They had joined a religious order and dedicated their lives to prayer and good works.
他们参加了一个宗教团体,献身于祈祷和做善事。
《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》
2
In a sense this is inescapable: meaning exists only insofar as it means to someone, and literary works are written in order to evoke sets of responses in the reader.