Active Apostolic Religious Life

1. Active Apostolic Religious Life Past, Present, Future

2. History of Religious Life • Desert Fathers and Mothers • Monasticism • Mendicants • Modern Congregations - Active Apostolic - Missionary

3. Active Apostolic Religious Life was approved by the Church in 1900. Non-cloistered congregations devoted to works of the apostolate fit in this category. • ---------- • Active Apostolic Religious Life had been flourishing in the Church for almost 500 years but until 1900 Church authorities had forced upon it restrictions proper to monastic congregations • such as: • Cloister • Uniform clothing • Regular hours of common prayer (usually the Divine Office) • Long periods of silence and withdrawal from the lay world • Institutional works only (schools, hospitals)

4. In the 1950’s Pius XII urged Religious Superiors to modernize their congregations. He encouraged reforms which included: • Abolition of outmoded customs • Humanization of the lifestyle • Increased attention to the professional and cultural education of the Sisters • Modification of practices that were unhealthy or alienated sisters from their contemporaries.

5. At Vatican II council fathers like Cardinal Leon Suenens vigorously promoted the agenda of renewal of women’s Religious Life. The Council directed congregations to return to the biblical roots of their life and to the founding charisms of their congregations. The renewal was intended specifically to foster greater engagement of women Religious with the modern world. Religious were urged not to restrict their apostolic zeal to the care of children, the sick, and the dying but to put their enormous gifts as educated modern women in the active and public service of the Reign of God by influential participation in all the spheres of life that were bringing to birth a new cultural reality.

6. The New “Look” of Active Apostolic Religious Life Before Renewal After Renewal • Uniform dress • Only institutional apostolates • Strict times for common prayer • Devotions encouraged • Strict cloister • Separation from the laity • Decision making – superiors only • Contemporary dress • Many different ministries • Prayer that is flexible • Scriptural spirituality encouraged over devotions • Cloister in most case is just the bedroom area • Much engagement with the laity • Decision making communally

7. Active Apostolic Religious Life • is Patterned after Jesus’ Life • Jesus lived an itinerant life-style. He had no permanent home. • Jesus was not monastic. • Jesus constantly attended to the needs of the crowd. He sought out the most rejected and the poor. • Jesus’ life was a mixture of intense prayer and intense action in • the public sphere. He attended to the Jew and non-Jew, • men and women, rich and poor. • Jesus had no financial resources. He lived a common economic • life with his disciples. • Jesus was celibate but had close relationships with others. • Jesus adopted no special clothing or other identifying markers.

8. Active Apostolic Religious Life is still Evolving What more do we need to do as Sisters of Notre Dame to fully live an active apostolic life-style and not a monastic life-style? As we accept our call to be prophetic in our time where do you see that changes will occur in the way we live our life? Under what circumstances do you see yourself growing spiritually in a ministerial life-style? How might spiritual growth differ for a monastic religious?