"Religion," in a special sense, or the "Religious Life" means the condition of those who live in community, and dedicate themselves to God by the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. The organized effort after perfection by such superhuman virtues, carried on by so many hundreds of thousands in every age is one of the greatest glories of the Catholic Church, it is a most complete reproduction of the life of Christ in actual practice, and manifests the wonderful operations of God upon human nature. Millions have renounced the world with its pomps, pleasures, and sins, on the faith of a future life, and out of pure love for God. They have resigned all material things by the vow of Poverty, the external exercise of their will by Obedience, and have dedicated their bodies to God's service by Chastity. Thus they are enabled to carry out every possible kind of work that the needs of religion and their brethren demand, and to render to God the untrammelled service of mind and heart. By combination and organization they multiply their individual efficiency; by their prayers they call down the blessings of God on mankind. Rejoice in this wonderful work of God in His Church; and in the existence of all this heroism of virtue, which outweighs the outrages of men against their Maker, the self-indulgence, greed, and revolt against law which are filling the world with misery.
