Spiritualites

[TheUbiquitous]

What spiritualities are there within the Catholic Church, and how are they represented by the various first, second, and third orders?

[To Jesus Through Mary]

That is a HUGE question. There are the major orders which carry with them a unique spirituality, Franciscan, Dominican, Benedictian, Carmelite, and Augustinian, (am I missing any majors?) But then each private congregation may represent this in a different form. THen you have the "small" ones, like the IVE (yep I really did bring them back up again) and other congregations. Then you have the lay movements. Like the group I belong to as a lay missionary, their spirituality is "Moving with the Heartbeats of Jesus and Mary Among the materially poor". So add a couple hundred of other possibilities there, and I am just speaking of lay ecclesial movements (those cannonically associated with the Church). So Google my friend. Amazing how the Holy Spirit works in so many different ways- but all for the same One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

As far as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd orders. Typically 1st orders are typically priests and friars (or monks or brothers depending on the order), 2nd are the contemplative nuns, and 3rd are the active sisters and lay people. again though depends on the order.

Hope that helps!!
TJTM

[Byzantine]

And then I think each of the various Catholic Churches has its own spiritualities. I'm not sure if the monastic ones mentioned above are considered derivatives of the Latin Rite spirituality, but there would in addition to that/those be the Byzantine, Coptic, Maronite, etc, I think.

Edited August 29, 2012 by Byzantine