Differences in Religious Orders?

[littlesister]

Try some of the communities devoted to St. Joseph. Historically, their design can be as Jesuit as the S.J.'s themselves.

The Catholic nerd is hilarious!

[Carolyn]

[quote name='dominicansoul' post='1597299' date='Jul 10 2008, 08:34 PM']That being said,

A Franciscan, a Dominican, and a Jesuit were up a mountain arguing about which Order God loved the most. The Jesuit decided they should pray about it and ask God for the answer.

So, all three of them knelt in prayer. It wasn't long before a letter fell from the clouds. It said:

"My sons, why do you argue amongst yourselves? You know I hold each one of you close to my heart. Quit this silly competition and get back to work!"

Your Loving Father,

God, O.P."
[/quote]

Hehe!

[Luigi]

QUOTE: It does seem as if all religious orders have some things in common.

You're right - many orders have many things in common. The religious life - whether male or female - is a way to sanctification and salvation, so there will be many things in common. The Benedictine motto is "Ora et Labora," "Prayer and Work," but actually those are the same elements of all Christian life (lay people ought to work and pray, too!). The question is focus and emphasis.

Perhaps the clearest way to think about the distinctions is to ask, "What are the spiritual practices of the order/congregation?" and "What are the ministries of the order/congregation?" The more contemplative the order, the more prayer they incorporate; the more active the order, the more ministry they incorporate. Of course, prayer can be viewed as a kind of ministry, and ministry can be viewed as a kind of prayer - that's why I say it's a question of focus and emphasis. Even the most active orders, however, place some emphasis on prayer.

Many of the orders have mottos, and their names together with their mottos usually express the spirit or charism of the order. For example:
1.The Benedictines (including Cistercians, Trappists, and all the other congregations of Benedictines) pray and work. In terms of spiritual practices, that includes lectio divino and the divine office in community (as opposed to secular priests, who also pray the divine office but not usually in community); the work might be farming, or teaching, or parish work - it varies with the monastery, its history, the demands/requests it has received from the bishop, and so forth.
2.The Dominicans (Order of Preachers) have their "four pillars" - prayer, study, community, and preaching, and their motto "Truth."
3.The Sisters of Mercy are more active and minister in all of the corporal & spiritual works of mercy.
4.The Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus have strong ties to the Jesuits (the foundress, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, had a brother who was a Jesuit and they received a lot of spiritual direction from the Jesuits in their early days) so their spirituality is rather Ignatian, and their ministry has (traditionally) focused on educating girls/women (Sophie Barat wanted to re-Christianize France after the Revolution by teaching women, who would then teach the faith to their spouses and children).
5. The Visitandines try to "Live Jesus" in the spirit of Mary's visit to Elizabeth.

Most of the orders were founded in response to the needs of their time & place, and one of the challenges for every order is how to live out that original charism - their spiritual practices and their ministry - in their current time and place. I've said, in other threads, that one of the beauties of the Catholic Church is that there are many ways to be holy - contemplative, active, a combination of the two, more traditional, more innovative - and so discerners have a lot of choices. The question is locating (and understanding) the order that offers the individual discerner what s/he needs for sanctification and salvation in terms of spiritual practices and ministry.

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='tinytherese' post='1622752' date='Aug 9 2008, 02:57 PM']It does seem as if all religious orders have some things in common. I took a test online multiple times to see what type of spirituality that I identify with to help me discern.[/quote]
Do you have a link to said quiz?

[Saint Therese]

[quote]They aren't very devotional.[/quote]
Forgive my ignorance, but what does that mean?

[tinytherese]

[post="0"]Find Your Spirituality Type[/post]

[Vincent Vega]

I'm not really sure what's up with that link, but I don't think it leads to the right place.

[DominicanPhilosophy]

I believe this is the quiz:

[url="http://www.vocation-network.org/articles/read/96"]http://www.vocation-network.org/articles/read/96[/url]

I've taken it before; pretty neat!

[johnnydigit]

how about a different twist to the topic. first, i've been discerning for about 4 years. i've visited maybe 7-8 communities total. i decided a few months ago to enter religious life. so far i've discerned with one, and am leaving to visit another this week.

in the beginning i was clueless about the different spiritualities and orders. i could not find any place that had a good comparison and i'm somewhat of a computer nerd, so i had to find out the hard way. (btw, how long has [url="http://www.religious-vocation.com/differences_religious_orders.html"]http://www.religious-vocation.com/differen...ous_orders.html[/url] been up? i'm really peeved now because i'm now seeing this!)

anywho, my point is that for me, i find it less important now what spirituality the community is based on. granted it will indicate generally what the order is about, but what is more critical to me now is their charism, their horarum (schedule), and whether i would get along with the specific members.

communities are so widely varied, that they simply are spread all over the board. e.g., even though the Benedictines and Carmelites are more contemplative spiritually, a certain Franciscan community may be much more contemplative than a certain Benedictine or Carmelite community, the biggest difference i see would be in how strictly they follow the original spirit of the founder, or how "traditional" they are.

also, i've talked to many religious who have changed orders mainly because of the specific community and their personality, rather than the spirituality of the order. many are still loyal to their original Spiritual Father/Mother. e.g. Fr. Benedict Groeschel, he originally wanted to be an Augustinian as he loved St. Augustine, but as you know he is a Franciscan now. He is very loyal and loves St. Francis of course, but his heart lies with St. Augustine. it just turned out that the Franciscan community was the best fit.

anywho, at the moment i'm all about Franciscan spirituality, but i started out thinking i was going to be a Carmelite. throw in Dominican and a few others in between. so who knows how it will change in the future. well i hope that helps somehow. Ave Maria!

[RosaMystica]

Wow, that quiz is really cool! Thanks for posting it!

[johnnydigit]

[indent]Your Spirituality Type: PATH OF DEVOTION (Augustinian prayer)
The majority of saints are of this spiritual temperament as well as 12 percent of the population (but half of those who go on retreats or belong to small faith groups).[/indent]

well flaggelate me silly. i think that's what i got a long long time ago. that would been 3rd or later on my list. i have been reading St. Augustine and do adore his style, so i'll be open to any Augustinian orders, but i don't think there are many around here..

[Vincent Vega]

Apparently I'm cut out for Jesuit life...how about that! How many orders does this quiz sample from?

[Saint Therese]

Does this mean I'm Dominican?[size=1]
[/size] [size=1]Your Spirituality Type: PATH OF INTELLECT (Thomistic prayer)[/size][size=1][/size][size=1]About 12 percent of the population follows this path, using the syllogistic method of Saint Thomas Aquinas known as Scholastic prayer.

The main emphasis is on the orderly progression of thought from cause to effect. People of this prayer type prefer neat, orderly forms of the spiritual life, as opposed to the free-spirit, impulsive attitude of the Franciscan approach. Their spirituality is centered on the earnest pursuit of all the transcendental values: truth, goodness, beauty, unity, love, life, and spirit. Like Saint Teresa of Avila, they are willing to exert superhuman effort to achieve their goal.

Because of their disdain for second best, they seek total truth and authenticity in their lives and work hard to reach the whole truth about themselves, about God, and about sanctity. This intense pursuit of truth colors their whole spiritual life.

Books of prayer frequently call the Thomistic method of prayer 'discursive meditation.' In this type of prayer, one takes a virtue or fault or theological truth and studied it from every possible angle. Change of behavior is an essential part of this prayer--it doesn't stay at the intellectual level. There is generally a bias against this type of prayer today because it was so much in vogue before Vatican II.[/size][size="1"][/size][center]By Roger O'Brien. Reproduced online with permission from the author.[/center][center]Found in VISION: [url="http://www.vocationguide.org"]http://www.vocationguide.org[/url][/center][center]© National Religious Vocation [/center]

[Rising_Suns]

[quote name='johnnydigit' post='1624781' date='Aug 11 2008, 10:37 PM'](btw, how long has [url="http://www.religious-vocation.com/differences_religious_orders.html"]http://www.religious-vocation.com/differen...ous_orders.html[/url] been up? i'm really peeved now because i'm now seeing this!)[/quote]

Dear JD,
It is still a very young website. It has been up for little more than a month now.

[quote]anywho, my point is that for me, i find it less important now what spirituality the community is based on. granted it will indicate generally what the order is about, but what is more critical to me now is their charism, their horarum (schedule), and whether i would get along with the specific members.

communities are so widely varied, that they simply are spread all over the board. e.g., even though the Benedictines and Carmelites are more contemplative spiritually, a certain Franciscan community may be much more contemplative than a certain Benedictine or Carmelite community, the biggest difference i see would be in how strictly they follow the original spirit of the founder, or how "traditional" they are.

also, i've talked to many religious who have changed orders mainly because of the specific community and their personality, rather than the spirituality of the order. many are still loyal to their original Spiritual Father/Mother. e.g. Fr. Benedict Groeschel, he originally wanted to be an Augustinian as he loved St. Augustine, but as you know he is a Franciscan now. He is very loyal and loves St. Francis of course, but his heart lies with St. Augustine. it just turned out that the Franciscan community was the best fit.

anywho, at the moment i'm all about Franciscan spirituality, but i started out thinking i was going to be a Carmelite. throw in Dominican and a few others in between. so who knows how it will change in the future. well i hope that helps somehow. Ave Maria![/quote]

I think you raise an important point JD. This is why it is so important to visit a number of communities, rather than to hastily enter the first one on the list. No matter how much reading one can do on the internet, there is nothing like visiting communities first hand. It helps to gain an overall perspective of the subtle differences between each community, and will place one in a better position to make an informed decision.

[quote]mainly because of the specific community and their personality[/quote]

It may also help to remember that there will always be a Judas among disciples, including within religious life. Such people may be difficult to live with, but they are a gift from God, and will help one rapidly develop in the spiritual life (particularly in patience and charity).

I am reminded of a letter that a superior once sent to St. Francis, complaining of certain brothers causing trouble in his community. The superior asked St. Francis if he could be transferred to a hermitage so that he could live in seclusion and devote his time to prayer. St. Francis denied his request to be transferred, and told him to put up with the troublesome brothers with patience and charity, for in doing so, you will advance more than a lifetime of living in a hermitage;

[indent]"..even if they have whipped you, all these you ought to regard as a grace. And want it so, and not something else. And let this be your duty in virtue of a true obedience to the Lord God and to myself...And love them who do those things to you. And do not want something from them, except as much as the Lord has given you. And in this, love them; and do not wish that they be better Christians. And let that be more to you than a hermitage."[/indent]

Blessings.

Edited August 12, 2008 by Rising_Suns

[Luigi]

Johnny Digit:

You're right - even though each order has its own charism, there is still plenty of wiggle room for individuals to be individual within communities. In the really big orders, where one might get transferred from one assignment to another and be thrown into community with anyone else, people just have to learn to get along with each other - similar to college roommates (or married folks?).

Most of the monasteries (Benedictine, Trappist, etc.) with websites say, right up front, something like, "Each monastery has its own personality, so it is best to visit for a while." It would be interesting to see how many members (whether nuns or monks) are NOT from the local area where a monastery is - how many skipped over the nearer, handier monastery to join one farther away that they liked better.

I'm thinking historically now - back in the old days, when there was only one Trappist monastery (for instance) in the US, if you wanted to be a Trappist, you joined Gethsemane; now there are twelve monasteries (I think), so you've got more choice than people did in the past, but it also complicates the decision about where to enter. And communication and travel are so much easier today than they were in the past; if you live in Florida but you want to join a monastery in Washington, you can still stay in touch (phone, computer) and your family can still visit relatively easily.

[A Yearning Heart]

[quote name='tinytherese' post='1624578' date='Aug 12 2008, 10:14 AM'][post="0"]Find Your Spirituality Type[/post][/quote]

so, how does the spirituality type in the quiz relate to a vocation to a particular order?

My result was the ignation type but am very dominican.

[DominicanPhilosophy]

It really has nothing to do with the order, more the spirituality, which I suppose one could interpret as relating to the rule of a particular order or the charism in general (I got "Augustinian," and the Dominicans just happen to be under the Rule of St. Augustine, so that made me very happy!). But of course there's only so much credibility for an online quiz about something so deep as spirituality..

I still thought it was pretty neat, though, and nice to have something just sum up your personality at the click of a button!

[A Yearning Heart]

[quote name='DominicanPhilosophy' post='1625900' date='Aug 13 2008, 06:36 PM']It really has nothing to do with the order, more the spirituality, which I suppose one could interpret as relating to the rule of a particular order or the charism in general (I got "Augustinian," and the Dominicans just happen to be under the Rule of St. Augustine, so that made me very happy!). But of course there's only so much credibility for an online quiz about something so deep as spirituality..

I still thought it was pretty neat, though, and nice to have something just sum up your personality at the click of a button![/quote]


hehehe...im sure if I'd thought about it I could've answered my own question

you'll have to forgive me- I'm sick with a head cold and not thinking straight