Did you know you can live with some religious orders?
Explores the possibility of living with religious orders. Highlights various orders that offer communal living. Discusses benefits such as spiritual growth, community support, and structured routines. Provides practical information on how to apply or join. Encourages readers to consider alternative lifestyles.
5 months ago
Living with religious sisters is an option offered by several Catholic orders, especially for young women seeking safe, community‑focused housing. While many monasteries provide short‑term guest stays, a few orders run long‑term residences that function like family‑style homes in cities worldwide 1.
The tradition of hospitality is rooted in the Benedictine Rule, which treats every guest as Christ. Modern orders extend this by maintaining dedicated housing for adolescents and adult women 1.
Assess Catholic orders offering communal living for lay participation
Communal living schemes that “invite lay participation” are real possibilities in the Church, but they come in different canonical forms. A sound Catholic assessment depends less on branding (“order,” “community,” “rule”) and more on canonical status, ecclesiality, formation, and how communal life is actually lived—so that lay people remain truly lay (unless they are joining consecrated life) and remain in communion with legitimate Church authority.
Canon law recognizes associations distinct from institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, in which the faithful (lay and clerical) share “a common endeavor” such as worship, doctrine, or apostolic works.
Key point for assessment: the Church explicitly encourages the faithful “to join especially those associations which competent ecclesiastical authority has erected, praised, or commended.”
So if a group offers communal living but is essentially an association, your first test is: who erected/commended it and under what authority?
Canon law also names a category that directly fits many communal-living models for lay people: third orders (or other appropriate names). These are associations where members share “in the spirit of some religious institute while in secular life,” lead an apostolic life, and strive for Christian perfection under the institute’s higher direction.
This means a common marketing line (“you can live our way of life”) should be interpreted through can. 303’s lens: you live it “while in secular life” and under the institute’s direction—not as a replacement for religious life.
If the communal life involves a real profession of the evangelical counsels with vows (or other bonds recognized by the Church), then you are no longer just a lay associate. Canon law states that consecrated life can involve people whose state “does not belong to the hierarchical structure,” yet it “belongs to its life and holiness.”
Also, consecrated life “by its very nature… is neither clerical nor lay.”
Practical implication: a group that says “we’re for lay participation” but expects vows/bonds recognized as consecration may be inviting you into a different canonical state than “ordinary lay involvement.”
Vatican II notes that “The religious life, undertaken by lay people… is a state for the profession of the evangelical counsels… complete in itself.”
So communal living may be genuinely lay participation, or it may be lay religious life (consecrated life), depending on what is promised and what is recognized by Church authority.
In Vatican II’s Perfectae Caritatis, communal life is described as continuing “common life, fashioned on the model of the early Church…,” and it also says that lay-brothers/assistants “should be drawn closely into the life and work of the community.”
Meanwhile, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life insists:
Even though those texts are aimed at religious life, they provide an evaluative principle: communal living is meant to be a real shared life of prayer, fraternity, and apostolic practice—not merely a periodic retreat-like gathering with no binding communal reality.
For third orders, the canonical idea is participation in the institute’s spirit “while in secular life.”
And the traditional Catholic encyclopedia explanation distinguishes that tertiaries/third orders may live “outside of a monastery in the world, or in a religious community.”
So an assessment should ask: does communal living correspond to their professed status (association/third order/regular or secular third order), and is it governed accordingly?
Canon law’s strongest starting point is straightforward: prefer associations “erected, praised, or commended” by competent ecclesiastical authority.
Pastoral reality check: some initiatives are ecclesial movements with specific spirituality. The Church’s formation directives describe lay movements that can be “independent of the structures and style of the religious life,” but whose influence is “provided that they observe a certain number of criteria of ecclesiality.”
Lay persons who devote themselves “to special service of the Church” are obliged to acquire “appropriate formation” and to fulfill their function conscientiously and diligently.
So if the community expects practical apostolic work (teaching, catechesis, outreach, liturgical roles, leadership), the assessment should include: what formation is provided, and is it truly “appropriate” for the work?
A recurring theme in consecrated life governance is communion and information to ecclesiastical authority. The Congregation notes that even when religious are outside community, they remain subject “to the authority of the bishop… who is to be informed of their presence in his diocese.”
While this paragraph is written for religious, the underlying ecclesial principle is important for lay communal groups tied to an institute: they should not operate as religious “islands” with no meaningful relationship to the local Church.
Because third orders can be structured in different ways, it is crucial to identify whether the group is:
The “red flag” is when the structure is ambiguous about state of life, obligations, and authority: Church law is precise about states of life and consecration.
Canon law carefully distinguishes consecrated life, clerical institutes, and lay life.
If the group markets “our vows” while still describing you as merely “a lay volunteer,” or if it downplays what is being promised, that’s a serious discernment issue.
The Church’s insistence that common life is essential for religious life (and not an ideal for religious to live alone without serious reason) highlights the danger of a community that calls itself “communal” but does not truly form a shared life.
The formation directives acknowledge that new lay movements can appear more independent of religious structures, but their benefit depends on observing criteria of ecclesiality.
Thus, a communal lay participation program should be evaluated for: stability, obedience to legitimate authority, and clear links to the Church’s life and mission.
When you evaluate a specific Catholic “order/community” that proposes communal living for lay participation, verify:
Catholic communities offering communal living for lay participation can be faithful expressions of the Church’s desire for Christian perfection and apostolic life—especially in the framework of associations (can. 298) and third orders (can. 303)—but they must be assessed by Church-recognized legitimacy, the clarity of state of life (lay vs consecrated), the seriousness of formation, and the reality of communal life lived in communion with Church authority.