word spoken by Stanislaus becomes flesh in the evangelical counsels (Jn 1:14). Implications for Marians Today The basis of living the evangelical counsels is the total self-offering to God without reserve : nihil mihi penitus relinquendo. The regulations in the Constitutions regarding how to live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience ought not limit self-giving, but rather give it direc- tion and firm purpose: namely, the perfection of charity expressed in total self-giving. Indeed, the Marian vocation grows out of a personal experience of the love of God for him: “The authentic living of our identity as Marians of the Immaculate Conception requires that we experience for ourselves the gift of the saving love of God in a personal encounter with Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.” 32 This gift of the saving love of God begins 31 Vita Consecrata , n. 21: “21. The deepest meaning of the evangelical counsels is revealed when they are viewed in relation to the Holy Trinity, the source of holiness. They are in fact an expression of the love of the Son for the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. By practising the evangelical counsels, the consecrated person lives with particular intensity the Trinitarian and Christological dimension which marks the whole of Christian life.” 32 Ratio Formationis, n. 19: “Our experience of God’s saving love, as in the life of Mary, manifests itself in a life of joy, love, praise, gratitude, and humility, to which we Marians are called to give witness before all. Th is gracious and merciful gift is the source of our desire and