Stories Of Older Discerners

[SoonerCatholic]

[quote name='PrayerSupporter' timestamp='1320449448' post='2331459']
I would like to know more of the story of Sister Margaret Ann of the Blessed Sacrament, a Carmelite nun from the Terre Haute Carmel. She recently died (July 6, 2011) and the memorial card for her indicates that she was born in 1938 and was professed in 2003 -- that would mean she was 65 when she was professed. I was told second hand (so don't know how accurate it is) that she cared for a parent until their death and then entered Carmel. God bless her, and God bless the Terre Haute Carmel.
[/quote]

I think I can verify this story, though with not much more detail, since when I visited Terre Haute this summer (almost a month before she died, actually) one of the other nuns told me how Sr. Margaret Ann had wanted to enter Carmel at a younger age, but she had to take care of her mother. During that time it seems that she maintained a relationship with the monastery and was able to enter after her mother died.

[Golden Years]

I recently found this obituary for a Carmelite of the Santa Fe monastery who died last year at the age of 90.  Entered (apparently) in her 50's after being widowed and mother of seven! 

 

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santafenewmexican/obituary.aspx?n=anne-immanuel-juliana-lorraine-robertson-juliana&pid=160533309&fhid=7148#fbLoggedOut

 

And here is a really good article about the Prioress of the Sioux City Carmel who entered in her 40's:

 

  http://www.catholicglobe.org/Renee1.12.12b.html

 

It ain't over til it's over people.  :woot:

[marigold]

I challenge you to beat this one! Elderly Woman, 92, Becomes Orthodox Nun.

 

:winner:

[Golden Years]

Not even going to try!

 

:concede:

[Eowyn]

I challenge you to beat this one! Elderly Woman, 92, Becomes Orthodox Nun.

 

:winner:

 

 

Ha...there is hope for me yet.  :nun2:  :nun2:   :nun2:

[Tufsoles]

maybe I am too cinic but I don't like very much stories like this...

 

I feel the same way at times with these stories. I think it is due to my belief that a Vocation is a lifelong commitment.

[Eowyn]

I feel the same way at times with these stories. I think it is due to my belief that a Vocation is a lifelong commitment.

 

 

It is, it just takes some of us longer to get there.  There is a beauty in seeing how God works over time.  Nunsense has an amazing vocation story. 

[Recordare Virgo]

I'm 66 now and had been prepared to enter an active/contemplative religious community last year when I retired. I had paid them 2 week-long visits and we both felt that I was called to them. I felt so blessed and excited as I approached my retirement, but had suddenly begun to feel physically unwell. Long story short, after several misdiagnoses and the waste of a lot of time, I found out that I have Lyme Disease, which can take anywhere from 1-4 years from which to recover. I'm feeling quite a bit better since I started treatment and I've stayed in touch with the sisters, but I'm so baffled as to why this has happened to me. I've been drawn to religious life since I was 6 years old, and just when I felt that the dream was within reach, this awful illness has knocked me off my horse. I don't know whether this is God's way of leading me in another direction, or if it's a test of my patience, trust, and resolve.

Please pray for me!

[marigold]

I'm 66 now and had been prepared to enter an active/contemplative religious community last year when I retired. I had paid them 2 week-long visits and we both felt that I was called to them. I felt so blessed and excited as I approached my retirement, but had suddenly begun to feel physically unwell. Long story short, after several misdiagnoses and the waste of a lot of time, I found out that I have Lyme Disease, which can take anywhere from 1-4 years from which to recover. I'm feeling quite a bit better since I started treatment and I've stayed in touch with the sisters, but I'm so baffled as to why this has happened to me. I've been drawn to religious life since I was 6 years old, and just when I felt that the dream was within reach, this awful illness has knocked me off my horse. I don't know whether this is God's way of leading me in another direction, or if it's a test of my patience, trust, and resolve.

Please pray for me!

 

I sympathise! That must have been difficult news. Thank God that you can stay in contact with your sisters as you go through treatment - that is not to be sniffed at.

 

Hope I'm not speaking out of turn, but there isn't any reason to suppose that getting Lyme disease means you shouldn't continue to expect to enter your community. Just not yet. And I know the weight of those three little words. I'll be praying for you :)

[cmaD2006]

I feel the same way at times with these stories. I think it is due to my belief that a Vocation is a lifelong commitment.

 

I think what needs to be taken into account is:

a) the person's lifelong walk with God ... the ultimate vocation is to sanctity, and keep striving towards that.  How that is fulfilled doesn't matter ... and if along the way God asks you to become a priest/religious at an older age then so be it.

b) the person's conversion ... not everyone is a saint at 18, and remember the Bible passage where there are workers in the field that are hired at 1st light, middle of the day, end of the day -- their recompense was the same no matter what.

 

Besides ... until you reach the point where you are before God, there's no way to tell really how life will turn out.  You can plan on a vocation at 18 but by 40 not be in a religious community (for so many reasons -- some under your control, some out of your control).  Same with the priesthood (although once you are ordained, you will always carry the seal of priesthood even if laicized).

 

-- Cma

[Recordare Virgo]

[... there isn't any reason to suppose that getting Lyme disease means you shouldn't continue to expect to enter your community. Just not yet. And I know the weight of those three little words. I'll be praying for you :)[/quote]
Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement. Unfortunately one of my Lyme symptoms is aching knees and wrists, and physically I suddenly feel as if I am 85 years old and wouldn't really be able, at this point anyway, to be of use to the community, which is very tiny and needs some youth and strength to keep it going. It's just that I can't believe that God would have permitted this life-long attraction and then denied me even the chance to test this vocation. I feel as if this illness has robbed me of my purpose in life, because if I can't get well relatively quickly, I can't see doing anything else with my life that would make me truly happy. I know that my plan is not necessarily God's plan, but it's getting harder and harder to keep believing it could ever happen. In case you haven't noticed, another symptom of Lyme is a pessimistic mood.
Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. Please God, help me through this.

[Totally Franciscan]

RV, the same thing happened to me.  I was in an active teaching order, a postulant, and felt very unwell at about 6 months in.  My blood sugar kept dropping, and I just felt weak and shaky much of the time.  I asked to leave.  Two years later, I asked to re-enter and was accepted.  The month before re-entering, I came down with mononucleosis.  At the time, it occurred to me that perhaps God was trying to tell me this was not the life He had intended for me, so I withdrew my application to re-enter.  That was almost 50 years ago, and I still have the feeling that God is calling me to religious life; I have had this feeling all those 50 years!  So, I know what you are going through.  I have been looking for orders that will take a senior citizen, and when the time is right I will apply.  However, there are days when my physical strength is not up to par, and I do not feel well.  I take a lot of prescription meds, so every day I play this game in my mind whether or not God is actually calling me, or is it my own desire.  Some days I feel as if my cloister will be my own heart and live a life of prayer without entering a monastery, but the desire still remains.  I will be praying for you!

[Recordare Virgo]

Thank you for sharing your story, Totally Franciscan, my heart goes out to you and I don't feel so uniquely alone in my situation after having read it. Like you, I have good days and bad, and all I'm praying now is for God to show me what He wants of my life. God bless you and may He help you find your way.

[nikita92]

A woman religious is a lay person who commits herself to Christ and to the Church by vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. She lives in a religious community that follows a constantly renewed tradition, patterned on the life and teaching of the founder of the community. The work she generally does will depend upon the particular community as influenced by the needs of the Church and its people, and includes such ministries as pastoral; social service; education (in many forms and ways); hospital/medical; youth/campus; missionary; retreats/ conferences/ spiritual direction; peace and justice; evangelization/faith formation; creative expression through music, the arts, etc.; work with the poor/elderly/broken/ oppressed and distressed and so on.

The role of women in the Church is constantly developing and expanding. A significant part of that renewal is occurring within the faith communities of woman religious. Prayer and work are part of the tradition of all communities yet some are primarily contemplative while others are more active. Information about the vocation of a woman religious can be secured by contacting one or more of the vocation directors listed in the Religious Communities for Women section of this book or by contacting:

Women who wish to enter the religious life as a second-career vocation can contact the individual communities in which they are interested. (See listings in the Religious Communities for Women section of this site.) Even if a community has an upper age limit, they will sometimes consider older vocations on an individual basis, after mutual discernment of candidate and congregation. It never hurts to contact them if you feel strongly attracted to that community.