Animated by contemplation…

Religious therefore, faithful to their profession and leaving all things for Christ's sake, should follow Him, regarding this as the one thing that is necessary, and should be solicitous for all that is His.

The members of each institute, therefore, ought to seek God before all else, and solely; they should join contemplation-by which they cleave to God by mind and heart-to apostolic love, by which they endeavor to be associated with the work of redemption and to spread the kingdom of God.

They who make profession of the evangelical counsels should seek and love, above all else, God who has first loved us. In all circumstances they should take care to foster a life hidden with Christ in God which is the source and stimulus of the love of neighbor, for the salvation of the world and the building -up of the church. Even the very practice of the evangelical counsels is animated and governed by this charity.

For this reason, members of institutes should assiduously cultivate the spirit of prayer and prayer itself, drawing on the authentic sources of Christian spirituality. In the first place, let them have the sacred scripture at hand daily, so that they might learn "the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus" by reading and meditating on the divine scriptures. They should perform the sacred liturgy, especially the holy mystery of the Eucharist, with their hearts and their lips, according to the mind of the Church, and they should nourish their spiritual lives from this richest of sources.

Thus refreshed at the table of the divine law and of the sacred altar, let them love the members of Christ as brothers, let them reverence and love their pastors in a filial spirit, let them more and more live and think with the Church, and let them dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to its mission.

Vatican II, The Renewal of Religious Life # 5-6; 28 October, 1965.