Also called Counsels of Perfection.
See CCC §2103
Voluntary poverty – Chastity – Obedience.
“The life consecrated to God is characterized by the public profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in a stable state of life recognized by the Church” (CCC §944).
Christ in the Gospels laid down certain rules of life and conduct which must be practiced by every one of His followers as the necessary condition for attaining to everlasting life. He also taught certain principles which He expressly stated were not to be considered as binding upon all, or as necessary conditions without which heaven could not be attained, but rather as counsels for those who desired to do more than the minimum and to aim at Christian perfection, so far as that can be obtained here upon earth. Thus (Matt., 19:16 sq.) when the young man asked Him what he should do to obtain eternal life, Christ bade him to “keep the commandments”. That was all that was necessary in the strict sense of the word, and by thus keeping the commands, which God had given eternal life could be obtained. But when the young man pressed further, Christ told him: “If you will be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor”. So again, in the same chapter, He speaks of “eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven”, and added, “He that can receive it, let him receive it”.
The difference between a precept and a counsel lies in this, that the precept is a matter of necessity while the counsel is left to the free choice of the person to whom it is proposed. It is fitting, therefore, that the New Law, which is a law of liberty, should contain counsels of this kind, which would have been out of place in the Old Law, which was a law of servitude. The precepts of the New Law have for their scope the ordinance of those matters which are essential for the obtaining of life eternal — the gift which it is the special object of the New Law to place within the reach of its followers. But the counsels show the means by which that same end may be reached yet more certainly and expeditiously. Man is, in this life, placed between the good things of this world and the good things of eternity, in such a way that the more he inclines to the first the more he alienates himself from the second. A man who is wholly given up to this world, finding in it the end and object of his existence, loses altogether the goods of eternity, of which he has no appreciation. So in like manner, the man who is wholly detached from this world, and whose thoughts are wholly bent on the realities of the world above, is taking the shortest way to obtain possession of that on which his heart is fixed. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light, but the case is reversed if a larger view be taken.
To sum up: it is possible to be rich, and married, and held in honor by all men, and yet keep the Commandments and to enter heaven. Christ’s advice is, if we would make sure of everlasting life and desire to conform ourselves perfectly to the Divine will, that we should sell our possessions and give the proceeds to others who are in need, that we should live a life of chastity for the Gospel’s sake, and, finally, should not seek honors or commands, but place ourselves under obedience. These are the Evangelical Counsels, and the things which are counseled are not set forward so much as good in themselves, as in the light of means to an end and as the surest and quickest way of obtaining everlasting life.