This contemplative life is the best part of the Christian life. These people will have communication with the outside world in order for the order to survive. Each active religious community has a particular mission for which it was founded, ranging from educating children to caring for the sick to missionary work. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Becoming a nun is a life-altering decision. All photos on this page courtesy of Jacques Côté, o.s.b. Contemplative orders focus completely on prayer for themselves, the community and the world. What is a Vocation? The English word monk most properly refers to men in monastic life, while the term friar more properly refers to mendicants active in the world (like Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians), though not all monasteries require strict enclosure. The Order of Mission, Sheffield, England âToday, a larger percentage is interested in contemplative orders. Benedictine monks, for instance, have often staffed parishes and been allowed to leave monastery confines. Contemplative monastic life is a lived response to a call from God, heard within the heart; a call to go apart and enter more fully into the search for God. Contemplative orders. âFifty years ago, of all the people thinking about entering religious orders, the vast majority, over 95 percent, were interested in active orders,â said Wittberg, now an emeritus professor at Indiana UniversityâPurdue University. Start studying Contemplative Religious Orders Part 1. What does it mean to have a religious vocation and how does one become a Carmelite Sister? See more. Contemplative religious sisters and brothers devote themselves entirely to private prayer and the celebration of the Mass. Some communities, particularly the more traditional ones, do have an age limit of usually 30 or 35. For example, a large number of the religious orders in the Catholic Church ( Benedictines, Trappists, Cistercians, etc.) Modern Contemplative Practices. There are numerous communities that accept women over 60 who want to become a nun. Contemplative Religious Life. Located in rural Wisconsin, the Cloistered Nuns are Consecrated to God in Solemn Vows. The Sisters live the contemplative, monastic life in a joyful Community â the day filled with prayer (Divine Office, Holy Mass, Mental Prayer) and apostolic works. In the 20th and 21st centuries, initiatives have been taken by various religious orders, notably by the Jesuits and Discalced Carmelites, to renew the contemplative orientation of their founders and to share their spirituality with laypeople. Contemplative order definition, a religious order whose members are devoted to prayer rather than works. The Cistercian Nuns of Valley of Our Lady Monastery, are of the Original Observance of the ancient Order of Citeaux, founded in France, in 1098. Our modern world has little time or space for reflection, meditation and quiet contemplation. Order of Julian of Norwich 'The Order of Julian of Norwich is a religious order of nuns and monks living a contemplative, monastic life in the Episcopal Church.' The Order of the Holy Paraclete Women's religious order founded in 1915, with houses in England, South Africa, Swaziland and Ghana. Contemplation has always held a most important place in the Church and our Order, but perhaps today it is more necessary than ever before to the Church, to the Order, and to Society.