Word of the Day: Tertiaries

TERTIARIES. Lay persons living in the world who are striving after Christian perfection as their station in life allows, according to the spirit of a religious order to which they are affiliated and abiding by the rules approved for their association by the Apostolic See. Secular tertiaries generally do not live in community, nor do they wear habits, but they share in the good works of their parent order.

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Interesting that Fr Hardon, in his entry on Third Orders, which I posted yesterday, quite correctly points out that there are two sorts of Tertiaries, Secular and Regular, for instance the Third Order Regular of St Francis (T.O.R.), an Order of Priest Tertiaries who are vowed, just as the First Order is.

And he doesn't even mention the Third Orders, which of course, is what makes a Tertiary a Tertiary, belonging to a Third Order. And his remark that Tertiaries don not wear habits is technically false. It is true that we don't wear a 'full' habit as daily wear, as the First and Second Orders do, but our large Tertiary Scapular, which we wear 24/7, is definitely a habit. Here is my Tertiary Scapular, covering the entire screen of my laptop.