Since Religious Life is the highest state it follows then that it is also the hardest, and the reason is the means it employs to achieve its goal of perfection in Charity. The Gospel precepts are common to all three states. but the common life, and the vows of Poverty. Chastity, and Obedience are not. It is these three vows that make the common life workable and it is the common life that gives these councils their fruitfulness in Charity. Religious life would not be Religious Life without them.
What is a vow?
A vow, according to canon law, is a free and deliberate promise made to God of a greater good with the intention that it binds under pain of sin. When the Church becomes the witness for a vow it assumes the role and responsibility of guarantor. Thus she imposes a rule upon the religious orders to help them attain most effectively their Institute's proper end. Because a vow is an act of religion everything done by vow has the merit of a religious act: a meal, recreation, even sleep at night, if directed by obedience becomes as good as a prayer. Now let us examine the vows themselves.
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