Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

154 counsels ensure that one lives in light of the Father’s will, in the concrete imitation of Jesus and the Immaculata. The Liturgy – particularly the Eucharist as the self-offering of Christ to the Father – is a privileged source of formation for Marians, “the font from which all its evangelical strength flows.” 58 The manner of worshipping God in spirit and truth (cf. Jn 4:24) is by offering our bodies as our spiritual of- fering to God (cf. Romans 12:1). That is, true worship is the offering of the bodily, fleshly human existence in a way that is conformed to the Logos, to Jesus. The concrete manner in which a Marian worships the Triune God finds its culmination in the Eucharist but is completed through the daily imitation of the evangelical way of life of Jesus and Mary. In living accord- ing to the Holy Spirit who inspired the law, Marians learn to fulfill it in the manner of Christ (cf. Mt 5:17-20), whose self-offering in the Paschal Mys- tery is the perfect worship of the Father. In Christ, there is no contradiction between the letter and the Spirit (cf. 2 Cor 3:6): the Constitutions indicate the daily path to living the Gospel and the counsels. 59 Conclusion Prior to the Oblatio , is the gift of God to Stanislaus that enables him to make a return gift; that gift is the Holy Spirit who imparts the charism of religious life and consecration to Stanislaus, to which he responds in his entire self-surrender and gift in the Oblatio. The Oblatio thus emphasizes not a mere canonical state (of preserving his status as a religious priest), but Stanislaus’ intentional covenantal relationship with God the Father in imitation of Jesus’ total self-giving through the particular gift and charism of the Holy Spirit. In light of that gift, Stanislaus freely chooses to under- take the commitments proper to religious life. The way to live out religious consecration is precisely by undertaking a common life through public profession of vows, lived out through the Constitutions. For the “distin- guishing mark of the religious institute is founding the way in which these 58 Ratio Formationis, n. 9. 59 Cf. Preamble of the Constitutions: “PREAMBLE—INVOCATIO DEI: In the name of the Triune God and for His glory, out of love and reverence for the mystery of the Immaculate Con- ception of the Mother of our Savior, under her protection and following her example, faithful to the Holy Church, for our sanctification and the salvation of others, We, the Marians, accept these Constitutions as a rule of life for living the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”