The Call To Be A Non Ordained Brother?

[oratefratres]

for the past year or two i have been feeling as though i might be called to some sort of religious vocation. but i dont feel called to be a diocesan priest. i feel called to make three vows, so for a while i kinda thought about being a religious order priest. i know there are brothers too. but i thought - if a man can become a priest, then why doesnt he?

i have visited a couple of abbeys but am just thinking about it at the moment. it kind of doesnt help that i am also seeing a girl i like as well, although i am not called to marriage and i know she will be very upset.

what is the call to be a religious non ordained brother instead of a religious priest? how does it feel? how does one discern that? i am pretty sure such a vocation exists because i read online that there are whole orders of brothers. but i dont see how it is different. are brothers mostly the ones who could not become priests?

are there any brothers online here who do not want to become priests? why?

i read also that there are 'professional brothers' who study and work in the world, and 'lay brothers' who do humble serviale work. im quite smart so think i would be the professional one.
 

[Nunsuch]

The calls to ordination and to religious life are distinct. Some are called to both (religious priests); most are not. The vast majority of priests are diocesan ("secular") priests, and are not called to religious life.

 

Brothers are fully members of their communities and take the same religious vows as priests. Many are highly educated, including teachers, health-care professionals, and even lawyers. Some are social workers, or religious education/pastoral ministers. Others work with the poor. Some serve in support capacities with their communities. This may depend on whether the community is primarily monastic or apostolic. The point is that the call to community and religious life may or may not be accompanied by a call to ordination. It isn't odd at all.

In many monastic communities the majority of members are NOT ordained.  And consider that St. Benedict was not ordained and St. Francis, while a deacon (so he could preach) was never a priest and felt no call to priesthood. So you are in good company!

 

Finally, keep in mind that there are some communities (like the de la Salle Christian Brothers) which have NO ordained members, while others have both priests and non-ordained members. 

 

Best to you as you discern your vocation. 

[PhuturePriest]

It's simply a matter of some being called to become priests, and others not being called. There are many lay brothers who became Saints, and lay brothers are not to be looked down upon by their ordained counterparts.

[Nunsuch]

As PhuturePriest said, the one is not "better" than the other. It is important to follow one's call, whatever it may be.  That is why the Church provides different paths (vocations) for different people. We are not all supposed to fit a cookie-cutter mold. And not "fitting" one type of vocation or another is not a sign of more or less of God's grace.

[bardegaulois]

We all too often (well, we men at least) group priesthood and religious life together in our thinking, perhaps in large part because most of the religious we encounter are priests and because brothers today are much fewer and less visible than they once were. A lot of this has to do with some of the dynamics that were developed within religious orders. At one time, orders would push every brother capable of studying in seminary into the priesthood, often because bishops would be asking the men religious within their diocese to take over a parish or two. This unfortunately led many of the orders to weaken in their charism. Today efforts are being made to mend that, but it's still uncertain what might emerge.

 

I've heard contrary statements from spiritual directors to men, with some saying to discern the religious vocation first, as every religious priest must first become a brother and undergo the same novitiate as those who will not be ordained, and then become a priest if asked by your superior; and others saying to focus on the vocation to the clerical life, later determining in what context that vocation would best be expressed. So in many ways, even the discernment process has come to take on a rather clerical cast, which does injustice to the vocation of the brother if you ask me.

 

The best thing to do, I'd think, would be to seek out a brother in an institute whose charism and work interests you and to establish a correspondence, asking him how his spiritual life is different both from that of a priest and that of a layman. It's always best to get this from the source itself. I thought about this a little when I was younger myself, and actually did exchange letters with brothers, but couldn't really see myself there. However, many brothers are very happy to talk--because they see themselves as your brothers.

[Luigi]

Brothers are NOT "priest wannabes" or "priest couldn't have beens." They are men who dedicate their lives to God by serving God's people while living in community under vows. They are the male equivalents of sisters, women who dedicate their lives to God by serving God's people while living in community under vows. Not everyone who puts on a habit is called to be a priest. 

 

You join a community because you want the communal life - like-minded men, committed to the order's charism / ministry, living more or less on a schedule, including scheduled prayer times, kinds of prayer particular to the community, and so forth. Whether you become a priest or not, you still live the charism in the communal life. 

 

Here are some of the more common orders of brothers, or that permit brothers. 

 

Alexian Brothers - all the men are brothers, none are priests. Their ministry has always been hands-on health care. http://www.alexianbrothers.org/ 

 

Christian Brothers (De La Salle Christian Brothers) - Nunsense mentioned these guys. Again, all the men are brothers. Their ministry has always been education, particularly of young men. I think they do some co-ed schools, and maybe some middle schools, but mostly they run boys' high schools, plus a college in Memphis. http://www.cbmidwest.org/WP1/

 

Marianists (Society of Mary / Brothers of Mary) - Some (Most?) of the men are brothers and some are priests. But they all JOIN as brothers - the superiors then call some of them to study for the priesthood; it's not up to the incoming novice to say "I'm joining as a priest-to-be" or "I'm joining but I never want to be a priest." Their traditional ministry has been education of young men - high schools and a few colleges (Ohio, Texas, Hawaii), but they also have co-ed schools including grade schools.  http://www.marianist.com/ 

 

Dominicans - the vast majority of the friars are priests, but they do have brothers as well. Some of them take care of a priory - maintenance, housekeeping, paying the bills - so the priest-friars can devote their time to study and preaching. But they also have brother-friars who teach or that kind of thing. In contrast to the Marianists, I believe the Dominicans DO let you enter saying, "I'm entering on the priest formation track" or "I'm entering on the brother formation track." There are four provinces in the US - if you want information about Dominican brothers, you can Google "Dominicans" and then add eastern, central, southern, or western, depending on where you are. 

 

Franciscans - pretty much like the Dominicans, I think, but I have less knowledge of Franciscans in general. There are several provinces in the US. 

 

Jesuits - the vast majority of the men are priests, but they've always had some brothers, too. Up into the 20th century, the brothers were often the builders, the farm managers, carpenters, vintners, you name it. Some of these guys were basically engineers. Again, the point was for the brothers to sustain the priest-brothers, doing the physical work so the priest-brothers could do the spiritual work. I'm not sure what kind of work they do these days. Again, there are a number of provinces. 

 

Benedictines - As Nunsense mentioned, some monasteries have a preponderance of priest-monks and some brother-monks, while others have a different proportion. I live fairly close to a Benedictine monastery, and their primary ministry is a boys' school - most of the monks teach in the school, whether they're priests or brothers. They also have a classification called "claustral oblate" - this is a guy who lives in the monastery and wears the habit, but he doesn't take the same (any?) vows as the rest of the monks. Basically, he's a lay person who's allowed to live in the monastery and contribute to the abbey life. I think claustral oblates provide service within the monastery itself - housekeeping, maintenance, door duty, that kind of thing. 

 

Trappists - a strict form of Benedictines, they also have priest-monks &  brother-monks. They "pray and work." And all of their monks do some kind of "work". The priest-monks pray together seven times a day but the brother monks pray with the community only four times a day, I think. So the priest-monks work & pray, but they do more praying and less work. The brother-monks work & pray, but they do more work and less praying. At least, that's the way I understand the traditional life - in modern times, with fewer monks, they may not live quite that way.  

 

 

[Nunsuch]

Lungi, good summary, but let me just clarify a couple of things.

Many of the Christian Brothers' schools contain both male and female students, and they run a lot of colleges, even in the US.

Your description of Trappist prayer life has not been true since Vatican II. Now, all members of the community pray together the full Office. Most Trappists are not ordained. They ordain only enough for the internal needs of the community, since they do no outside ministry. But the Vatican requires Abbits to be priests. In some abbeys, it's now a problem, because some of those who would make great abbots are not ordained and don't have a call to be ordained. Recent books I have read about the Trpists hope that Vatican policy will be changed, to allow non-priests (like St. Benedict--Trappists are, of course, abenedictine!) to serve in leadership.

The Jesuit brothers now do all sorts of hinge, including being professors and other professionals. Read about Brother Rick Curry if you want to learn about someone amazing!

[Nunsuch]

Sorry--Luigi.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Nunsuch

[TheresaThoma]

Another note on the Dominicans, from the vocation stories of some of the brothers there have been a few that have entered wanting to be a clerical brother (ie one studying for the priesthood) but discerned during their novitiate that they are called to the Dominicans but not to the priesthood and instead became a cooperator brother. You can read more about this on one of the cooperator brother's blogs. http://dominicancooperatorbrother.blogspot.com/

There is a lot of good information about the cooperator brother vocation.

 

 

[oratefratres]

@Luigi thanks for the amazing post. I am going to check out some of those for sure. I really like the sound of the Trappists and the De Salle Brothers.

just to be clear - because some of you seem to have misinterpreted the question - i am talking about the difference in the call to being a) a religious priest or b) a religious brother.

or, as @ThersaThoma wrote, the call to be a 'cooperator brother'

[Era Might]

I saw a documentary about Brother Andre on EWTN a few weeks back, you might want to explore his life. He was from a poor family but wasn't strong enough to make a good laborer. He joined a religious order, wasn't intellectually bright, but found his vocation as a doorkeeper...literally, for his entire life, his vocation was to welcome people at the door of the church, a "useless" task from a certain perspective, but the one task that gave his life meaning. He was a lay brother.

[TheresaThoma]

One of the Domincan Cooperator brothers was/is part of an online chat about the vocation of a brother. Check it out.

http://www.dioceseoflansing.org/vocations_videos

[chasmi]

Don't forget about the Holy Cross Brothers (they also have Priests) in Notre Dame Indiana.  They have wonderful ministries.

[Anselm]

In addition to Luigi's post about different orders, the Carthusians also still have lay brothers. Since Vatican II I believe they can live in the cloister cells with the Fathers if they wish. Some choose to sit in the church for the offices but some still sit in the old lay brothers' stalls in the ante-chapel without books, praying the Rosary during the offices. At Parkminster, in the UK, they now all eat in the refectory (on Sundays and feast days when they eat together) and the lay brothers' chapek has just been turned into a library extension.

[Nunsuch]

Lungi, good summary, but let me just clarify a couple of things.

Many of the Christian Brothers' schools contain both male and female students, and they run a lot of colleges, even in the US.

Your description of Trappist prayer life has not been true since Vatican II. Now, all members of the community pray together the full Office. Most Trappists are not ordained. They ordain only enough for the internal needs of the community, since they do no outside ministry. But the Vatican requires Abbits to be priests. In some abbeys, it's now a problem, because some of those who would make great abbots are not ordained and don't have a call to be ordained. Recent books I have read about the Trpists hope that Vatican policy will be changed, to allow non-priests (like St. Benedict--Trappists are, of course, abenedictine!) to serve in leadership.

The Jesuit brothers now do all sorts of hinge, including being professors and other professionals. Read about Brother Rick Curry if you want to learn about someone amazing!