and, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life” (Mt. 19:21,27-30). With these words to the rich young man in St Matthew’s gospel, Jesus extended a remarkable invitation to those few who are chosen to go a step beyond the commandments and the precepts and to voluntarily embrace the evangelical counsels. The importance of this invitation to those who heard Him is indicated by the fact that the episode of the rich young man and his vocation is given to us in each of the Synoptic Gospels. And, history has shown that from the very beginning of Christ’s Church, generous souls have accepted this invitation and embarked upon the ascetical path of poverty, chastity and obedience to God’s will. As Fr. Thomas J. McDonnell suggests in his book, Listening to the Lord in Literature: “The final proof that one is a disciple of the Kingdom is that he sells all, gives to the poor and follows Jesus completely with an undivided heart.”

Origins of Religious Life

“The Christian ideal is frankly an ascetic one and religious life is simply the endeavor to effect a material realization of that ideal. Before the fourth century, great religious founders such as St Antony