In the Catholic Church there are two kinds of blessings for consecrated life: Constitutive and Invocative . [Read This and This]
1] In the Consecration of virgins- according to the intention of the Church, once the virgin has made her propositum
or resolution, it is by the very words of the Prayer of consecration prayed by the
bishop, that the virgin’s body is constituted as sacred [for God] and set apart for the Service of the Church.
This is
according to the theology of liturgy in the early Church.
2] Religious men and women are
consecrated by the act of ‘professing’ vows at the hands of the legitimate
religious superior with all other canonical requirements like formation, etc., being
in place. The prayer of blessing or consecration in a religious profession
which can be prayed by a priest- is intended by the Church to be an Invocative
blessing.
This is according to the theology of St Thomas Aquinas around the 13th
century.
The Epiklesis of the prayer in the rite of Profession of religious
mentions:
Send the fire of your
Holy Spirit into the heart of this, your daughter, to keep alive within her
the holy desire He has given her……………….
The Epiklesis
of the prayer in the rite of Consecration
of virgins mentions the Gift of the Holy Spirit [as in
the sacrament of Confirmation ]
Through the gift of your Spirit, Lord,
give them modesty
with right judgment,
kindness with true wisdom,
gentleness with strength of character,
freedom with the grace
of chastity.
Give them the warmth of love,
to love you above all
others.
Make their lives
deserve our praise,
without seeking to be praised.
May they give you
glory by holiness of action and purity
of heart.
May they love you and fear you;
may they love you and serve you.
I liked the
explanation given in this link regarding the 7
gifts of the Holy Spirit :
St. Thomas Aquinas says that four
of these gifts (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and counsel) direct the
intellect, while the other three gifts (fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord)
direct the will toward God.
In some respects, the gifts are
similar to the virtues, but a key distinction is that the virtues operate under
the impetus of human reason (prompted by grace), whereas the gifts operate
under the impetus of the Holy Spirit; the former can be used when one wishes,
but the latter operate only when the Holy Spirit wishes. In the case of
Fortitude, the gift has, in Latin and English, the same name as a virtue, which
it is related to but from which it must be distinguished.
In Summa Theologica II.II, Thomas
Aquinas asserts the following correspondences between the seven Capital Virtues
and the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit:[11]
The gift of wisdom corresponds to the
virtue of charity.
The gifts of understanding and
knowledge correspond to the virtue of faith.
The gift of counsel (right judgment)
corresponds to the virtue of prudence.
The gift of fortitude corresponds to
the virtue of courage.
The gift of fear of the Lord
corresponds to the virtue of hope.
The gift of Reverence corresponds to
the virtue of justice.
To the virtue of temperance, no
Gift is directly assigned; but the gift of fear can be taken as such, since
fear drives somebody to restrict himself from forbidden pleasures.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the Catechism of the
Catholic Church :
1302 It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.
1303 From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace:
- it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, "Abba! Father!";117 [According to Canon law 604 --this is parallel to the consecration of the virgin to God ]
- it unites us more firmly to Christ; [ this is parallel to the mystical espousal of the virgin to Jesus Christ ].
- it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us; [this is parallel to the dedication of the virgin to the service of the Church ].
- it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;118
- it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross:119
Recall then
that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of
knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what
you have received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord
has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.120
The parallels between the
Sacraments of initiation, especially the Sacrament of Confirmation and the
Consecration of virgins which is a Constitutive Sacramental, indicate that the vocation is rooted in the sacraments of Initiation and
deepens Sacramental grace. Thus the consecrated virgin becomes an eschatological image of the Church’s Love for Christ,
inspiring and animating the vocation to holiness, of every baptized person in
the Church.
