Consecrated Virgins (Yes, They Exist)

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chromanebula
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12 Nov 2017, 2:16 am

Woman marries Jesus Christ, becomes consecrated virgin - USA Today

Quote:

Jessica Hayes, an Indiana high school teacher, married the love of her life Aug. 15, in a touching, albeit irregular, ceremony. Contrary to what one might expect, Hayes was not marrying a boyfriend.

She was marrying Jesus Christ.

Standing alone in a bridal gown at the altar of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne, Ind., the 38-year old dropped to the floor. When the ceremony finished, Hayes joined a small, yet deeply devout group of Catholics known as "consecrated virgins."...

Consecrated virgins occupy a uniquely private role in the Catholic faith. These individuals are not nuns, nor are they supported financially by any diocese. Instead, women who have chosen to become consecrated virgins live their lives traditionally, but dedicate themselves to prayer, penance and service for their faith and church. Consecrated virgins commit themselves to lifelong celibacy, modest dress and apostolic activity. There are only about 3,000 such women on earth.

Indiana teacher marries Jesus Christ in elaborate wedding ceremony, becomes a consecrated virgin - New York Daily News

Quote:

Standing at the altar as a bride of Christ, she vowed a life of virginity and was given a ring, as well as a book of daily prayers.

"I had been praying about it for years, trying to seek God's will for my life and not really finding it in any of the paths that I sought before," she told WANE after the ceremony was complete.

Hayes said she made her decision after realizing that it gives her the best of both worlds.

Consecrated virginity allows living ‘in the world’ while giving oneself fully to Christ - Our Sunday Visitor

Quote:

“Miss Hayes, why did you want to become a consecrated virgin instead of a religious sister?” posed an inquisitive student in my Women’s Dignity class. “Because I wanted to stay with you,” was my immediate and honest response. Without missing a beat, she replied, “We wanted you to stay with us, too.”

These words are testimony to a spiritual motherhood that is bearing fruit in my own heart and in the lives of my students. I have long referred to them as “my kids” — sometimes to the confusion of those who didn’t think I had children — and it has been my greatest joy to discover the reality of spiritual maternity through them. I know that the questions they ask and the spiritual guidance they seek from me are my privilege; I am invited into this sphere of their lives precisely because I am not “mom.” I am their mother in a way that their own mothers are not, and my role is essential to their growth in the life of grace.

What do you think?

Kraichgauer
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12 Nov 2017, 2:23 pm

I think that's straight out of the Middle Ages.

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Aspiegaming
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12 Nov 2017, 3:57 pm

Married to Jesus? Isn't being a nun the same thing more or less?

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12 Nov 2017, 5:11 pm

Aspiegaming wrote:

Married to Jesus? Isn't being a nun the same thing more or less?

I think they live within the community in their own house rather than in a monastery.

I've heard of people who never wanted a relationship (likely asexuals) becoming missionaries. I actually know someone like that. Not well, i meet her at parties every-so-often, but she's a stunning blonde and I'm surprised she's single. She actually travels and does missionary work. I've never heard her express an interest in men. I've never seen her with a boyfriend. She's got some great stories and really seems to enjoy her travelling adventure lifestyle. Though she's kind of bohemian so I'm guessing she's not a Catholic consecrated virgin.

techstepgenr8tion
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12 Nov 2017, 8:19 pm

I think this sort of track will always be attractive for single people who find themselves too idealistic about what the universe should be at its best and too let down by what relationships actually are. They can commit themselves to their model of true north without sacrificing their conceptions via obligation to someone else with competing conceptions who might divide their loyalties - really away from themselves at the deepest levels.

Human beings are bundles of neurosis, some more so than others, and sometimes a person is doing the right thing for themselves like this. It's rare but it does happen.

What will be interesting to me is what happens when we get to a point culturally where most of the globe is either some variety of atheist, agnostic, synchretic pagan, or some borrowing from all three. We'll always need people working on certain societal projects that conceptualize the more important abstractions that we live within and don't lose the forest for the trees in the way of brute facts the way most people are often compelled to by the weight of their responsibilities. Our subconscious minds live in these sorts of fairy tale lands and it's how they nearly always tend to relate our imperatives to us. Communities that play such an amphibious role will probably play a significant part in cultivating ethics in action and, along with the artists of the world, they'll probably always shape the aesthetic tone of the world around them in meaningful and helpful ways.

That said though - I think I'd only make fun of this sort of thing where it politically radicalizes a person. Short of that it's one of those healthy and contributing paths of evolution that may not necessarily bring children into the next generation but it enriches the world for those who do.

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RetroGamer87
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13 Nov 2017, 12:05 am

Did Jesus attend his wedding?

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magz
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13 Nov 2017, 4:13 am

techstepgenr8tion wrote:

I guess even if the humanity goes beyond religion, the spirituality will still be there. Maybe in some more abstract form, I guess it is still to be invented, but there always will be people asking the fundamental questions and looking for really deep answers. Not having your own family and not pursuing dates gives you more capacity to care for others or to focus on spirituality. I guess this is the idea beyond this.
The reality... When I was a toddler, my mother visited a nun related to us with me. And what the nun said was:
"A daughter? God, let her never go to a convent!"

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naturalplastic
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13 Nov 2017, 6:54 am

That's what I was gonna say. "Isn't that just being a nun?".

Nun's are supposed to be "married to Christ".

Nun, or not, it also raises the question of why aren't there any male "consecrated virgins"?

Is the reason because that would demand a "same sex marriage"? I mean you can't have guys "marrying Christ" can you?

techstepgenr8tion
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13 Nov 2017, 7:38 am

naturalplastic wrote:

Is the reason because that would demand a "same sex marriage"? I mean you can't have guys "marrying Christ" can you?

That's an awkward corner because, at least in mainline Catholicism, Mary isn't supposed to be considered a goddess. I have seen where some mystical forms will say that a guy is 'married to Sophia' but they speak of that as the results of the John of the Cross mystical journey inward rather than necessarily taking up a formal title. In that territory both of these sort of sound like a particularly religious version finding their Jungian anima/animus within themselves as well as something else that might be a bit stranger still (ie. 'Knowledge and Conversation of the HGA' or what Jung called Individuation).

techstepgenr8tion
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13 Nov 2017, 7:42 am

magz wrote:

I guess even if the humanity goes beyond religion, the spirituality will still be there.

Right. Part of why our politics and spheres of belief are so strange is that what we're compiled on top of isn't rational in the scientific sense of the word. I don't know if that will ever necessarily work its way out of us although if I were to guess it would probably take thousands if not millions of years for enough genetic accrual to dislodge it.

chromanebula
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14 Nov 2017, 1:25 am

naturalplastic wrote:

Nun, or not, it also raises the question of why aren't there any male "consecrated virgins"?

Is the reason because that would demand a "same sex marriage"? I mean you can't have guys "marrying Christ" can you?

Well, yes. Only a woman can properly become a bride of Christ. But there is a male equivalent of consecrated virginity--it's called the priesthood.

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14 Nov 2017, 2:03 am

I've read that in the early church, some men dressed as women to be regarded as the brides of Christ.

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RetroGamer87
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14 Nov 2017, 6:49 am

I'm not sure if modern Christians would take too kindly to that.

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Kraichgauer
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14 Nov 2017, 7:01 am

RetroGamer87 wrote:

I'm not sure if modern Christians would take too kindly to that.

Probably not.

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naturalplastic
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14 Nov 2017, 7:51 am

Imagine reviving THAT custom (dudes dressing up in bridal gowns to be the bride of Christ). it would turn the whole modern same sex marriage question on it's head!

RetroGamer87
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14 Nov 2017, 8:14 am

Sometimes I wonder if modern Christians are less tolerant. Remember that fundamentalism only started in about 1900.

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