Benedictine Professed Life

What is Benedictine Professed Life?

Professed (formerly known as Vowed) members of The Companions of St. Luke – OSB are people of God who are on a spiritual journey, who desire a richer and deeper prayer life, and are seeking wholeness and reconciliation for themselves and for humanity whom God has called to them to love. They are people whose response to God’s call to professed (vowed) life is a reflection and reaffirmation of their Baptismal vows to Christ. The community admits men and women to Candidacy for Professed Life who wish to explore the call to a closer relationship with Christ. They desire to do this by sharing their life with this community and by living within the context of the Benedictine Rule and Vows and our Customary.

What are the additional requirements to apply for Proferssed Life membership?

In addition to the basic requirements described above, to be considered for candidacy for Professed Life a person must:

Not be under vows in another religious order or community.
Complete an application for professed (vowed) life.
After receipt of your application, you will be interviewed by the Superior and two senior members by telephone or via a mutually suitable means.
Your rector or priest-in-charge will need to be aware of and support your desire to become a Benedictine religious with a community affiliated with The Episcopal Church of the United States. For clergy, you will need to discuss and obtain support from your bishop.
Be able to read, write, and speak English.
It is highly recommended that candidates for Postulancy and the novitiate attend our annual spring convocation near Kansas City, Missouri. It is required that members moving on to annual and life profession attend this convocation.

What is Professed (Vowed) Life Formation?

Professed Life Formation is intially a period of curriculum and distance-based training and discernment for each postulant and novice member. True formation is not an intellectual exercise but is a life-long journey and spiritual process of growth and transformation. Each postulant and novice member in formation is supported by a Formation Guide (a senior member selected by the Dean of Professed Life and the Superior). This person helps members through the initial formation stages and receives their reports and reflections. The Formation Guide supports and looks for spiritual change and growth. The formation program is an expression of our Benedictine vows that are subsequently professed or made manifest to our community and beyond:

The vow of Stability (practiced through daily, regular prayer and meditation, study, and timely reporting) supports a foundation of trust in and commitment to community achieved through sustainable relationships between CSL members, our true selves, and God.
The vow of Obedience that calls us to listen and respond out of love to Christ, to our superior as Christ’s representative in our community, to Formation Guides and to all others because we know that Christ is within each person, leading us to do God’s Will rather than our own.
The vow of Fidelity to Monastic Life (Conversatio Morum Suorum) that moves each member from a purely secular lifestyle to a more integrated lifestyle focused on the love of Christ, (fostered by daily prayer, meditation, and service) that balances the demands of the world while leading us to a transformed way of truly being an image of God.

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