What is religious life?
Each religious order or congregation has a particular gift that they offer for the Church. This gift is known as their “Charism.” This gift helps them to focus their mission and ministry on some particular aspect of the Church’s mission.
Members of Religious Orders make solemn vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.
Some religious orders are apostolic (active in the world), some monastic and some cloistered. The cloistered communities do not live and minister actively in the outside world. Their life and work of prayer is primarily contained within their monastery setting.
The process of joining a religious community actually takes some time and involves several stages. The first step would be to make contact with particular religious orders and to attend events such as “Come and See” and reflection days that they offer for discerners.
Please check the link on this site for contact information for the various religious communities within our Archdiocese and some nearby dioceses.
We are a community of religious missionaries that have the male and female branch. We do our apostolate especially in the Parishes where, in communion with our Pastor, we work in the evangelization and catechesis with children, youth and adults. We try to always be elements of communion, in imitation of Our Lady, Mary Ever Virgin, incarnating ourselves with simplicity and joy in the mission where our Lord sends us, trying to live out our motto: “Father, may they all be one” (Jn 17,21).
Sister Sandra Luz Enriquez
281-854-9503
The Brothers and Sisters of Charity, founded by John Michael Talbot in 1980, has an integrated monastic expression of celibate brothers and sisters, singles who can marry, and families; and a domestic expression of members who live in their own homes, mostly in the United States. Our two monasteries are in northwest Arkansas (integrated monastery of men and women) and Houston, TX (women only). We are called as a monastic and domestic spiritual family into deep love relationships with and in Jesus Christ. The monastic members share common work and recreation areas while retaining appropriate separate cloistered areas for each expression. Our primary founder is Jesus, our primary rule is Scripture, and love is our primary law, guided by divine truth. Our most important work is to worship God daily as a community during the monastic Liturgy of the Hours. Secondly, we create a spiritual oasis of prayer in our monastic way of life that ministers to the hundreds of pilgrims who come to us.
Sr. M. Breidt, B.S.C.
832-602-5110
281-836-5783
FAX: 888-420-5678
St. Clare Monastery 6921 Cutten Pkwy., Houston, TX 77069
Congregation of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle
Ministry and Spirituality.
As an international Congregation of religious women, we work to awaken and deepen faith, building our ministry of retreats, spiritual direction and faith formation on our foundation of prayer and life in community. We are called to help persons consider the meaning of life and grow in openness to the love of God.
The word “Cenacle” is another name for the Upper Room where Jesus often met with his followers and where he celebrated the Last Supper, establishing his continuing presence in the Eucharist, and where his followers were empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The spirituality of the Cenacle Sisters follows Mary’s lead as she supported the faith community in the Upper Room waiting for the Holy Spirit,
The Cenacle Sisters were founded nearly 200 years ago and are firmly rooted in the spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola as well as that of the congregation’s founder St Thérèse Couderc and her experience of self-surrender, and the Goodness of a loving God.
Sr. Roselle Haas, r.c.
6505 Almeda Rd Houston, TX 77021
We are a small community of contemplative women whose lives are dedicated to prayer for the Church and for all people. Our foundation, which was originally located in Houston, TX, was made in 1958 from the Carmel in San Antonio, TX. In 1974 we moved to New Caney, in a wooded area at the northern end of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
Sr. Mary Ann Harrison OCD
281-399-0270
1100 Parthenon Place New Caney, TX 77357
The Dominican Sisters of Houston is a Catholic community of women whose mission is “to publicly commit ourselves to study and address the crucial justice issues of our times.” The sisters’ active ministries include teaching and school administration, hospital chaplaincy, prayer, campus ministry, parish ministry and others.
Sr. Pat Casey, OP
713-747-3310 ext. 325
6501 Almeda Rd. Houston, TX 77021
We, members of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena-in Vietnam, are called to glorify God and strive for sanctity in the Dominican charism through observing the evangelical counsels and the proper laws of the Congregation, living fraternal life, celebrating the liturgy, studying persistently, and carrying out apostolic ministry.
Our mission is aimed at the salvation of humankind by evangelizing for the reign of God, educating youth in the authentic Catholic spirit, and doing charitable works as exemplified in Christ.
Sister Catherine Teresa Bui, O.P. – Vocation Director
5250 Gasmer Dr. Houston, TX 77035
832-277-4707 (Vocation Office)
713-723-8250 (Main Line)
As members of the Dominican Order our apostolate follows upon preaching and teaching the Truth in order to gain souls for the Kingdom of Christ. Our motherhouse is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan and we are located in dioceses across the United States.
Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist
Our Lady of Walsingham Convent
6606 Teluco St. Houston TX 77055
The Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia Congregation live out the mission of preaching through a life of prayer, study and community which bears fruit in the teaching apostolate. They were founded in 1860 in Nashville, Tennessee. The community embraces the Church’s call to the New Evangelization through classroom teaching, family formation programs, campus ministry and work with young people, retreats, and other catechetical efforts. It serves in 27 elementary schools, 14 high schools, and 8 colleges/universities across the United States and in 7 other countries.
Sister Mara Grace, O.P. – Vocation Director
615-256-0147 (Vocation Office)
801 Dominican Drive Nashville, TN 37228-1909
615-256-5486 ext. 1005 (Main Line)
The Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus is a missionary congregation founded by Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker (A religious Sister of Charity) in Nigeria in the year 1923. Our charism is All-Embracing Charity which has its foundation in personal love for Christ and humanity. In the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston we are involved in Health Care and Pastoral Ministries.
We live and share the friendship of the living God through different apostolates.
Sr. Maria de Jesus Lozano
281-445-5520
CMST 9548 Deer Trail Drive Houston, TX 77038
Sr. Barbara Tovar, MCDP
210-432-0113
2318 Castroville Rd. San Antonio, TX 78237
The Society of the Sacred Heart unites over 1800 women in 40+ countries in a global mission: to deepen our understanding of God’s love and reveal it to the world through the service of education. Contemplatives in action, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, also known as RSCJ, live communally and serve as educators in many settings, including high schools and colleges, artists’ studios and parishes, medical and legal facilities, social agencies and shelters. Developing leaders and building relationships among people from all walks of life are at the heart of our vocation. We share life together in small communities and seek, through prayer and contemplation, to be drawn ever more deeply into intimacy with God, who is always alive and active in our hearts and who challenges us to make choices for justice and peace in response to the Gospel and needs of the world.
By our charism, we are consecrated to GLORIFYING THE HEART OF JESUS: we answer His call to discover and reveal His love letting ourselves be transformed by His Spirit so as to live united and conformed to Him, and through our love and service to radiate the very love of His Heart (1982 Constitutions).
Sr. Casrolyn Siy, RSCJ
281-381-0467
2424 E. T. C. Jester Blvd. #6102 Houston, TX 77008
We, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston, are a multi-cultural, international Congregation of Catholic women religious. We are consecrated to God as clear signs of the presence and power of this intimate and sacrificial love at work in the world. Our deepest desire in everything is to promote the fundamental dignity of persons, demonstrating our Incarnational charism.
Sr. Kim Phuong Tran, CCVI
713-928-6053
6510 Lawndale Street Houston, TX 77023
The charism and spirit of our Congregation, the legacy of our founder to us can be summed up in this way: Understanding the creative role of providence in history and knowing that we must search the signs of the times; drawn to simplicity of heart, purpose, and life; freed by poverty to respond to the cry of the poor, we serve people in the needs of our time by means of the works of charity.
Sr. Joyce Detzel, CDP
210-434-1866
515 S.W. 24th St. San Antonio, TX 78207
The Charism of our order is to “extend the Incarnation in time.” We have a great devotion to the Incarnate Word in the Eucharist. Ministries: Our ministries are all Church related and involve education and other areas of Christian service.
Sr. Maria Eleanor Caisido, C.V.I.
713-668-0423, extension 109
3400 Bradford Place, Houston, Texas 77025
The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph was founded in Le Puy, France in 1650 to be women of reconciliation. Our charism, therefore, is to unite people with people and people with God. The Sisters respond to the needs of the “cher voisin” (dear neighbor). Our ministry in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has been education at the University of Saint Thomas in counselor education and supervision.
Sister Marie Faubert, CSJ, Professor
Counselor Educator and Supervisor
University of Saint Thomas 3800 Montrose Blvd. Houston, TX 77006
Active Apostolic female religious congregation. The sisters live together in communities, and share everything in common in the spirit of the apostles and disciples in the early church.
Motto: Service, Victory and Adoration.
Our special inspiration stems from the Angels’ adoration of the Trinity and their service to humankind leading people to salvation.
Charism: Evangelization through Inculturation; that is to preach the gospel in such a way that it becomes part of the people’s culture.
Apostolate: Our primary apostolate is Prayer, and our secondary active apostolate of Evangelization is in 4 folds of Catechesis, Education, Social Justice and Health.
The sisters respond to the pastoral needs of the people of God at St. Peter the Apostle Church, Houston, and among the African Catholic families in the Archdiocese of Galveston/Houston.
Sister Marie Faubert, CSJ, Professor
Counselor Educator and Supervisor
As Ursulines of the Central Province, members of a worldwide community of Catholic Sisters, we are women whose lives and mission are rooted in the Gospel of Jesus and the spirit of our foundress, Angela Merici. Grounded and empowered by our relationships with God and with one another, in prayer and community, we seek to be a compassionate, reconciling presence of God in our world.
Sr. Carla Marie Crabtree, OSU
713-666-7229
4129 Sarong Houston, TX 77025
