You Know You Are A Future Nun...

[Catholicterp7]

[quote name='Antigonos' timestamp='1346480605' post='2477077']
I actually worked with a Filipino nurse whose name was Dulce Corazon de Jesus. Corazon de Jesus was her family name.
[/quote]
I have a friend from Peru named Maria Rosario. I love it
JMJ+

[emmaberry]

[quote name='Catholicterp7' timestamp='1346545865' post='2477384']
I have a friend from Peru named Maria Rosario. I love it
JMJ+
[/quote]

[Crucesignata]

When your online teacher who has never even 'met' you tells you she always knew you have a vocation... XD

[Clare~Therese]

When you have a dream you're a nun called Sr. Mary Isaac.

When you're wearing a St. Clare medal and explaining it someone because they asked about it, and afterward the person says, "Are you a nun...?!"

True story.

[DiscerningCatholic]

You want to buy an entire spool of Rosary cord just so you can make a 15 decade/20 decade Rosary.

Your friends all call you "Sr. (your name here)" because they know you're discerning and you pretend to hate it...but you secretly love it.

You have 35 religious names written down for yourself and are praying that nobody in "your" community takes them before you know for sure whether or not God is calling you to said community.

[ChristinaTherese]

You keep hallucinating nuns. (Well, by "hallucinating" I mean thinking that you see them when it's just someone in black clothing/someone's back (I thought it was her head)/there isn't even anyone there/et cetera.)

You're asked what makes you happy or what you've been doing this summer, and you think about daily Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours and such things. (Then you feel self-conscious saying that and hold your peace, only making a vague mention of "prayer" or "Mass".)

You smile as you're asked if you have/want/have ever had a boyfriend and think about Jesus, but keep silent. (Yeah.... I hold my tongue about that a lot.)

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='Christina Thérèse' timestamp='1346985867' post='2479653']
[b]You smile as you're asked if you have/want/have ever had a boyfriend and think about Jesus, but keep silent. (Yeah.... I hold my tongue about that a lot.)[/b]
[/quote]

I get used to get asked this by my aunt and cousins and it drove me nuts but it was before my discernment. When I started discerning and they asked this, I would secretly think about Jesus in place of a boyfriend. Now that my aunt knows I'm discerning, she doesn't ask anymore. When other people ask, I say that I am not interested in dating. Sometimes, if they are receptive, I'll discuss my discernment without giving specifics. It's a way to evangelize and promote vocations which are so needed in the Church for the life of prayer.

[ChristinaTherese]

[quote name='Christina Thérèse' timestamp='1346985867' post='2479653']
You keep hallucinating nuns. (Well, by "hallucinating" I mean thinking that you see them when it's just someone in black clothing/someone's back (I thought it was her head)/there isn't even anyone there/et cetera.)

You're asked what makes you happy or what you've been doing this summer, and you think about daily Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours and such things. (Then you feel self-conscious saying that and hold your peace, only making a vague mention of "prayer" or "Mass".)

You smile as you're asked if you have/want/have ever had a boyfriend and think about Jesus, but keep silent. (Yeah.... I hold my tongue about that a lot.)
[/quote]

Garn! I [i]meant[/i] to say that I hold my tongue about discernment in general a lot. Not that I'm asked about boyfriends/dating/marriage and hold my tongue in response to that particular question a lot. (Here endeth CT's rant about having made an unclear parenthetical comment. (Question: Are my parenthetical comments clear anyway? (Respondeo: I think so, but I know how my brain works anyway. Well, I know how it works most of the time. (Disclaimer: I haven't been reading the Summa lately, nor have I ever read it.))))

[emmaberry]

[quote name='Christina Thérèse' timestamp='1346988387' post='2479673']
Garn! I [i]meant[/i] to say that I hold my tongue about discernment in general a lot.[/quote]

This is definitely a hard balance to strike when you are young and discerning. Being back from my freshman year of college, I get asked all the time, "How's college?" "How's life treating you?" "Ya got a boyfriend?" etc. It is hard to make a prudential judgement of when to graciously say, "Life is great!" and when to go into specifics: "Actually, I am back from college and hoping to enter the convent in January. I feel called to be a cloistered Poor Clare nun."

Not easy, and it takes a lot of courage to speak up! Sometimes people literally look at you as if you've said, "Oh, I dropped out of real college to become a clown. With the nose and everything." or "I am quitting school to start my own company of singing toothbrushes."

I try to remember how I felt when I realized I knew people who discerned out of the convent but had never told me this or been open with me about it. I would've been so appreciative if they had spoken up, and who knows, maybe I wouldn't have spent a lot of time and effort on an unfruitful (degree-wise) year at college before discovering a possible religious vocation!

Let's speak up about our discernment of religious life! I am the first to admit that I easily blush or get embarrassed when an opportunity comes up, but you may be the only discerning person the person you are speaking with will ever meet.

Sorry, I just realized this was a strange kind of rant. My apologies! I just went through a long day of people 'prodding' and was too shy to say anything about the convent.. I guess that is where this post is coming from.

On the other end of the spectrum, I am sure there are discerning people who never STOP talking about it. That would be bad as well.

Edited September 7, 2012 by emmaberry

[emmaberry]

When the one year anniversary mark of the discovery/experience of your vocation is coming quickly.

When you realize, though a friend, that said anniversary is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

When this Feast is the day of Saint Francis' reception of the sacred stigmata!

When this day is, unbeknownst to you when it was planned, the day you will find out about your entrance into a Franciscan community of nuns.

By chance, does anyone know at what time Saint Francis received the sacred stigmata? My novel on him by Felix Timmermans says 'just when light was approaching' or something similar, but it IS a novel. May God reward you!

[Kylie Spinelli]

[quote name='Christina Thérèse' timestamp='1346985867' post='2479653']
You keep hallucinating nuns. (Well, by "hallucinating" I mean thinking that you see them when it's just someone in black clothing/someone's back (I thought it was her head)/there isn't even anyone there/et cetera.)

You're asked what makes you happy or what you've been doing this summer, and you think about daily Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours and such things. (Then you feel self-conscious saying that and hold your peace, only making a vague mention of "prayer" or "Mass".)

You smile as you're asked if you have/want/have ever had a boyfriend and think about Jesus, but keep silent. (Yeah.... I hold my tongue about that a lot.)
[/quote]

THIS IS MY LIFE!!!! You nailed it on the head! Today was my first day of Spanish and our first thing that we did was write about "un dia inolvidable" and I couldn't think of anything else, so I wrote about my visit to a motherhouse! LOL

And that was what happened when I first started discerning - I saw nuns EVERYWHERE!

And the whole boyfriend thing. yeah, totally LOL :D

SO GLAD someone gets me!!

[DiscerningCatholic]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1347001513' post='2479734']
When the one year anniversary mark of the discovery/experience of your vocation is coming quickly.

When you realize, though a friend, that said anniversary is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

When this Feast is the day of Saint Francis' reception of the sacred stigmata!

When this day is, unbeknownst to you when it was planned, the day you will find out about your entrance into a Franciscan community of nuns.

By chance, does anyone know at what time Saint Francis received the sacred stigmata? My novel on him by Felix Timmermans says 'just when light was approaching' or something similar, but it IS a novel. May God reward you!
[/quote]

Wait, you're joining the Franciscans????????????????????????????????????

[i<3franciscans]

[quote name='emmaberry' timestamp='1347001513' post='2479734']
When the one year anniversary mark of the discovery/experience of your vocation is coming quickly.

When you realize, though a friend, that said anniversary is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

When this Feast is the day of Saint Francis' reception of the sacred stigmata!

When this day is, unbeknownst to you when it was planned, the day you will find out about your entrance into a Franciscan community of nuns.

By chance, does anyone know at what time Saint Francis received the sacred stigmata? My novel on him by Felix Timmermans says 'just when light was approaching' or something similar, but it IS a novel. May God reward you!
[/quote]The exact date is unknown, but it is memorialized on September 17th... Which just so happens to be the day the CFRs made profession last year. How cool is that?!

[emmaberry]

[quote name='i<3franciscans' timestamp='1347047754' post='2479933']
The exact date is unknown, but it is memorialized on September 17th... Which just so happens to be the day the CFRs made profession last year. How cool is that?!
[/quote]

I think it is documented in Saint Bonaventure's "Legend Minor" that Saint Francis' stigmata occurred on the morning of/near the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Edit: This is when the Poor Clares have always celebrated Saint Francis' reception of the stigmata, though they also commemorate it on its proper feast day, the 17th.

Edited September 7, 2012 by emmaberry

[ChristinaTherese]

A funny story about the whole boyfriend thing by the way: My brother's girlfriend (soon to be his fiancee) was with us for Christmas, and someone asked me, "So, CT, when are you going to bring a boyfriend home?" Alison (my brother's soon-to-be-fiancee) and Daniel (my brother) said later, "When you can recieve the Eucharist!" (Alison knew/thought that I would be a nun before I did.)

When you choose fabric based on what orders wear that color. (And you're sewing new shirts so they cover your butt and are all over more modest.)

When you want your drivers license so that you can go visit nuns a few hours away from college.

When the only reason you aren't failing is that your friends don't have you stuck in the "Biochemist" pickle jar and that your favorite classes have absolutely nothing to do with science but might well prepare you to have a good understanding of the world/history/everything. And none of your good friends are even science majors anyway.