As a Public Association of the Faithful, members of the Monastic Expression make public professions of the Evangelical Counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. These are given the canonical weight under the ecclesiastical vigilance of the bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock, AR. A description of the evangelical counsels is given below.
from The Way of Life
Poverty
The gospel calls all Christians to a life of simplicity and poverty of spirit as a love response both to God and to people. This means moderately using the things of this world as pilgrims and strangers without losing full sight of the inheritance of our heavenly homeland. Following the primary example of Jesus, this includes denying ourselves both the things we need and the things we don't need, so that others might have the things they need. We are called to live simply, so that others might simply live. We distinguish between our wants and our needs, for indulging our wants can kill the needy. We are called to simply love the lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Gospel poverty is essentially a love response to God and to people. The beauty of gospel poverty is found in love. Poverty without love is an ugly curse that brings pain and death to the very people created in the image of our life-giving God. On the other hand, love without the sacrifice of poverty is as empty as a lifeless shell. Love is selfless. Selflessness brings sacrifice of self for the sake of others. This sacrifice manifests itself in various expressions of gospel poverty. Gospel poverty cannot be a willing self-sacrifice without love, and love cannot be Christian without the self-sacrifice of poverty. When we become poor in spirit, we come to know the wealth of God's love; and if we know the wealth of God's love, we gladly become poor for the sake of others. Gospel poverty is also an ascetical discipline which protects our life in God. We must love our neighbor, but we must love our neighbor as ourselves. Therefore, some protection of self in Christ is necessary before we can truly sacrifice self in the love of God for the sake of others. Therefore, Gospel poverty becomes an ascetical discipline which protects and nourishes our spiritual wealth in Christ.
Chastity
The Brothers and Sisters of Charity are called to espouse Christ Jesus as the bridegroom of their souls in a personal love relationship that is chaste. If this personal love relationship with Jesus is one of chastity, then there will be no question whatsoever as to who is the father of our spiritual children.
The chastity of our personal love relationship with Christ is incarnationally manifested through our human relationships according to our various states of life. For the celibate, the vow of chastity calls us to give up our right to marry and parent children in order to more fully espouse Christ alone. In this covenant of chastity, we imitate the literal way of Jesus who was himself without earthly wife or children. In this covenant of chastity, we free ourselves of all earthy domestic responsibility so as to more single-heartedly espouse both the Church and the community as the bride of Christ with Christ. In this covenant of chastity, we become a symbolic reminder of heaven where none will be given in marriage to another, but where all will be united as the one bride of Christ.
Since chastity is a pure expression of love itself, it is good to remember that love itself is not an emotion, but is an act of the will. Love is a decision that includes the emotions, but is not guided by them. The emotions are guided by the will and the decision to love. Love is a commitment; therefore, chastity in an expression of love requires commitment and a decision to persevere. If that commitment is based solely on emotions, then it will fail. However, if that commitment to chastity does not include the emotions, it will become dry, weary, and unbearable. So, let the healthy love oriented chastity find the balance between the human will and the human emotions, which is truly a God-given gift.
Obedience
The covenant of obedience calls us into a love union with Jesus, who obeyed both God the Father and the religious authorities of his day even to the point of death. In our covenant of obedience we, too, are called to obey God, the Church, and the ministers and leadership of the community. We also do well to obey the civil authorities whenever their law does not conflict with the law of God and the Church, for Christ Jesus himself, as well as the apostles, Peter and Paul, submitted themselves even to the unjust punishment inflicted on them by the civil authority of their day. In this obedience we give up our own will for the sake of the community, the Church, and the whole world, and come to find a new freedom and a life in their death to self will.
This does not, however, mean that we are not to respectfully make our needs and opinions known to the ministers of the community, the Church, and the world. As Jesus and the apostles spoke the truth, even when it conflicted with those in authority, so also must we. But as Jesus finally submitted to their authority, even to the point of death, so also must we; believing that in this death to self we share in the self-sacrifice of Christ, which brings new life and salvation to the whole world. Dialogue and love must, therefore, be encouraged if this obedience is to be a full expression of Jesus' love at work both within the individual members of the community and their ministers.
Ministers strive to create relationships and atmospheres where open dialogue is fostered. In this, however, all, both minister and member must conform to the Apostle Paul, who encouraged us to always give our reply in a humble respect.
Obedience is a direct outgrowth of humility, and humility is a direct outgrowth of a realization of the truth of the interdependence of all of the created world and a love which comes from God. All of the particular bodies of the created universe, animate and inanimate, human and nonhuman, are interdependent upon one another in the same way. This interdependency is not a choice; it is a simple fact of existence. It is a truth. Therefore, we are submitted to the various forces of nature. Likewise, we are subject to various human institutions, especially civil government. In particular, we are interdependent with the various members of the Church which bears the Spirit of God and is therefore the Body of Christ. This is true, especially, of particular communities in the Church, which have been given a special charism. by that same Spirit of God. God's image, the Church herself bears the Holy Spirit and is therefore the Body of Christ, and particular communities of the Church have been given a specific charism by the Spirit of Christ, proper obedience to these various realities facilitates at least in some way, obedience to God himself.
Therefore, our covenant of obedience is based both on the fact of the interdependence of the created world, humankind, the Church of Christ, and this community in the Body of Christ, and also upon our love for God and people, which impels us to be conformed perfectly to the example of Christ Jesus himself.
Covenants
This lifestyle of charity will be lived out by the profession of covenant promises. These covenants are to God and to the community. These covenant promises will be professed according to various states of life and for various lengths of time by all who come to share this life of charity in imitation of Christ.
The primary covenant promises of charity are as follows:
a. Poverty: To live a life of apostolic poverty so others might know the wealth of the King of kings.
b. Chastity: To live a life of chastity so others might be wed to the Divine Lover.
c. Obedience: To live a life as bondservants to the King in obedience so others might know the freedom of co-heirs to his kingdom and the divine authority of Him who first humanly obeyed.
In addition to these three primary covenants, we may also profess the following covenants:
a. Substantial Silence: To live a life with an attitude of humble silence so that others might hear the living word of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
b. Substantial Solitude: To live a life of substantial solitude so others might come to know the presence of the constant companion.
c. Prayer: To five a life of contemplative prayer so others might experience the divine action of Jesus' love in their life.
d. Penance: To live a life of daily self-denial and conversion so others might turn daily to the comfort of the Spirit of Christ in their life.