Exploring the Catholic vocations of marriage, Holy Orders and consecrated life
By Mary Powers
The personal vocation of each baptized Catholic stems from a primary vocation as sons or daughters of God. The call or “vocatio” in each person’s life originates in love — a response to first experiencing and knowing the infinite love of our Father in heaven.
Speaking to more than 1 million youth in August 2025 at Tor Vergata for the Jubilee of Youth, Pope Leo XIV said:
“These are radical, meaningful choices: matrimony, Holy Orders and consecrated life. They express the free and liberating gift of self that makes us truly happy. That is where we find happiness, when we learn to give ourselves, to give our lives for others. These choices give meaning to our lives, transforming them into the image of perfect love that created them and redeemed them from all evil, even from death.”
This article serves as an overview of the many ways Catholics are called by love to make a gift of self through personal vocations.
Matrimony
“Let us not forget: families are the cradle of the future of humanity.” – Pope Leo XIV, Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly.
The most common vocation in the Church is the Sacrament of Marriage. It is the foundation for the family unit, which is the basis of society. The union of man and woman is the visible sign of Trinitarian love and the love between Christ and His Church.
“This sacrificial self-offering between husband and wife is at the heart of every marriage, but our faith teaches us that in Christian marriage this sacrifice is also a sacrament,” said Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone at a Mass offered for those celebrating wedding anniversaries. “What does this mean? It is customary for Catholics to exchange their wedding vows before the altar. It is there that Christ, speaking through his priest, says, ‘This is my body, given for you.’ In a very real way, at the Last Supper, Jesus was saying to His bride, the Church: ‘With my body, I thee wed. I give myself over to you completely, to my final breath and my last drop of blood.’ That is the great mystery made present every time we celebrate the Eucharist: every Mass is a nuptial Mass.”
From the beauty of the sacrifice and sacramental union of man and woman comes the fruitfulness of their love — children — creating a domestic Church whereby children first learn what it is to love and be loved.
Holy Orders
“Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to His apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus, it is the sacrament of
apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate (bishops), presbyterate (priests) and diaconate (deacons).” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1536)
Priesthood
There is one priesthood in Christ, but different expressions of that priesthood. Just as Jesus laid down His life for others, priests follow His example, becoming the sacrificial offering “in persona Christi” at the altar.
Diocesan priests are ordained by a diocesan bishop to serve in a specific diocese. They promise obedience to the bishop and to remain celibate. They live within their parish or diocesan assignment, focused on parish ministry: sacraments, pastoral care, diocesan administration and/or chaplaincies for hospitals.
Religious priests serve within a specific community, such as the Dominicans or Franciscans. They take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. These vows shape their communal life. Each religious community has different charisms or special missions or ways in which they serve the Church. Some religious priests are missionaries and are sent to serve in diocesan communities or in impoverished countries. Others are contemplatives, living in abbeys or monasteries devoting their lives to prayer and work within a set location.
Permanent Diaconate
“Strengthened by sacramental grace, (deacons) are dedicated to the people of God, in conjunction with the bishop and his body of priests, in the service (‘diakonia’) of the liturgy, of the Gospel and of works of charity.” (“Lumen Gentium,” 29)
Deacons, both married and unmarried, serve God’s people by their witness to the Gospel value of sacrificial love. In their lives of service, deacons can often enable and empower others to exercise their own responsibilities of Christian holiness more effectively to the Gospel of Life. The deacon, as an ordained minister, has a permanent and a public responsibility for ministry of word, sacrament and charity. Through ordination, he becomes an icon of Christ the servant.
Consecrated Life
Men and women religious profess the evangelical counsels — poverty, chastity and obedience — and live in community, giving witness to the union of Christ with the Church. This can be seen in professed brothers or sisters.
Men who enter religious life, but choose not to become priests, such as the De La Salle Christian Brothers or other religious communities, dedicate their lives to Christ in the mission of their founders, serving the Church by teaching, taking care of the poor or other ministries.
In Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation “Vita Consecrata,” he explains that the brotherhood embodied by the religious brothers is to serve as a reminder to priests of the fundamental dimension of brotherhood in Christ to be lived among themselves and with every man and woman.
“These religious are called to be brothers of Christ, deeply united with Him, the firstborn among many brothers’ (Rom 8:29); brothers to one another, in mutual love and working together in the Church in the same service of what is good; brothers to everyone, in their witness to Christ’s love for all, especially the lowliest, the neediest; brothers for a greater brotherhood in the Church.” (“Vita Consecrata,” 60)
Consecrated women, whether women religious or consecrated virgins, are called to be spouses of Christ, an image of Our Lady and the Church, pointing the Church toward the heavenly marriage banquet.
“This spousal dimension, which is part of all consecrated life, has a particular meaning for women, who find therein their feminine identity and as it were discover the special genius of their relationship with the Lord. A moving sign of this is seen in the New Testament passage which portrays Mary with the apostles in the Upper Room, in prayerful expectation of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:13-14). We can see here a vivid image of the Church as bride, fully attentive to her bridegroom and ready to accept his gift.” (“Vita Consecrata,” 34)
Religious sisters
A religious sister publicly professes the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, and — according to the particular charism of her institute — may also take an additional vow that expresses that community’s special mission (for example, the Sisters of Life add a fourth vow of protecting life, while the Missionaries of Charity add a vow of service to the poorest of the poor).
Religious sisters may be contemplative, such as the Poor Clares or Carmelites, or they may be active (such as Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose). Contemplative religious sisters live a form of consecrated life whose primary focus is the interior prayer of the heart, silence and solitude. Members live in monasteries or convents and keep the evangelical counsels while dedicating most of their day to the “service of divine majesty” through prayer, liturgy and penance. Active religious life is a form of consecrated life whose chief orientation is outward service. Active religious sisters live in community but regularly leave it to teach, care for the sick, evangelize, work for justice or carry out missionary activity.
Consecrated Virgins Living in the World
Similar to these forms of consecrated life is the Order of Virgins who, expressing the holy resolution of following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop, mystically betrothed to Christ and dedicated to the service of the Church. Unlike religious sisters, they do not profess the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; instead, through the bishop’s solemn prayer, they are received into the consecration that sets them apart as holy women of the Church.
They belong to the “Ordo Virginum” as a diocesan vocation, not to a religious institute. Their life is rooted in the local Church, where they pray the Liturgy of the Hours, participate in the sacraments and offer personal witness, while supporting themselves through their own work and living in the same world as the people they serve. This vocation “is a clear sign of the future kingdom” and makes the consecrated virgin an image of the Church, the bride of Christ, sharing in the joys and sorrows of the community while bearing a visible sign of total dedication to Christ.
Diocesan hermits
Diocesan hermits are called to live a quiet, prayer-filled life not in a monastery but in their own neighborhood under the care of the local bishop. A hermit publicly promises the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and spends most of each day in silence, prayer and simple
work, often in a small home or a modest cell. Unlike monks who belong to a religious order, a diocesan hermit is directly connected to the diocese, so the bishop helps guide and support him or her.
