A Discernment Journey (blog Post)

[somethingfishy]

I don't know how many of us read Heather King's blog, but she posted a [url="http://shirtofflame.blogspot.com/2012/08/poet-rita-simmonds-on-sacrament-of.html"]story[/url] of a women's discernment through the Missionaries of Charity, Communion & Liberation consecrated women, and finally to marriage. I thought she had a lot of fascinating things to say.

[quote][i]I was very nervous. I was afraid. I was shaking uncontrollably. I started having crazy thoughts about my eternal salvation, that I was going to go to hell. I mean this is not me. So I was obviously under some kind of duress. I just remember in the days afterward not wanting to go down to the chapel because I was crying too much and I had to go and I’d just cry, cry, cry. So it was very obvious to everyone that something was wrong with me. Also right around that time we were supposed to write a letter to Mother asking to go to the novitiate. I thought maybe if I go to the novitiate things will get better. And Mother wrote back and said I’m giving you six more months as a postulant. And I thought, Oh no. I’ll never survive here six more months. And I just remember praying about it, and it was the first snowfall of the year, I remember seeing the kids outside the chapel window and they were frolicking in the snow and I just remember thinking, Oh I just want to do that. I just want to play in the snow. And so right then I was called in to speak to Sr. Frederick. And she said What do you want to do? And I said, “Sister, I think I want to leave.” And Sister said, “I think so, too.” [/i][/quote]

[emmaberry]

I have to admit that in the first part of this Q&A I felt kind of annoyed by Rita. I think it was because she was reflecting on those periods where she was very unfulfilled, but when she began speaking about the vocation of marriage it was just beautiful!

How low our divorce rate would be if married people saw their vocation NOT as just 'here I am and here you are and we are attracted to and possessive of each other exclusively in marriage' but building the Kingdom of God together! Wow. You could just tell that her vocation was to marriage. Her fulfillment seeped through when she spoke of her husband and children!

Thanks for posting.