Benefits of Traditional Orders; Invitation to OPM

Benefits of the Traditional, Temporal Religious Order

Obviously, the traditional, temporal religious orders, congregations, institutes, ecclesial movements, confraternities and sodalities would not have survived had there not been solid benefits. St. Bernard in some letters to nuns, pinpoints some of the value of belonging to a traditional religious order. Other spiritual writers include along with the practical benefits, the graces that God gives to those who make obvious exterior sacrifices. Joining, avowing to religious orders as we know them historically and currently do positively affect the interior of a person's existence.

Many and varied are the external benefits of being a member of a traditional religious order, community, movement, institute, congregation, confraternity, third order or sodality. These religious groups can include diocese canonically approved hermits, for they are directly supervised by their Bishops, and are increasingly institutionalized in our era since the Canon Law 603 was revised in 1983. Commonalities among the various religious groups exist. For our purposes, we will clump all of the above groups under the title “religious order” with the traditional identifying factors.

Benefits include common purpose and a network of support. The structured environment is much like a traditional school, boarding school. Or for non-communal living groups, the support network is enhanced through communication and meetings. 

In some, the members live removed from society in varying degrees and modes, utilizing altered dress, hair style, functional amenities, daily schedule, diet, reading material, shared facilities and expenses, type of work, (often including manual labor) and enforced discipline. By working together, living in community, sharing talents and tangible assets, time is freed for more focused religious pursuits: prayer, worship, reading, adoration.

St. Bernard commented in letters to some religious sisters who considered leaving the convent. In one instance, the woman desired to leave her order in order to seek more solitude, hoping for greater perfection. While he commended her “zeal of God,” he said she lacked knowledge. He did not agree that in more solitude she would have greater security to achieve perfection. The saint pointed out that there would be no one to reprove what no one would witness when she errs, as we all do make mistakes in the spiritual ascent, and very much in our human state. 

He added that where we have no fear of being seen, caught and corrected, the temptation can be stronger. Then there may be less concern to strive, and it is easier to accept or succumb to what is less than holy. In the convent, he said, it is easier to be good because everyone else also is striving to be good, and if you want to be bad, it is not easy, for being bad stands out in stark contrast. 

However, St. Bernard reminds the woman that any good she does in community will be noticed, praised, and imitated by the others who witness the goodness. The good works quickly give glory to God, and the faults are quickly corrected. The virtues seen will please, and the vices noticed will displease. The person who joins a religious order has the opportunity to bring good to others there, as well as to learn holiness from those around them.

St. Bernard mentions to another woman who renounced wealth and social position to consecrate her life to God in traditional religious life, that she must persevere because the vanity of the world she left behind, with its extravagance and folly, would not assist her spiritual journey.

Besides spiritual benefits, there are some practical benefits that also can help in the spiritual. As studies have shown, several persons living under one roof, sharing the major expenses of the household, is cost effective compared to one or two people in a dwelling. The utility and food costs do not rise in direct correlation as the numbers of inhabitants rise. There is efficiency in cooking, cleaning, maintenance, and furnishing costs. Medical expenses can be lessened through group insurance. Transportation is shared, thus less costly. Chores are shared, thus freeing time for formal prayer and spiritual reading, as well as worship (Mass, Liturgy of the Hours). 

Traditional religious orders or those sanctioned and subsidized by the Church are tax exempt. Often benefactors assist with income through donations. Thus some orders, or at least some members, do not have to work to produce income, but rather can live lives of prayer or helping the poor. Those who become ill as well as end of life care, are cared for by the religious, and as needed with medical personnel sometimes donating services to the religious members.

Efficiency extends to dress in the religious orders that adopt a habit, or a specific style garment to be worn daily. A benefit includes simplification, not having to consider what to wear, and for women, the application of make-up or hair arrangement. There is the group-effect, the support and encouragement of being with others who share the same, external dress, routine, and life style. Even in third orders, confraternities and other ecclesial groups, there is often a similarity in vows, purpose, charism, and some outer sign or symbol worn to represent membership.

As recent studies have shown, people who live with others are found to have longer, healthier, happier lives than those who live alone. (This finding may be skewed depending upon the sacrifices and austerities that some religious orders practice, although external mortification is becoming less the norm now in traditional religious orders than it was in centuries past.) While St. Bernard did not have the catch phrase of our era, there is safety in numbers, it reflects the security of which he wrote to the nun who considered leaving the convent, to live in solitude.

While there are obvious spiritual benefits gained by being in a traditional religious order or any of the numerous off-shoots, including the charismatic renewal movement approved by the U.S. Bishops in the early 1970's, we will not delve into them at this point. The possible benefits are of the interior, spiritual realm, and thus many variables are involved which would be quite difficult to distinguish as being notable and singular to those in traditional religious orders (and the various off-shoots) over what individual souls may experience without belonging to one of these.

The Invitation to the Order of the Present Moment

And, this is the point at which the introduction concludes, for now we must explore the stairway to heaven, the spiritual climb of the souls who are members of traditional religious orders and their derivatives, as well as those souls who perhaps are in (without their realizing) or who want to attempt solus Deus, the spiritual Order of the Present Moment, the order of one or of one among many.

For those who are satisfied with their spiritual lives, who are content in their call and vocation to a traditional religious order, congregation, community, movement or institute of the Church, confraternity, third order, oblates, sodality or other group, then perhaps reading further is without need or purpose. For those who are content--as some friends with whom I've shared this little project or exercise have mentioned—with living their daily lives as they have been, as good Catholics, good Christians, with worship, Scripture, prayer and doing their daily tasks within their lay vocations, then there is no need to turn another page.

But for those souls who may be already in a specified, traditional, religious vocation of some sort, who perhaps are busy priests inundated with administrative duties and as the lone “Father” of a large family of parishioners...for those who are in absolutely nothing but sometimes wonder if they are missing the reality Christ...or wonder what is the meaning of the daily grind...or who have brushed against suffering or death and have known His touch and longed for Him all the more--perhaps a spiritual order, the Order of the Present Moment (an order of one or of one among many) will introduce the hand rail of the stairway to heaven for which you've been grasping.

May God inspire and bless the following pages, either way for whatever circumstance of souls. Regardless, this soul now writing desires very much to grasp the hand rail of the stairway to heaven. It is the stairway to heaven of that dream, two years ago August, when the angel took this soul's spiritual hand, and led this soul's spiritual body and heard with inner ear the angel speak: I'm taking you to the Stairway to Heaven.