Definitions

Active ministry is a primary focus for members of an apostolic community. They are called to find, be with, and serve God in all their activities. They come together in community to be sent out to specific ministries, usually emphasizing service, especially in fields such as education, social work, or pastoral work.

Cloistered

Cloistered is generally defined as seclusion from the world. Members of cloistered communities usually remain within their monasteries and have limited contact with the outside world. Cloistered communities maintain a threefold balance of prayer, manual labor, and spiritual study. Members of these communities support one another as they seek God and give priority to listening to the voice of the Spirit.

Conversatio Morum

One of the Benedictine vows, freely translated as "fidelity to the Monastic way of life;" refers to the idea of personal conversion through life in community.

Lectio Divina

Literally, "holy reading;" the meditative reading of Scripture, an integral part of Benedictine spirituality.

Monastic

Monastics seek God through prayer and work. Their daily schedule is arranged around the communal celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, and active ministry flows out of this life of prayer and community. Key qualities of monastics include solitude, a quest for peace, hospitality, and stability. Through their vow of stability, monastics promise to set down roots in a specific place and to serve the needs of God’s people in that area. The monastic strives to maintain a balanced life of prayer, work, study, and play.

Monasticism

Traditionally, the word monasticism has implied a life in service to the holy, set apart from ordinary pursuits (monos=unique, alone). Monasticism is a phenomenon observable in all the great religions of the world. In the Roman Catholic Church, monasticism is almost synonymous with Benedictinism, i.e., seeking God through prayer and work, living in community, and practicing obedience to a Rule and a prioress (women's communities) or abbot (men's communities).

Secular Institutes

Members of secular institutes are single laypersons and clerics who belong to a canonically established institute. They strive to gain personal sanctification and to bring the Gospel into the lives of those with whom they interact on a daily basis. They do not live in community; rather, they live a life of consecration within the temporal realities of society.