Religious orders were already established in the Middle Ages, and both men and women were able to join an order. An order can be organised in a virtually identical way to a congregation. The date of origin is important for distinguishing between an order and a congregation. An order was founded before 1550, and a congregation after this year. This decision was made during the Council of Trent (1545-1563).
Both an order and a congregation are “institutes of consecrated life”. The people belonging to an order or congregation form a community and live in a monastery. A monastery can be an abbey, priory (the second house of a monastery), or convent.
The orders have been welcoming a few newcomers recently, which is remarkable, because after a very long period of drought, there have only been a trickle of interested individuals. What motivates people to come forward to an order, to join an organisation of people bound by the same rules?
I have a great deal of admiration for people who join a religious order. Life there is so different from outside the high walls of a monastery. It's notable that, for example, Dominicans, Franciscans and Norbertines are seeing a renewed inflow of new members. The increasing interest applies to men and women who wish to join. A man in a monastery is a brother, monk or priest, and a woman is a sister or nun. In my opinion, the open atmosphere surrounding Pope Francis is an incentive to join, as is the ever-increasing popularity of Mary. After all, devotion to Mary is particularly unprecedentedly large at pilgrimage sites, where a religious order is usually involved in the organisation. What can an order offer a novice?
In an order, the offering consists of a wide variety of work, for example, on prayer, pastoral work, contemplation, and devotion. Furthermore, monastic life differs per order, such as waking up early or very early for morning prayer, a daily Eucharist celebration, and a short or long evening prayer. In addition, there is work in pastoral care in the vicinity of the order's location, cleaning the monastery, tending to the garden, maintaining the website, guiding pilgrims, selling books and devotional items, preparing drinks, and handling administration. There is plenty of work in an order. Monastic life also offers the certainty of housing, food, and drink. Furthermore, there is the certainty of silence for many hours of the day, providing an opportunity for reflection and thinking about solutions to alleviate the needs of others.
I can readily share my experience with and devotion to Mary with the residents of a monastery. The words I address to Mary often express strong devotion, and a monastery provides ample space for this. However, I can also express my Marian devotion perfectly well outside the monastery walls.
