The Decree on the Up-to-Date Renewal of Religious Life. The Council sets out the twofold principle that has guided renewal ever since: a continuous return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original inspiration behind each institute, together with an adjustment of the institute to the changed conditions of the times — a renewal that is finally the work of the heart, since even the best adaptations avail nothing without a renewal of spirit. It then treats the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience one by one, the common life and its prayer and the Eucharist at its centre, the religious habit as a sign of consecration, the different forms of religious life from the contemplative to the apostolic, and the formation of members, insisting that no institute be renewed without the participation of its own members.