Our Lady Of The Rock Benedictine Monastery

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[u][b]Our Lady of the Rock Benedictine Monastery[/b][/u]

I am going to post three parts to my visit. The first will be about the monastery, the second about what happened, and the third about what I felt. It is a very long story but it has taken five years to get to it. My camera was acting up, so there are few photos and since the nuns asked that they not be photographed without permission, I didn’t take any photos of them, and any I post have been taken by others and posted online before.

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[i]The front door to the chapel.[/i]


[b][i]About the Monastery[/i][/b]

Our Lady of the Rock (Ancient Observance) is a monastery of Benedictine nuns who live on Shaw Island in Washington State and follow the ancient observance (meaning mainly that they recite the Office in Latin and pray all eight Hours (including Prime). They are a foundation of Regina Laudis Abbey in Connecticut, and have been established as a Priory. They wear traditional habits and rise in the middle of the night to pray Matins. Their Mass is the Novus Ordo using both English and Latin, which is chanted by the nuns, but as they don’t currently have a resident chaplain, during the week they offer a Communion service instead of Mass. They are waiting for another priest to be assigned to them by their Bishop. There are currently eight solemnly professed nuns at the monastery although they occasionally have nuns from Regina Laudis to live with them or a nun from Our Lady of the Rock will go spend time at Regina Laudis as the Abbey and Priory are still very much connected. Novices used to spend two years at Regina Laudis for formation but they now do this at OLotR with a visit to Regina Laudis prior to profession.

The main apostolate of these Benedictine nuns is the Divine Office and their farm (following the Bendictine motto of Ora et Labora), and hospitality, which is expressed through their very comfortable guest facilities. They live on a 300 acre farm and specialize in raw milk as well as llama, alpaca and Cottswold sheep wool and a variety of small products such as mustard, herbal teas, and spices. In their gift shop, they also offer other handmade products that have been donated to them for fundraising, such as jewelry, woolen hats and chocolate covered toffee.

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[i]The view from my bedroom window the day I arrived[/i].

Guests to the monastery are welcome to join the nuns in the chapel for most of the Hours of the Divine Office, excluding Matins and Sext/None. Lauds/Prime and Vespers/Compline are offered in the chapel every day and Sext/None on Sundays only. Books are provided to follow the Office as the nuns chant.

The nuns run a ‘land-care’ program where one can stay with them from 4 months to a year as an Intern, learning about land-care, farming, raising animals and/or craft skills such as spinning, carding and weaving, making mustard and herbal teas and spices. They will also offer instruction in Latin and Gregorian chant. They also welcome short term guests (of all faiths or none) who need some quiet time or who just want to take a break from their life. During my stay there, we had five women visiting and three men, all for different amounts of time. The women came for various reasons from just wanting a break, to wanting experience on a farm and the men came to help out with handyman projects around the farm. Some attended services in the chapel and some did not.

The main access to Shaw Island is via ferry, and there are less than 200 residents on the island, many who only live there in the summer time. During the summer, there are many visitors as Shaw is part of the San Juan Islands, a tourist attraction for the area. There are no businesses or accommodation facilities on the island apart from a local shop with limited opening hours, the local residents and of course, the monastery. Visitors are expected to help with the farm work or contribute in some other way during their stay and donations are welcome. All meals are provided by the nuns, and guests are responsible for clean-up after meals. There is a small schoolhouse, a library and a community center on the Island. The countryside is a mixture of forest and farmland and is home to many birds and wildlife. The beauty of the island is inspiring, and it is a wonderful place to take long walks.

Although the monastery has an enclosure wall, the nuns consider that the whole island is part of their enclosure. Guests are allowed in most areas of the farm but no one is allowed to go inside the enclosure wall unless necessary (the music room and nuns’ library are there and we were allowed to go to these areas, and also outside the kitchen door to collect meals) but the nuns are often found outside the enclosure for shopping, veterinarian, doctor, etc, and as hospitality is a big part of their charism, they will also come down to the guest houses to see the guests and to work with 4-H kids or other groups. One nun has a catechism class on another island and one nun teaches music to a couple of people on the island.

[img]http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab166/nunsense/MFel_smile_playing_1108.jpg[/img]
[i]Mother Felicitas teaches violin and singing[/i]

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[b][i]Personal experiences[/i][/b]

My flight arrived in Seattle during a snowstorm, just before the airport was closed. I spent the night in a hotel and the next day I caught the hotel shuttle to the airport again, where I picked up the Airport Shuttle bus to the Anacortes ferry terminal. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get out to Shaw Island in such bad weather so I allowed an extra hour for travel time to the Island. Even though the roads were snowy and icy, and it took an hour longer than usual, we finally arrived at the ferry terminal, where I had a short wait before the Shaw Island ferry arrived. It took about an hour to get to Shaw Island, with one stop at Lopez Island on the way.

I was met at the Shaw Island terminal by two of the Monastery guests, one has been there since October, helping out around the place, and the other is currently a land-care Intern who has been there for one month and will be staying for another three months. They took me to the guest house and at that time there were two men and two women guests on the property, the two men were staying in the chaplain’s house, called St Scholastica’s and we two women were staying in another house called St Joseph’s. My housemate was doing the Intern program. During the course of my 2 ½ week stay, various other guests came and went, for different amounts of time, all of them helping out on the farm in some way while they were there. It was a very rich experience for me to meet each of these people, some who had known the nuns for years and been regular guests, and others who had never visited before and who had just ‘heard’ about them. At one point there were eight of us around the dinner table, and it seemed such a ‘family experience’.


[img]http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab166/nunsense/IMG_3810.jpg[/img] [i]Similar view as the bedroom window one two days later, when snow had melted.[/i]

During my stay, I met with all of the nuns, different amounts of time with each one of them, some more and some less. I was busy on the day that the Intern was learning to spin wool, but on another day, I did learn how to card it and was shown the looms for weaving. Shearing doesn’t begin until the spring, so they are not doing much spinning and weaving right now, but it was fun to learn it. I also helped to make mustard, but had to leave my batch behind as it needed time before it could be put into jars, so I bought another one from the gift shop to take home! I also bought some herbal tea (a lovely flavour with mint in it as well) as well as some curry for my sister. I bought two skeins of Cottswold sheep wool to make a pair of bad socks for my sister’s birthday.

The Intern and I had classes in Gregorian chant, and were even taught to sing rounds in Latin, which was very funny as we tried to remember not only the Latin words and the tune, but also to keep our own part of the round while the other two were singing theirs! Lots of laughter as the Intern and I stumbled over it time and again. Once, we did sing one of the rounds perfectly and it was so sweet when we got to the end and we were all singing the same verse on key and in tune! I only hope I remember it when I get home. I bought a CD/book called Master Class in Gregorian Chant, which I couldn’t buy from the Regina Laudis online store because they don’t ship to Australia, and the music nun told me it would be a great help to me for practice on my own. The Intern and I attended as many of the Hours as we could, and we both really loved the Office, especially on Sundays, when the chants were so rich. I asked the Intern if religious life was a possibility for her future and she told me that it wasn’t out of the question but as she is still in her early twenties, she felt she needed to experience life a little more before making that choice. For now she is focusing on learning farming and she hopes to be able to visit Regina Laudis as well sometime in the future. She and I watched a video called The coagulated milk Nun which is about one of the nuns at Regina Laudis who did her doctorate in the microbiology of coagulated milk and then won a Fulbright Scholarship to visit France and research their cheeses over there. It was a fascinating video, and I especially like the parts that showed the Abbey.

The guest house has a library of books to borrow and read, and I just devoured them. While there I read [b]The Intentional Life: The Making of a Spiritual Vocation[/b] by Cardinal Hume [url="http://www.amazon.com/Intentional-Life-Making-Spiritual-Vocation/dp/1557253269"]http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/1557253269[/url]

and then [b]The Path of Life: Benedictine Spirituality for Monks and Lay People by [/b]Cyprian Smith, OSB [url="http://www.ltp.org/p-2069-the-path-of-life-benedictine-spirituality-for-monks-and-lay-people.aspx"]http://www.ltp.org/p...lay-people.aspx[/url]

I also read [b]Mother Benedict: Foundress of the Abbey of Regina Laudis[/b] by Antoinette Bosco [url="http://www.amazon.com/Mother-Benedict-Foundress-Regina-Laudis/dp/1586171860"]http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/1586171860[/url]

They also have books for sale in their gift shop, like the biography and a small book on the history of chant and another on the San Juan Islands.

For the first week I helped feed cows and sheep and llamas (not sure I like them yet), and went to visit the chickens (but I didn’t have the job of feeding them or collecting the eggs – the Intern did that). From the second week, we had other visitors, so I let the Intern take them along to feed, as they all wanted to get some experience with it and I had other things I could do. I helped clean the chapel once a week and the guest house once a week and helped the nun in charge of guest facilities to do the laundry of sheets and towels after the guests would leave. I also helped move furniture in the chaplain’s house. One day I was asked to drive a monastery car while a nun drove a van that needed repair to the mechanic. We took the two cars on the ferry to Anacortes where we dropped off her car at the mechanic. I then took her to a medical appointment and while she was there, I ran various errands for her, including going to a fabric shop and buying material for a black veil to replace an old one. Then I picked her up again and we went to Mount Vernon to do the grocery shopping and some other small errands before we went back to Anacortes to pick up the now repaired van and then catch the ferry back to Shaw Island. It was an amazing day. On another day I went with another nun to visit one of the nuns who was in a hospital in Friday Harbor (San Juan Island) having rehab after knee surgery. That was good because I was able to spend some time getting to know both of these nuns as well. Then one Saturday evening the Intern and I went to Friday Harbor to attend Mass there, and we stopped by to visit the recovering nun again before Mass. The Mass was so beautiful with all of my favorite hymns being sung! We had arrived about a half hour before Mass and the priest was there praying. He turned he asked if we had come for Confession, so we both went to Confession before Mass – a completely unexpected grace. After Mass, we had three hours to wait before the ferry back to Shaw, so we had dinner and a glass of wine each! The ferry was late so we finally managed to get home around 11.30pm! Neither of us planned to go to Lauds the next day but I had an apocalyptical dream that woke me up around 5.30am and made me want to go pray to God, so I actually made it to Lauds after all .

The scenery was beautiful, almost beyond description. The first day the land was covered with snow but after a day or two, it all melted and the weather became spring-like during the day and icy cold at night. I took a few long walks, one to a beach and one to the cottage known as Onesimus that was used for spinning, weaving, herbs and mustards etc. This cabin was located about a mile and a half from the monastery and by the time I got there, I was exhausted, so I spent a little time resting there and then walked back again. I had wanted to make it as far as the library down the road, but got too tired since the road was almost straight uphill! I did manage to get to the library on another day, and found a great looking book about John the Apostle, but didn’t take it out because I knew I wouldn’t get it finished before I left. . I plan to get it when I go back.

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[i]St Joseph guesthouse in foreground and St Scholastica guest house in background.[/i]

I also visited the ‘free box’ on a couple of days with one of the nuns. This is a wooden shed that the residents use to exchange unwanted items that others might want – kind of like a free second hand shop. We dropped off a box or two of items that the nuns didn’t want, and we would look around to see if there was anything we wanted there. There were racks with clothes on them, kitchen items, books, and lots of other things. The Intern found a book there one day but I didn’t see anything I needed or wanted. I did buy a book at the ferry terminal in Friday Harbour – they have bookshelves there in the waiting room with used books for sale at $1 per book (honour system) and the money goes to charity. The book was a ‘Sister Joan’ mystery, and although the mystery part was okay, the religious life part was really out the window! The Prioress in the book wore a purple habit, the nuns a blue habit and the postulants a pink one! I laughed at that.

[bernadette d]

Wonderful to have you back! It all sounds amazing.

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[b][i]My thoughts and feelings about the visit[/i][/b]

When I first got to the monastery I had a lot of expectations about how things would go. I was full of my own experiences from previous monasteries and also full of my own self-importance as a discerner. I thought that the nuns would be eager to get to know me and to tell me all about their community in the hope that we would all be a ‘fit’. I expected some structured meetings with the community and questions from the Prioress. None of my prior experiences in Carmel or elsewhere prepared me for what happened during this visit. On my arrival day, a Thursday, I didn’t see any nuns at all. I was picked up by the Intern and another guest. I was shown to my bedroom by the Intern and then she drove me up to the chapel in the gator (the first and last time – after that we walked every day) where we attended Vespers. There were books provided to follow along while the nuns chanted. Vespers was followed by the Angelus and then Compline and Asperges. Afterwards, we went back to the house and had supper with the men, eating food prepared by the nuns and either delivered to the guest house earlier in the day by a nun or picked up by the Intern from the monastery (depending on the day and who was cooking - as some of the nuns used the monastery kitchen to prepare food and others used the preserving room kitchen for this, which was next to the guest house). After supper, we chatted for awhile and then went to bed. I didn’t see a nun on that day at all. I felt a little ignored but after all, it wasn’t even my first whole day yet.

On the first day, Friday, we walked up to the chapel for Lauds/Prime at 6am but the nuns didn’t come so we returned to the house for a quick breakfast before going back to the chapel for Terce and Communion service at 8am. As we left the chapel, one of the nuns came out of the enclosure and started speaking to the Intern about things she had to do that day, and as an afterthought she mentioned that I might want to follow the Intern around and help her with feeding. That was all I saw of her that day. I did help feed and then later in the day went for a walk and helped clean the chapel. We attended Vespers/Compline again in the evening but I felt even more ignored on this day and was starting to feel upset about this.

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[i]Chapel with monastery in background[/i]


NB: It turns out that during the winter they have Lauds at 6.30am so we just hadn’t waited long enough! The Intern hadn’t been in the habit of going to Lauds so she didn’t know what time it was and the schedule in the guest house was out of date. We found out the right time and when I told the Intern that I planned to go, she started going with me.

The second day was Saturday and on this day I fed animals and walked some more but still no nuns. By this time I was getting impatient and wondering why I had paid so much money and come so far to do a discernment visit with nuns who didn’t seem to care if I was there or not. I was also starting to get frustrated. In my copious spare time I read books.

On Sunday the day seemed much as the previous ones. I was looking forward to Mass but the priest who had been scheduled to arrive for the Mass didn’t turn up so we had to have another Communion Service instead. I was so upset by this time that I cried a lot and slept a lot and was really feeling angry at God for playing games with me again. We got a new female guest, a Jewish woman who had known the nuns forever and had often visited. She and her husband were also benefactors of the monastery, and had donated a lovely painting of Jacob wrestling with God that is in the chapel because she felt they should have something from the Jewish scriptures as well. (I once used the term ‘Old Testament’ with her and she said ‘You mean the Jewish Scriptures?’ We laughed about it.) She had done a Spiritual Director’s course with a Catholic college, and although she didn’t direct Catholics as a general rule, she had a great understanding of the Catholic faith and our love for Jesus. She attributes her own return to the Jewish faith to one of the nuns from the community. I loved her from the moment I met her and gained much comfort from her wisdom and kindness during this time. She stayed for nearly a week and I was very sad when she left. If she hadn’t come that first week, I might have gone insane.

[img]http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab166/nunsense/IMG_3812.jpg[/img]
[i]Chicken Heaven[/i]

On the Monday, I was invited to attend a singing class with the Intern in the afternoon. It was fantastic and I loved learning about Gregorian chant. I was told that I have a lovely voice, and this encouraged me since I don’t have much confidence in my singing. The Intern and I have voices that match very well and the music nun was very happy with us, so I was very happy too. That was the first nun I really got to spend any time with even though it wasn’t to discuss vocations. The rest of the day was much as usual, the Office and feeding chores and walks and reading. By now I was starting to feel really abandoned by God. I was also starting to hurt inside. I felt He didn’t want me to be a religious and I even went so far as to wonder if He loved me. It wasn’t a nice feeling.

On Tuesday, two people from another island were coming to pick up their two sheep that had been left for breeding so one of the nuns asked all the guests to come help do a roundup of the sheep and get the two into the van that these people had brought. This was a lot of fun, and as some friends of the couple who had the sheep also came along, afterwards we all went to St Joseph’s for a cup of tea and a chat. The sheep nun, who is in charge of vocations as well as guests, came with us and we all sat around while she told us about her travels to Costa Rica and the lovely birds there. This was the longest I had spent in her company since I arrived, so I enjoyed it but it wasn’t at all personal for me, so still very unsatisfying. I began to think that they were using St Benedict’s test of making a newcomer wait three days outside the monastery before letting him in, except that this was the fifth day and I still hadn’t spoken to a single nun about my vocation! I was frustrated beyond words.

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[i]Ringing the bells for Office[/i]

Finally on the Wednesday morning, one of the nuns took me to Onesimus to see where she made herbal tea and mustard, and while we were there, she made us a cup of tea and we sat and talked about my vocation for about an hour. It was wonderful. She is also the music nun so I felt I knew her a little bit already. We had a good rapport and I enjoyed the talk. I wanted more of this kind of thing but the rest of the day followed the usual pattern of Office, chores, walks and reading (very much like the daily monastic life!!! ).

Thursday marked one week since I had first arrived. Another female guest arrived to stay for the weekend and a man for two days and one night. The Jewish guest and I went to the local shop in her car where I bought a Diet Coke and some candy bars to help me cope with my frustration, anger and grief. . On the drive back I told her how abandoned and ignored I was feeling by the nuns and by God as well, and I started crying. We spent a long time sitting in the car and chatting and I felt a little better. In the afternoon I went for a long walk and cried my heart out. I got so angry at God that I was shouting at Him and crying at the same time. Fortunately I was at a deserted beach (winter is a quiet time on the Island) so no one could hear me. I don’t even remember everything I said to Him but I know I dragged up all my experiences over the past five years of trying to become a religious and told Him that it was time for Him to help out a little, that I had done as much as I could already and was ready to give up. I went back to my room and slept and refused to get up for Lauds the next day. I was punishing God!

On Friday I felt a little better but very tired, despite my sleep-in. One of the older nuns came to visit the Jewish lady and I was invited to stay while they chatted. I heard lovely stories and was glad that I had a chance to meet this nun, even if she and I didn’t really have any personal conversations. I had seen her in choir but hadn’t met her yet. Otherwise the day was much as the others were.

Saturday, I was asked to help one of the nuns with laundry from the previous guests and while the clothes were in the machine, this nun spent an hour chatting with me about my vocation. I told her how bad I was feeling and she was wonderful, accepting and understanding. She had been a late vocation too (in her fifties) and she knew some of what I was going through. She answered my questions and helped me to understand a little about the way the monastery worked. She asked if I had told my concerns to the nun who handles vocations and visitors, but I told her I felt uncomfortable talking to that nun because she seemed not to like me and I felt she was ignoring me. This nun told me that it wasn’t true, that I wasn’t to take her manner personally as it was just the way she was. She said that I would now probably be meeting with each sister and getting to know them, but on a day to day basis as they went about their work. They don’t have a structured program of introduction for discerners. They just live their lives and allow the person to come and see them as they are, and to get to know them slowly over time. That is why they recommend a three month visit after the first visit, to allow the rhythm of the monastery to sink in and to come to know each nun naturally. I could see that I was still working within the ‘Carmelite’ structure and framework I had known before and that the Benedictine one was much different. Not better or worse, just different.

The 'individuality' that had been an obstacle for me in Carmel, was welcomed and encouraged here. I only had to be ‘me’, but the ‘me’ that God had intended me to be, and my journey was not about trying to suppress that me, but to discover it and work with it, through His grace to become all that I could be. Not I, but Christ in me. I didn’t have to impress these nuns, but to discover for myself, with God’s help, if this was where I was meant to be. They weren’t going to try to convince me or persuade me or even encourage me, just support me in my discovery process. If God wanted me here, then so did they. If not, then they were happy to have me as a guest. It was really almost liberating to see things from their perspective, and I definitely started to understand that they work with the Holy Spirit as guide and not according to some set procedure or process.

From this point on, I began to think like a Benedictine instead of a Carmelite and as I did, I started to feel as if I was ‘coming home’ again. All those years of fighting to try to fit into the Carmelite shoe, and here I was slipping on Benedictine spirituality like a comfortable old slipper.

Once I grasped the idea of simply allowing the natural process to unfold, things began to change for me and I started to change inside as well. I stopped worrying about time and performance and impressions and anything external but allowed myself to breathe in the beauty and rhythm of life in the monastery. As I relaxed and opened up to Him I felt Him fill me. From then on, I felt His presence all the time. And things started to happen externally as well, once the interior was taken care of. Although my good friend, the Jewish guest, had just left, that afternoon I met with the music nun again and from that day onwards, I seemed to be busy non-stop with one nun or another. I was so busy in fact, that I stopped recording my activities in my diary, as I didn’t have time to do it! I never had any more ‘vocation’ talks with the nuns (until the end), I just came to know the nuns through working with them, helping them, chatting with them, driving with them, taking ferries with them, and visiting them in hospital.


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[i]Washington State Ferries[/i]

Then one day the vocations nun came and picked me up in her car and we took two of the dogs for a run near the beach. She walked with me and we chatted about a vocation to the monastery. She asked how I felt about being there and I said I wanted to stay. She said I would need health insurance of some kind and that the Prioress would like me to continue with my online transcription work until I was sure that I would be staying with them because if I left, I would still have an income. I told her I could do this if I had Internet access and she said that would be arranged and they were happy for me to come back. Then she said she would meet with me again before I left and she dropped me off at Onesimus so I could do some work there with the Intern. I didn’t see her again until the day I left when she just asked me again how I was feeling, and I said again that I didn’t want to leave but was looking forward to coming back. She said that she and I would stay in touch via email and they would prepare a place for me. By this time I had arranged for health insurance and for a US bank account. The only thing left to do in the US is to change my California driver’s license for a Washington one.

[img]http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab166/nunsense/motherhildegardwithmaeveen-1.jpg[/img]

In the last week, the Intern and I spent a lot of time together with the nuns, learning new things and helping them as well as each other. She and I became very close even though she is the same age as my daughter. I almost felt as if we were postulants together during that last week. She drove me to the ferry on the last day and we were hugging each other and promising to stay in touch via email. She really wants me to return before she leaves in May, and I am really working hard to do so.

So my visit ended with plans being made for me to return at the end of March (if I can get things tied up in Australia in the next six weeks). When I do return, I was told that I would be put in a separate accommodation from the guests (probably above the Chaplain’s house) so that I would have the opportunity for silence and solitude, although I will still have my meals with the guests at St Joseph’s. The music nun is going to help the Intern with her violin (she used to play) while I am away so that she doesn’t get too far ahead of me in chant class and we will start that up again when I get back. I will also be learning Latin when I get back and more of the Office (it is different from Carmel since they chant in Latin and also do Prime, and they use a Benedictine breviary and Proper). In addition to chores, I will keep the monastic schedule as much as possible and also work on my habit. The nuns each sew their own habit and Postulants wear the tunic part of the habit (the dress), with a belt and a modified black veil, but they don’t wear the scapular or the white headband and wimple until they become a Novice. I will stay outside the monastery for 2-3 months, and then will be taken inside as a Postulant, although I won’t sleep in the monastery proper, but will stay in the Novitiate cottage with one other nun instead, as they like to keep the postulants and Novices separate from the professed community. I would share in meals and some Recreations with the nuns.

The way I am feeling now, time doesn’t matter to me anymore. Once I was very anxious to ‘get through’ the visits and the postulancy to get to Clothing and Profession, and I felt a sense of impatience at any form of waiting, but since I already feel as if I am exactly where I am supposed to be right now, none of that matters. Everything will happen in its own good time. Once I finally knew that I belonged there, I also thought I would worry about having to leave again to go back home, but despite a few tears while walking back to the guest house after Communion today (more tears of love and gratitude than anything else), I really feel a great sense of peace in my heart. I know what I have to do when I get home, so I will just do that in preparation for returning to the monastery. The consuming feeling for me right now is peace. I am happy beyond words, but not in an excited way, in a deep and peaceful way. Perhaps contentment is the right word. I am content. Or as my French Canadian sister-in-law used to say… ‘Je suis bien contente.’ Deo gratias.



[img]http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab166/nunsense/bigphoto5.jpg[/img]

[BarbTherese]

Welcome back, nunsense!
What a beautiful sharing you have given to us - a beautiful story - and written with openhearted honesty. My heart was sort of in my mouth until I read "when I go back" in your first post I think it was. I am overjoyed for you!

God bless you and your vocation. I hope you will be able to share some of your journey anyway once you actually enter and I hope the time will pass quickly for you - and thank you again for sharing a truly beautiful and very well written descriptive story of your Benedictine visit - and the pictures......you have a most courageous and Faith filled spirit in my opinion......Barb

[EmilyAnn]

Welcome back! I'm so glad you've found where you belong. It's such a wonderful feeling. I can't believe you've got your next visit arranged already, that's so great.

When I read about having to get the ferry I couldn't help but giggle that my (hopeful) future community is Benedictine and on an island too.

[AnneLine]

A beatiful sharing, and a beautiful discernment. Glad for you, Nunsense. Keep on listening and being.

[HopefulBride]

NUNSENSE!!!!!!!!!!! oh welcome back and my heart is soo sooo sooo overjoyed to hear you are back and to read this. I am so happy for you that I could cry.

May the Lord continue to guide you. You have been such an inspiration of trusting the Lord with your vocation. Thanks so much for sharing this part of your journey with us.


AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH I am so flipping excited

[Maximilianus]

I think they give you more time so you can bond with the llamas and there is a UFO in the second pic.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v446/echo4lima/osb.png?t=1320039338[/img]

It seems like you have finally descended Monte Carmelo and are now ascending Montecassino.

[marigold]

Aaaaah! Wow. Nunsense I am so happy that you're back, but sooo much more happy that you had a good time and that it all seems to be working out and that you're happy (it's difficult to find original ways of saying these things but you know what I mean)! Like Barb I had my heart in my mouth until you wrote about that change of heart after the conversation with the nun, and after that it was a joy to read how much happier you became, and how you seemed to fit in.

The parts about not having a structured 'discernment process' and just working alongside the nuns, yes that sounds familiar. But also the hugely liberating realisation that they want you just as you are, and not trying to fit you into a mould - also familiar and I'm overjoyed that you've experienced this as well! It feels great doesn't it?

I had to laugh when you wrote about nobody turning up for Lauds. The same thing happened on my first morning - I was up like a shot at 5 a.m. and rushed to the chapel, only to find it dark and deserted. I went back to my cell feeling like someone had played a prank on me, fell asleep again until 7 and then went out to the kitchen where the Abbess told me they'd moved Matins to 6 a.m. during the summer so everyone could get their farm chores done before it got too hot. Hehehe

Anyway, very glad you're back, but hopefully not for too long!

[InPersonaChriste]

A interesting and wonderful experience it truly must have been nunsense!

Prayers for you!

[regina_coeli]

I am so happy for you!

[Lisa]

That sounds like such a life-giving visit! Like all the others, I was reading anxiously for you!!!

Thanks be to God!

[i<3LSOP]

I'm very happy for you nunsense!




[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1328601502' post='2382926']
[u][b]Our Lady of the Rock Benedictine Monastery[/b][/u]

[img]http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab166/nunsense/MFel_smile_playing_1108.jpg[/img]
[i]Mother Felicitas teaches violin and singing[/i]
[/quote]

Aw! I play the voilin!

She needs to improve her bowhold a bit... but other then that, she looks pretty good.

[FutureCarmeliteClaire]

So happy for you, Nunsense!!!!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! We missed you.