What Are the Great Schools of Catholic Spirituality?

One Faith, Many Paths

All Catholics share the same faith, sacraments and goal: union with God in love. But the Church has always recognised that people approach God in different ways, according to their temperament, vocation and the gifts the Holy Spirit gives them.

Over the centuries, great saints founded religious orders, and around each order grew a distinctive spirituality: a particular way of praying, living and seeking God. These are often called “schools” of spirituality. They are not rival churches or competing doctrines. They are different emphases within one Catholic life, like different rooms in the same house.

Knowing about them can help any Catholic find a way of praying and living that suits them, and many lay people attach themselves to one of these families through third orders, oblate programmes or simply reading their great writers.

Benedictine: Prayer and Work

Founder: St Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–547), whose Rule became the foundation of Western monastic life.

Motto: Ora et labora, “pray and work.”

Key features:

The Liturgy of the Hours: praying the Psalms together at set times through the day. Benedict called it the “work of God,” to which nothing is to be preferred.
Lectio divina: slow, prayerful reading of Scripture.
Stability: commitment to one community and place.
Balance: a rhythm of prayer, work, study and rest, without extremes.
Hospitality: every guest is to be received as Christ.

For whom: those drawn to order, rhythm, the liturgy and Scripture. The Benedictine way is especially well suited to family life, with its emphasis on stable community and ordinary work done well.

Franciscan: Poverty and Joy

Founder: St Francis of Assisi (1181/2–1226).

Key features:

Radical poverty, imitating Christ who became poor for our sake.
Love of Christ’s humanity: Francis created the first Christmas crib at Greccio and bore the wounds of Christ in his own body.
Joy and simplicity.
Love for creation, expressed in his Canticle of the Creatures, praising God for Brother Sun and Sister Moon.
Care for the poor and outcast.

Great writers: St Bonaventure, St Clare of Assisi, St Anthony of Padua.

For whom: those drawn to simplicity, the poor, the natural world and an affectionate love of Jesus.

Dominican: Truth and Preaching

Founder: St Dominic (1170–1221), who founded the Order of Preachers.

Motto: Contemplata aliis tradere, “to contemplate and to hand on to others the fruits of contemplation” (St Thomas Aquinas).

Key features:

Study as a path to God: the search for truth is itself a form of prayer.
Preaching and teaching.
The Rosary, which Dominicans did much to spread.
A combination of contemplation and active ministry.

Great writers: St Thomas Aquinas, St Catherine of Siena, Blessed Henry Suso, Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange.

For whom: those who love ideas and learning, and who want to share the truth of the faith with others.

Carmelite: Prayer of the Heart

Origins: hermits on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land in the twelfth century; reformed in the sixteenth century by St Teresa of Ávila and St John of the Cross.

Key features:

Contemplative prayer: Teresa defined mental prayer as “nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends.”
A deep map of the interior journey to union with God.
Strong devotion to Mary, under the title Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the brown scapular.
Silence and solitude.

Great writers: Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, St Thérèse of Lisieux (whose “Little Way” of doing small things with great love has helped millions), St Elizabeth of the Trinity, St Edith Stein.

For whom: those drawn to silent prayer and intimate friendship with God. Thérèse’s Little Way is particularly suited to people with busy, ordinary lives.

Ignatian: Finding God in All Things

Founder: St Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), a soldier turned saint who founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).

Key features:

The Spiritual Exercises, a structured programme of prayer, often made as a retreat lasting up to thirty days.
Imaginative contemplation: placing yourself within a Gospel scene and encountering Christ there.
Discernment of spirits: learning to recognise the movements of God and of the enemy in one’s heart, especially when making decisions.
The daily examen, a short review of the day to notice God’s presence and one’s responses.
Finding God in all things, and doing all ad maiorem Dei gloriam, for the greater glory of God.

For whom: those facing decisions, people active in the world, and anyone who wants a practical, structured method of prayer.

Salesian: Holiness for Everyone

Founder: St Francis de Sales (1567–1622), bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, with St Jane Frances de Chantal.

Key features:

Holiness in ordinary life: his Introduction to the Devout Life (1609) was written for a laywoman and insisted that devotion is possible for soldiers, merchants, married people and courtiers alike.
Gentleness, both with others and with oneself.
Doing the duties of one’s state in life with love.

For whom: lay people who want to grow in holiness without leaving their work and family.

Other Families

There are many others. The Augustinian tradition emphasises the restless heart seeking God and life in community. The French school, associated with Cardinal de Bérulle and St Louis de Montfort, centres on the mystery of the Incarnate Word and total consecration to Jesus through Mary. Many more recent movements continue to develop new expressions of Catholic spirituality.

How to Choose

There is no need to choose only one. Many Catholics draw on several: they pray the Rosary (Dominican), make an Ignatian examen, and read Thérèse of Lisieux.

But it can help to find one “home” tradition to go deeper in. A few practical suggestions:

Read a classic: The Rule of St Benedict, The Little Flowers of St Francis, The Story of a Soul by Thérèse, Introduction to the Devout Life.
Try a practice: the Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina, the examen.
Visit a monastery or religious house for a retreat.
Talk to a spiritual director.

Above all, remember that every school of spirituality leads to the same place: Christ. As St Paul said, “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4).

For classic spiritual texts, see our sister site, Christian Perfection.