What is the typical accommodation and living conditions like in cleric regular orders?

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Theemonk said:
Just curious, not asking for shallow reasons.
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I’m sure that differs so much from individual community to individual community that no general answer can be given. You can probably count on three hots and a cot, though. Except on fast days, off course.
 
Does it tend to be very basic like in monasteries…single bed, small desk, and a chair?
 
It would depend, if you are a Carthusian, or a Dominican, or a monk that lives in the world.

You really should visit a few and put your discernment on a path with people who can guide you in real life.
 
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OurLadyofSorrows said:
It would depend, if you are a Carthusian, or a Dominican, or a monk that lives in the world.
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Yes, but he was asking about clerics (I think he meant canons) regular specifically. Dominicans are mendicants and Carthusians are monastics.
 
Theemonk said:
Does it tend to be very basic like in monasteries…single bed, small desk, and a chair?
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I spent the summer in the residence of one of the communities of canons regular in Regensburg, Germany, back in 1981. They had extra rooms that they let the univrsity use to house foreign graduate students. The canons slept two to a room. There was a communal bathroom on each floor. There was a little table and two chairs in each room. Food was very basic. I took my meals at the main university cafeteria where the food was much more interesting. There were two break rooms on each floor. A quiet one for reading, and another one for TV, cards, ping pong and foos, or for practicing the piano. One of the canons also played the flute. Oh, and smoking, which was unfortunately very common in Germany at the time.

I think they only had about an hour break after vespers and supper before compline. They were up and singing Matins at 5 AM. My bed shared a wall with the organ loft in the chapel, so I got up at that time, too.

However, as I said, that is a snapshot of one particular community at one particular point in time.

The quarters were pretty austere, but not grim. Not much in the way of decoration or adornment. Just plain white walls with a cross and maybe a holy picture.
 
Fauken said:
Yes, but he was asking about clerics (I think he meant canons) regular specifically.
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That’s how I interpreted his question, too. I even read “canons” for “clerics” without even noticing,
 
Theemonk said:
Just curious, not asking for shallow reasons.
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This really depends. Cleric Regulars (the Jesuits for example are a Cleric Regular order) typically do not have monasteries, convents, priories, friaries, etc.

They typically live in the living quarters of whatever job they have. Retreat House, College, School, Parish Rectory, etc.

Cleric Regulars do not have to pray the Liturgy of the Hours in common, so in a way, they are the type of consecrated orders most similar to diocesan priests. So their living conditions are almost just a varied as the living conditions of diocesan priests (though it most likely a good bet that due to their vow of poverty, their rooms may be much more spartan then the typical diocesan priest.

This list might help: Types of Religious Orders
 
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Yes, I do know that they don’t have monasteries or friaries (cleric regulars are CLERIC REGULARS not monks or friars) and that they live in ‘the living quarters of whatever job they have’…that’s what I’m asking…what those living quarters are actually like.
 
Theemonk said:
what those living quarters are actually like.
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As I said above, there is no answer to that question beyond “there’s a bed, access to a bathroom and maybe a kitchen, and maybe some other stuff too, depending on the individual community”. Some communities are very austere and minimalistic, and others more comfortable. There is no general rule, and “average” or “typical” don’t mean anything in a case like this.
 
Theemonk said:
Yes, I do know that they don’t have monasteries or friaries (cleric regulars are CLERIC REGULARS not monks or friars) and that they live in ‘the living quarters of whatever job they have’…that’s what I’m asking…what those living quarters are actually like.
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They are as diverse as parish rectories. My guess is that they are typically nicer than Friaries, but Cleric Regulars do take vows of poverty. So anything that decorates the rectory they live in is most likely belongs to the college, retreat house, parish, etc that they are living at.

If you are considering a possible vocation, call up the closest Cleric Regular order (Jesuits, etc) and ask them for a tour or to meet a vocations director for them.
 
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Where does one start. There are many examples of regular priests. Some living alone and some in community. Others serving on a parish or a mission others serving in their order’s generalate. Priests in institutes with many different charisms. There are those serving in the rich West and others serving in areas of abject poverty. Simply, there is no general situation.

It would be fair to sat as a general rule a regular priest will be given the basics that he needs. He will not, of course, be supplied with luxuries.
 
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