All sisters in a religious order vow to follow the Evangelical Counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.  The vows are the same for everyone but the spirit in which these vows are lived out are unique to each congregation.  That spirit is determined by constitutions which are based on the intentions and the divine inspiration of the founder.  For us, we look to St. Vincent Pallotti and the early beginnings of our congregation in order understand our particular way of life in accordance with the vows.

• We live a simple life through the vow of poverty.  The world today defines for us what we need and what we must do in order to be happy.  Nearly everything can literally be given to us at the press of a button.  We are called to question this idea of happiness.  We have chosen to live counter-culturally.  Our joy does not come from what we have but rather from the ability to freely share the gifts we have been given whether they be personal, spiritual or material in service to others.
• We dedicate ourselves to the service of God through the vow of chastity.  When one gets married and begins a family their primary vocation in life becomes that of spouse and parent.  The focus is on the family and meeting their needs.  For us, we chose the vocation of religious life.  Our focus is on being at the service of all of God’s people and meeting their needs in whatever ways possible.
• We listen to the Spirit through the vow of obedience.  Obedience is as much about prayer and listening to the promptings of the Spirit as it is about obeying our superiors.  Obedience calls us to discernment.  We may not always understand why we are asked to do certain things or to go to a different place but our prayer and discernment allows us to trust in the process not matter how difficult it may be at the time.