Dominican Sisters Of Hawthorne - New Postulant, Novice, Renew Vows

[Chiara Francesco]

Their e-newsletter from Winter 2010 has pictures of new postulant and her story, reception of the habit by another postulant and renewal of vows by to sisters.

[url="http://www.hawthorne-dominicans.org/docs/InHisLove-winter2010.pdf"]http://www.hawthorne...-winter2010.pdf[/url]

Website: http://www.hawthorne-dominicans.org/s200.htm

Edited September 14, 2011 by Chiara Francesco

[OnlySunshine]

Beautiful! It seems this order is steadily growing as well.

[i<3franciscans]

What a beautiful vocation story!

[Pax_et bonum]

When I signed up for pottermore.com, they gave me a list of names to choose from. I choose RuneHawthorn because I thought of this community
Anyways, carry on.

[faithcecelia]

[quote name='Pax_et bonum' timestamp='1316037505' post='2304734']
When I signed up for pottermore.com, they gave me a list of names to choose from. I choose RuneHawthorn because I thought of this community
Anyways, carry on.
[/quote]

Ha ha ha that has made my day!

[dominicansoul]

i love this group. I wrote once, but never received a reply. I guess that was God telling me to wait, or maybe, just stop discerning religious life all together. Sometimes you reach a point where you just have to accept He's not calling you into religious life, His answer is just simply, "no."

[Luigi]

[quote name='dominicansoul' timestamp='1316091965' post='2304987']
i love this group. I wrote once, but never received a reply. I guess that was God telling me to wait, or maybe, just stop discerning religious life all together. Sometimes you reach a point where you just have to accept He's not calling you into religious life, His answer is just simply, "no."
[/quote]

Wake up and smell the coffee, sister! Your letter probably just got lost in the mail.

Write again.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='Luigi' timestamp='1316093118' post='2304995']

Wake up and smell the coffee, sister! Your letter probably just got lost in the mail.

Write again.
[/quote]

Good point here! I got my current job after the second application. When I went to the interview, I asked why they didn't contact me after the first application and they told me they never received it!

It never hurts either to write again, or to phone and ask if the letter/email, whatever has been received. Nothing wrong with phoning up and saying, "Hi, I'm just calling to see if you received my letter(email etc). If they didn't, you know for sure, and if they did, they might have a very good reason for not replying right now.... one that has nothing to do with you!!

Sometimes we blame God for our own lack of initiative! If you really want to discern, then do it! Otherwise it's like that other thread, where the video shows a girl in a wedding dress saying that's she's open to religious life!!

[dominicansoul]

"lack of initiative?"




i discerned for 10 years with several communities, took a bajillion pscyhogolical tests in order to send a bajillion applications to several convents, got accepted to many, yet , I rejected many, left discernment, went back to discernment, entered once, was told i didn't have a vocation, entered a second time and left after two years for family matters that were beyond my control...

i'm not the kind of person who ignores that God may just not want me in religious life... there is a time to stop, lest your whole life is spent going against the will of God...

I am living for God today, in whatever capacity He wishes, and with that I am truly grateful...

writing to the hawthornes was a moment when i wished God's will was something different, when I didn't receive a response, I just sighed and said, "Okay God."

[dominicansoul]

i apologize for derailing the thread a little and talking about my own personal stuff. I jsut wanted to note that I love the Hawthornes so much that I even wrote a letter with hopes that maybe...just maybe...




They are a wonderful community, and I am happy they receive older vocations. I heard they upped the age limit, because they weren't receiving any vocations at one time. Some people feel this might be because no one now a days wants to do the work they do. I find this sad, because they assist the dying. What has happened to this world of ours? Have we all lost our compassion? I wish there were more vocations to this community, people who are eager to jump into the work of bringing consolation to those suffering. It is Jesus laying on those beds, lest we all forget....

[Chiara Francesco]

[quote name='dominicansoul' timestamp='1316095002' post='2305005']
"lack of initiative?"




i discerned for 10 years with several communities, took a bajillion pscyhogolical tests in order to send a bajillion applications to several convents, got accepted to many, yet , I rejected many, left discernment, went back to discernment, entered once, was told i didn't have a vocation, entered a second time and left after two years for family matters that were beyond my control...

i'm not the kind of person who ignores that God may just not want me in religious life... there is a time to stop, lest your whole life is spent going against the will of God...

I am living for God today, in whatever capacity He wishes, and with that I am truly grateful...

writing to the hawthornes was a moment when i wished God's will was something different, when I didn't receive a response, I just sighed and said, "Okay God."
[/quote]


I can totally understand all you wrote. I had a friend who went through something similar and in fact the last being with these Hawthorne Dominicans. She too emailed and wrote and didn't get a response. She was going to give up thinking "it must have been God's will" but I told her calling to see if they got or didn't get her email and letter would be a good thing to do - for the "just in case" factor and for closure, etc.

Sr. Alma Marie, vocation mistress says this on the site [i]"Our web site will provide you with detailed information about our Community. If you find you are interested in our Community, or if you have questions about us, please contact me. I will do all that I can to answer your questions, and to assist you in your discernment. [b]Call me or e-mail me[/b] at anytime. If you leave a message, I will usually call you back within a few hours."[/i] Bold words my emphasis.

Well, my friend DID call and they had not gotten EITHER communication from her! Since then she has visited them at Rosary Hill and feels she will enter with them. So don't always think a non-answer is God's will. Sure it may be and then it may NOT be! I myself have waited a long time for answers from orders - email or letter - often many months and then a letter or email turns up! Or after recontacting them they didn't get anything from me. I've also had a few communities where after several emails and letters I get no response. If I was attracted to the community I'd call, if not I'd move on if the interest in them was really that high. I think there was a thread here on PM about this topic of communities who either are real slow to answer or who never do.

Also, Leonie Martin, St. Therese's blood sister and alter Sr. Francoise Therese, VHM - Visitation in Caen, France, entered the Poor Clares and left, and then entered the Visitation order 3 times before she entered and stayed and she had tremendous problems (mental and physical, horribly bad eczema) to overcome and many thought she didn't either have a vocation or didn't have what it took.

Saint Faustina herself was rejected by many orders until she found her "home". These are 2 of many such stories of saints and non-saints.

If you still feel you might have a vocation, keep pursuing it. Call Sr. Alma Marie, contact others. You just never know.

I love the story of Bl. Marie Celine of the Presentation, PCC who had a bad leg/ankle and longed for the religious life, especially with the Poor Clare Colettines. When she visited them they said no, other orders said no because of her leg. Here is an excerpt from a book of her life put out by the Rockford PCCs: [url="http://www.amazon.com/Blessed-Marie-Celine-Presentation-Clare/dp/0895558459/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316099511&sr=8-1"]http://www.amazon.co...16099511&sr=8-1[/url]

[i]"In her loneliness, Germaine's broken down dream came to her, flooding her soul; her desire to become a religious was stronger, more painful than ever. "My God!" she would pray, "make me a religious; and then, if it pleases You, make me suffer much - only make me a religious!" If she could not be a Poor Clare, she would enter anywhere; it did not matter where. [/i]

[i]Still determined to follow God's will, Germaine had no renounced the idea of becoming a religious, nor had she given up her efforts. While visiting the extern Poor Clare Colettines, Germaine suddenly cried out, "How happy these sisters must be! I will never have such happiness. Oh, if only I could enter!" It was a cry from the heart which had burst forth without any forethought. It was this exclamation which would open the doors for Germaine to the Poor Clare Monastery" "I do not want to be a religious by halves", she had said before entering the convent." [/i]

Bl. Marie Celine 1878-97 and St. Therese 1873-97) - both were born, lived and died around the same times and both had the idea to "not be saints by halves"!

While you don't have to go around saying such outbursts, perhaps God wants you to persevere.

Just some thoughts.

Edited September 15, 2011 by Chiara Francesco

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

I can't imagine how frustrating it must be not to receive answers to your vocation queries.

One odd thing I've found, maybe because I'm NOT discerning, is that I have exchanged emails with Prioresses, VD's, etc. of at least three Communities and gotten back email responses almost immediately.

I posted recently that I had called a well-known Order about a purchase from them, and found myself talking to their VD. She and I had a great conversation about all kinds of things until she she had to hang up because the prayer bell had rung. But, as I was talking to her, I thought to myself "How weird, this well-known VD is talking to ME, and I'm nobody, and yet I've heard it's tough sometimes to get in touch with VD's." In truth, the fact that the VD answered the call was sheer chance, and the fact we talked for so long was that, for whatever reason, we were simply enjoying talking to each other. I realized that perhaps it was a relaxing conversation for her because I'm someone closer to her age who ISN'T discerning, so she didn't have to concentrate on every word, or answer spiritual questions. Either that, or the VD was just being polite, but, if so, she hid it well--usually I can tell when the person on the phone really wants to end the conversation.

Life can be very odd. And, apparently discernment is a strange and mysterious process.

[Chiara Francesco]

[quote name='IgnatiusofLoyola' timestamp='1316107283' post='2305085']
I can't imagine how frustrating it must be not to receive answers to your vocation queries.

One odd thing I've found, maybe because I'm NOT discerning, is that I have exchanged emails with Prioresses, VD's, etc. of at least three Communities and gotten back email responses almost immediately.

I posted recently that I had called a well-known Order about a purchase from them, and found myself talking to their VD. She and I had a great conversation about all kinds of things until she she had to hang up because the prayer bell had rung. But, as I was talking to her, I thought to myself "How weird, this well-known VD is talking to ME, and I'm nobody, and yet I've heard it's tough sometimes to get in touch with VD's." In truth, the fact that the VD answered the call was sheer chance, and the fact we talked for so long was that, for whatever reason, we were simply enjoying talking to each other. I realized that perhaps it was a relaxing conversation for her because I'm someone closer to her age who ISN'T discerning, so she didn't have to concentrate on every word, or answer spiritual questions. Either that, or the VD was just being polite, but, if so, she hid it well--usually I can tell when the person on the phone really wants to end the conversation.

Life can be very odd. And, apparently discernment is a strange and mysterious process.
[/quote]


I figure after a lot of effort (several emails, letters or calls over many months) and no results, it must be God saying "No, not here"! I'm not expecting an instant email or quick letter as I know things happen in monasteries. Recently one order I am writing just built a new infirmary wing and is having an opening of sorts and then a clothing is just after this so the Abbess is quite busy she said in her last letter apologizing for the long wait. Then there are often sicknesses, etc. besides the letter or email just not getting there!

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='Chiara Francesco' timestamp='1316139402' post='2305278']


I figure after a lot of effort (several emails, letters or calls over many months) and no results, it must be God saying "No, not here"! I'm not expecting an instant email or quick letter as I know things happen in monasteries. Recently one order I am writing just built a new infirmary wing and is having an opening of sorts and then a clothing is just after this so the Abbess is quite busy she said in her last letter apologizing for the long wait. Then there are often sicknesses, etc. besides the letter or email just not getting there!
[/quote]

I've had to wait a LONG time before ever hearing from an order. The order I am communicating with now once made me wait about 2 months before I heard a reply. I had to wait 4 months to hear from the CFRs and 3 months to hear from the Dominicans of Hawthorne. It took me about a day to get in contact with the SsEWs, about 2 days to get in contact with the Carmelite DCJs in Milwaukee, and a week to get in touch this time with the RSMs.