Religious Vocation and Living Religious Life in Community |
by Sr. Sheila McNiff
The mission of any Religious Community is to provide women or men with the precious opportunity to know Christ more clearly, love Him more deeply and to follow Him closely in community and ministry. By the unceasing action of the Holy Spirit each one is graced to conform to the pattern in Jesus’ life as it is seen in the paschal mysteries found in the Gospels and encountered in the sacred liturgy.
The purpose of a Religious Community is to remain in loving union with Christ while remaining in ministry. This is a call to an apostolic contemplative community life that serves the needs of others within the Catholic Church. This is the one thing that was necessary in the life of Mary of Bethany. Persons discerning a call to Religious life are open to a life time commitment of consecration in the Church. The use of the Church’s rich heritage provides the spiritual heritage that newer members will have the opportunity to learn as well as the specific history and tradition of a particular Religious family. The spiritual traditions and heritage have formed others through the Word of God, participation in the sacramental life of the Church and the prayer life of the community.
The community celebrates the bonds of unity through Eucharist as in the Last Supper. The Lord’s love offers the community one heart, mind and spirit. Christ strengthens the community’s love and generosity through participation in His mystical Body. He enables His transformative grace in community and ministry to flow through members for His purposes. There are challenges in the lifestyle of Religious Life in community. There are times of support and empowerment in the reality of daily hardships in ministry. Prayer, companionship and honest communication in community express and grow the capacity for union in Christ for His mission.
The stages of recognizing a Call to Religious Life are:
- Interest in religious life as a means of serving Christ
- Taking the initiative to learn more about the Charisms of several religious orders, their ministry, their Community lifestyle
- Being pro-active in researching Orders on the internet, in person, learning what others say about them
- Growing in understanding of the spiritual experience through regular meetings with a spiritual companion
- Making daily prayer a habitual practice toward assisting in a decision with a Spiritual Director
- Making an application to the Order’s Formation Personnel
- If accepted a magnanimity of heart that is docile & dependent on God’s great generosity.
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