Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

73 tism, inasmuch as it is the means by which the close union with Christ already begun in Baptism develops in the gift of a fuller, more explicit and authentic configuration to him through the profession of the evangelical counsels. This further consecration, however, dif- fers in a special way from baptismal consecration, of which it is not a necessary consequence. In fact, all those reborn in Christ are called to live out, with the strength which is the Spirit’s gift, the chastity ap- propriate to their state of life, obedience to God and to the Church, and a reasonable detachment from material possessions: for all are called to holiness, which consists in the perfection of love. But Bap- tism in itself does not include the call to celibacy or virginity, the renunciation of possessions or obedience to a superior, in the form proper to the evangelical counsels. The profession of the evangelical counsels thus presupposes a particular gift of God not given to eve- ryone, as Jesus himself emphasizes with respect to voluntary celibacy (cf. Mt 19:10-12). Further in the same paragraph, the pope remarked that a particular gift of the Holy Spirit is needed for the fulfillment of this vocation. Moreover, he provided a reflection, extremely important for the members of religious institutes, about the reciprocal relation between religious and sacramental consecrations in the Sacrament of Holy Orders: As for priests who profess the evangelical counsels, experience itself shows that the Sacrament of Holy Orders finds a particular fru- itfulness in this consecration , inasmuch as it requires and fosters a closer union with the Lord. The priest who professes the evangeli- cal counsels is especially favored in that he reproduces in his life the fullness of the mystery of Christ , thanks also to the specific spirituality of his Institute and the apostolic dimension of its proper charism. In the priest, in fact, the vocation to the priesthood and the vocation to the consecrated life converge in a profound and dynamic unity (VC, 30). To ensure even greater clarity as to the specificity of religious consecra- tion and the interrelationships between different states of Christian life, John Paul II teaches: