Each religious order or congregation has a particular gift that they offer for the Church. This gift is known as their “Charism.” This gift helps them to focus their mission and ministry on some particular aspect of the Church’s mission.

Members of Religious Orders make solemn vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.

Some religious orders are apostolic (active in the world), some monastic and some cloistered. The cloistered communities do not live and minister actively in the outside world. Their life and work of prayer is primarily contained within their monastery setting.

The process of joining a religious community actually takes some time and involves several stages. The first step would be to make contact with particular religious orders and to attend events such as “Come and See” and reflection days that they offer for discerners.

Lay consecrated women respond to God’s call to follow him completely by professing vows or other sacred bonds of poverty, chastity and obedience. Lay consecrated live fraternal life in community according to their proper rule or constitutions. Having dedicated their life to Christ and the Church, they devote themselves to the sanctification of the world, particularly by working and evangelizing within the world through their specific charism and mission.

Young women who feel called to this vocation are consecrated to God by the Diocesan Bishop according to a rite approved by the church. They remain in the secular state, living individually, under the direction of the Diocesan Bishop, and providing completely for their own material needs, medical care, and retirement.