Consecrated life in the context of St. Johann in Tirol

The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: Liturgia Horarum), Divine Office (Latin: Divinum Officium), or Opus Dei ("Work of God") is a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, often also referred to as the breviary, of the Latin Church. The Liturgy of the Hours forms the official set of prayers "marking the hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer." The term "Liturgy of the Hours" has been retroactively applied to the practices of saying the canonical hours in both the Christian East and West–particularly within the Latin liturgical rites–prior to the Second Vatican Council, and is the official term for the canonical hours promulgated for usage by the Latin Church in 1971. Before 1971, the official form for the Latin Church was the Breviarium Romanum, first published in 1568 with major editions through 1962.

The Liturgy of the Hours, like many other forms of the canonical hours, consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns, readings, and other prayers and antiphons prayed at fixed prayer times. Together with the Mass, it constitutes the public prayer of the church. Christians of both Western and Eastern traditions (including the Latin Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, Lutheran, Anglican, and some other Protestant churches) celebrate the canonical hours in various forms and under various names. The chant or recitation of the Divine Office therefore forms the basis of prayer within the consecrated life, with some of the monastic or mendicant orders producing their own permutations of the Liturgy of the Hours and older Roman Breviary.

In the Catholic Church, a religious order is a community of consecrated life with members who profess solemn vows. They are classed as a type of religious institute.

Subcategories of religious orders are:

The Third Order of Saint Francis, or Franciscan Tertiaries, is the third order of the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis founded the Third Order, originally called the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, in 1221, to accommodate men and women who, either from already being in consecrated life as hermits, or from being married, were ineligible to join the Franciscan First or Second Orders, respectively. In this way, they could live their lives affiliated to the Franciscan vision of the Gospel.

In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. Secular priests (sometimes known as diocesan priests) are priests who commit themselves to a certain geographical area and are ordained into the service of the residents of a diocese or equivalent church administrative region. That includes serving the everyday needs of the people in parishes, but their activities are not limited to that of their parish.

In Christianity, the three evangelical counsels, or counsels of perfection, are poverty, chastity, and obedience. As stated by Jesus Christ in the canonical gospels, they are counsels for those who desire to become "perfect" (τελειος, teleios).

The Catholic Church interprets this to mean that they are not binding upon all, and hence not necessary conditions to attain eternal life (heaven), but that they are "acts of supererogation", "over and above" the minimum stipulated in the biblical commandments. Catholics and Lutherans who have made a public profession to order their lives by the evangelical counsels, and confirmed this by public vows before their competent church authority (the act of religious commitment known as a profession), are recognised as members of the consecrated life.

A motherhouse or mother house is the principal house or community for a Catholic religious community. One example is the Missionaries of Charity's motherhouse in Kolkata, which functions as the congregation's headquarters. A motherhouse would normally be where the residence and offices of the religious superior of the community would be located. If the community is divided geographically, it is referred to as the provincial motherhouse and would be where the regional superior would be in residence.

In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress; from Ancient Greek ἀναχωρέω (anakhōréō) 'I withdraw, retire') is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. Anchorites are frequently considered to be a type of hermit, but unlike hermits, they were required to take a vow of stability of place, opting for permanent enclosure in cells often attached to churches. Also unlike hermits, anchorites were subject to a religious rite of consecration that closely resembled the funeral rite, following which they would be considered dead to the world and a type of living saint. Anchorites had a certain autonomy, as they did not answer to any ecclesiastical authority apart from bishops.

The anchoritic life is one of the earliest forms of Christian monasticism. In Catholicism and Evangelical Lutheranism, heremitic life is one of the forms of consecrated life. In medieval England, the earliest recorded anchorites lived in the 11th century. Their highest number—around 200 anchorites—was recorded in the 13th century.