LightofMary Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 For those who are possibly discerning, what attracts you to becoming a nun / sister? What are you looking for? Do you have a particular Order you are attracted? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightsadness Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Maybe you should post this at V.S.?[img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightofMary Posted February 27, 2010 Author Share Posted February 27, 2010 [quote name='brightsadness' date='25 February 2010 - 09:33 PM' timestamp='1267151636' post='2063083'] Maybe you should post this at V.S.?[img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif[/img] [/quote] Is this in Vocation Station? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laetitia crucis Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 [quote name='LightofMary' date='26 February 2010 - 09:05 PM' timestamp='1267232706' post='2063440'] Is this in Vocation Station? [/quote] Yep! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shana Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 I'd say Jesus in the Eucharist draws me. I want to live my life where I'm able to go to Mass everyday and do Eucharistic adoration everyday. Also Jesus has revealed Himself to be my Lover and I desire to give all my love to Him. A secualar career seems empty to me, I want to put my gifts in a more focused way at the service of the gospel. Right now I'm most interested in the Daughters of St. Paul, though I have been looking into some others. This is largely because I belive God is calling me to evangelize with Theology of the Body through my art as part of my life and this fits with the Daughters of St. Paul in a way I haven't at least yet found in other orders. I have other reasons. Check out my blog, I have some stuff sprinkled in their about discerning and such. Shana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightofMary Posted February 27, 2010 Author Share Posted February 27, 2010 I will try to share my own answer to the question. What attracted me to Religious Life? My first encounter with a Religious was in high school. These were Sisters who were in the Communication Media (Pauline Sisters). I remember listening to the radio and hearing a Sister's voice reading one of the Psalms. I thought it was wonderful and beautiful to be doing something like that. But I was not interested in their Order. One day, walking from a study center, I saw a Carmelite Monastery filled with people attending the 9 day novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I participated in the novena and was enrolled on the Brown Scapular on the 9th day. I received a life changing grace (secret!)and began to notice an elderly Nun who was passing out brown scapulars. I was impressed by the sight of a life totally devoted to God, a life totally given to God that despite old age and infirmity, was still a powerful witness of love and sacrifice. I decided then I was to become a Carmelite! I found out that it doesn't happen just like that! It took years of tears, doubts, search, opposition from family and disillusionment, to finally arrive at a point of surrender enough to make me let go and enter. My present Community was introduced to me by Mother Prioress of the Carmelite Monastery whose mother died in one the Homes the Sisters operate. Up to that time, I did not know that there is an active Carmelite Order. I called them up, began to volunteer in one of their Homes in New York, and three years later I joined them. I never regret having said YES to God. I love Carmel, Mary Mother of Carmel and our Carmelite Saints. Jesus sustains me in my religious vocation. It is a daily YES! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melporcristo Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 JMJT [quote]"A secualar career seems empty to me, I want to put my gifts in a more focused way at the service of the gospel."[/quote] Well said!! I always felt anxious when I was dating someone - like something was missing. When I was little, I had a religious as a pen pal. I remember looking at the postcard of her Convent thinking, "Something is so beautiful and mysterious there!". Also, I love living in community with other women who are in love with Christ. When I was in college, my household (Catholic sorority -like groups), was such a safe place for me - somewhere where I could be myself and we could share our love for the Church and for Christ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilde Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 Holiness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sister Marie Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 This may be a different answer but in my discernment and growth in understanding myself, I realized that I wanted to live a life of total self-gift to God and to His people. I envisioned a radical and all-encompassing lifestyle. I yearned for each moment to be filled with the holy. The total gift of self which I was longing for is present in my life as an apostolic religious. When I first began discerning I thought that I would definitely enter a contemplative/cloistered community but I soon realized that my gift was going to be different from what I had originally thought. Total can mean different things, it is how God has called us to give that makes it total! I love that my days are packed with the work of God. Prayer, community, and apostolate are all the outpouring of my consecration and I am so grateful to God for all the opportunities I have to spread His love throughout the world. I find that I am being as true to myself and this call as I possibly can be in the apostolate of education. Spiritually, the Eucharist, Mary, the Incarnation, and the Passion of Jesus are my strongholds. I really think that the gift of self is what vocation really comes down to. The question is, "In what way was I made to give myself to God entirely?" Many prayers that we all find out and are faithful to His will! God Bless! Sister Marie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vee Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 A belated thank you to you Sister Marie for answering my question about habits and hygiene in that other thread which I cant seem to find now . Your answer was very helpful in explaining a problem I wasnt aware of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizabeth09 Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 What attracts you to becoming a nun / sister? I want to say being with Christ and just being at mass everyday. What are you looking for? Holienss Do you have a particular Order you are attracted? I even was a little surprise Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah147 Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Great questions. [quote name='Shana' date='27 February 2010 - 12:42 AM' timestamp='1267242160' post='2063498'] I'd say Jesus in the Eucharist draws me. I want to live my life where I'm able to go to Mass everyday and do Eucharistic adoration everyday. Also Jesus has revealed Himself to be my Lover and I desire to give all my love to Him. A secualar career seems empty to me, I want to put my gifts in a more focused way at the service of the gospel. [/quote] I agree with what Shana said. Those things are certainly part of what draw me -- daily Mass, Adoration, giving my all to Him. Especially putting everything into His service as opposed to wasteful secular work. I want the apostolate I'm drawn to more than any secular work that's out there. Number one, it is about falling in love with God and finding the order I can keep growing in love. I'm drawn to the total abandonment and consecration of giving my total self and life to Jesus and having Him as my Spouse. I know I'll find complete fullfillment, happiness, joy, love, peace in accepting the calling I was created for. I know I'll better save my soul in the religious life, and grow in love and Holiness. The community -- the love, laughter, friendship, support and fellowship of women in love with God. The life and prayer of a religious can save souls and bring my loved ones into the Church. Making up for stains of past sins, purifying my soul. I'm one that needs the schedule to keep with prayers and everything. And the structure and schedule of a convent fills my day with such pleasure that I feel I've lived out the day to the fullest as compared to the typical day outside the convent. From times on retreats at convents, I could tell a huge difference in being able to stay away from distractions, and was better able to pray throughout the day, and be in awareness of God. And it really fired me up for spiritual reading. It is so joyful and wonderful being able to completely live out poverty, chastity and obediance. Especially Franciscan poverty and Divine Providence! It is so freeing. Praying, chanting and singing in community! The beauty, the pleasure, the joy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IgnatiusofLoyola Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 (edited) I am not called to religious life, but the thing I find most attractive when I think about religious life is community. Living in community is hard, and even if I could enter religious life, I'm not sure I could handle THAT MUCH community, I'm so used to living alone--I might have to be a hermit, but a hermit still attached to a community. Community can be a penance as well as a joy. But, what a joy! To be in the right community has to be one of the closest things, as one of the Nashville Dominicans said, to "heaven on earth." To know that your religious Sisters are vowed to you and the community, as well as to God, and that, even if there are personal differences, when it really matters, ALL your Sisters will be there to pray for you and support you, must offer a peace that more than makes up for the things a Sister or nun has given up. With my friend Sister Helen, after 60 years in religious life, although she deeply loves her birth family, and enjoys visiting with them, she says that after awhile, she is always ready and eager to return "home," to her religious Sisters. Every vocation--the religious life, married life, the single life, has its difficulties and penances, and things that must be given up, but also its joys and consolations. Edited July 31, 2010 by IgnatiusofLoyola Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tridenteen Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 [quote name='JoyfulLife' date='30 July 2010 - 08:28 PM' timestamp='1280539699' post='2150073'] Great questions. I agree with what Shana said. Those things are certainly part of what draw me -- daily Mass, Adoration, giving my all to Him. Especially putting everything into His service as opposed to wasteful secular work. I want the apostolate I'm drawn to more than any secular work that's out there. Number one, it is about falling in love with God and finding the order I can keep growing in love. I'm drawn to the total abandonment and consecration of giving my total self and life to Jesus and having Him as my Spouse. I know I'll find complete fullfillment, happiness, joy, love, peace in accepting the calling I was created for. I know I'll better save my soul in the religious life, and grow in love and Holiness. The community -- the love, laughter, friendship, support and fellowship of women in love with God. The life and prayer of a religious can save souls and bring my loved ones into the Church. Making up for stains of past sins, purifying my soul. I'm one that needs the schedule to keep with prayers and everything. And the structure and schedule of a convent fills my day with such pleasure that I feel I've lived out the day to the fullest as compared to the typical day outside the convent. From times on retreats at convents, I could tell a huge difference in being able to stay away from distractions, and was better able to pray throughout the day, and be in awareness of God. And it really fired me up for spiritual reading. It is so joyful and wonderful being able to completely live out poverty, chastity and obediance. Especially Franciscan poverty and Divine Providence! It is so freeing. Praying, chanting and singing in community! The beauty, the pleasure, the joy. [/quote] JMJ That says just about everything I feel! I just have to add that extra time to pray for my priests and seminarians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizabeth09 Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Holiness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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