Consecrated Life

Men and Women Religious take public and permanent profession of the evangelical counsels, the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; some religious communities take a fourth vow; i.e.: stability, obedience to the Pope in regard to the missions, whole-hearted and free service to the poor, service to the sick, enclosure, service to the sick, poor and ignorant, devotion to Mary, to promote and enhance the sacredness of human life, etc.

A consecrated virgin is a never-married woman who dedicates her perpetual virginity to God and is set aside as a sacred person who belongs to Christ in the Catholic Church.

According to the Code of Canon Law, women who are seeking out this particular vocation must be consecrated to God through the diocesan bishop, according to the rite approved by the Church. Upon consecration, they are betrothed mystically to Christ and are dedicated to the service of the Church, while remaining in a public state of life. 

Consecrated virgins live individually and receive direction from the diocesan bishop. Their consecration and life of perpetual virginity is permanent.

Their call to a secular state of life means that consecrated virgins have jobs and lives much like that of the average person. They provide for their own needs and the local diocese is not financially responsible for them.

Members of Secular Institutes are lay persons or clergy who live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the world and for the world. While all people are called to holiness, we make this our main profession as the Lord becomes the focus of our daily lives. We witness to Catholic Christian values by our way of life and love. We commit ourselves to a specific spirituality and lifestyle together with other members of our institutes through a sacred bond accepted by the Church.

The exterior circumstances of our lives vary – some live alone or with their family, others live in a common house with other institute members. But always, imbued by the Holy Spirit we attempt to bring Christ into the midst of the world in order to lift the world into the heart of the Father.

Consecration, secularity, and mission are the words that define our call: Belonging to God and reaching out to our neighbors, for the sake of sanctifying the world. St John Paul II wrote, “The Church also needs you to give completeness to her mission. Be seeds of holiness scattered by the handful in the furrows of history.”

Sue Larkin, President of the USCSI

A Society of Apostolic Life is a group of men or women within the Catholic Church who live in community and dedicate themselves to specific apostolic works, following the constitutions of their particular society. Unlike religious orders, members of societies of apostolic life do not take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, although they typically commit to living simply and serving others. Their commitment focuses on the specific mission and charism of their society

Key Characteristics of the Society of Apostolic Life

Several key characteristics differentiate Societies of Apostolic Life from other forms of consecrated life:

• Emphasis on Apostolic Works: The primary focus is on active ministry, carrying out works of charity, education, or other forms of service.

• Community Living: Members typically reside together, sharing a common life and supporting one another in their mission.

• Constitutions: Each society has its own set of constitutions that guide its members’ way of life and apostolic activities.

• No Vows, but Commitments: Members make commitments according to their society’s constitutions, often involving promises related to their specific mission.
  Flexibility and Adaptability: Societies of Apostolic Life often demonstrate a greater degree of flexibility in responding to the changing needs of the Church and the world.

Eremetical Life is a form of monastic life characterized by solitariness. (The term derives from the Greek erēmos, "wilderness, uninhabited regions," whence comes the English eremite, "solitary.") In this type of life, the social dimension of human existence is totally or largely sacrificed to the primacy of religious experience. It is thus understandable that Christianity has traditionally regarded eremitism as the purest and most perfect form of a life consecrated to God. While other forms of monasticism or of the religious life have striven to bring religious experience to bear on human relationships (Western Christianity especially emphasizes external service), eremitism has always been purely contemplative in thrust. Hermits live only in order to cultivate their spiritual life in prayer, meditation, reading, silence, asceticism, manual work, and, perhaps, in intellectual pursuits. In eremitism, the celibacy characteristically practiced in monachism extends to the suppression of all social relationships.