Exploring community, prayer, and ministry deeper.

That is where the last INPUT left off, and I had promised to explore it further. This question is quite important when we think of religious life as following Christ and in discerning to which community we want to belong.

Much of Jesus' public life was spent in the community of his disciples. Oftentimes, he went to pray to "Abba" after a full day of ministry: preaching, healing, and loving. These are the same elements found in religious life.

It is these three elements that distinguish the different types of religious. Each congregation emphasizes community, prayer and apostolate differently. Take for example contemplative communities. They can be described as the Mary in the "Mary and Martha" story found in Luke 11-38-42. Much of the contemplative's life is devoted to prayer. Some contemplative orders have 24-hour adoration. A sister will spend time (usually an hour in duration) before the Blessed Sacrament. Other contemplative orders spend quite a bit of time in prayer--not necessarily practice 24-hour adoration. Times when the community is not in prayer, it may be doing ministry. Examples of ministries in contemplative communities are making altar breads, packaging goods for the missions, making candy, cheeses, or other goods to sell. In addition to prayer and ministry, time is spent with their community--enjoying each other's company.

Some contemplative orders are strictly cloistered. The sisters do not go outside except for special occasions. Other contemplative groups are not as strict, and sisters may go out for recreation and shopping.

Apostolic communities will not spend as much time in personal and communal prayer as their contemplative counterparts. How they divide up their time is as varied as the congregations. Some congregations are considered to be very professional. Much of their energy is focused on their apostolate. Some apostolic communities limit their ministries to one area, such as hospital work or education. Others are involved in various ministries and were not specifically founded for only one particular ministry.

In the next issue of INPUT, I want to share with you more about Pallottines and how we try to live out community, prayer and apostolate. In particular, you will learn what our initials mean: S.A.C.