The Desert

[SstrAli]

Has anyone here struggled with feeling like if you go to the cloister that you are giving up some gifts? I am a very intellegent person and I have a deep desire to help people....but yet I have such a strong yearning for the desert, contemplative prayer...a desire to be in the cloister....

Has anyone struggled with this? If so, any thoughts or suggestions, etc...?

Thanks,

Allie

[Julie de Sales]

I struggled myself a little bit with this problem, somebody told me that if I have this double desire in my heart (doing an apostolate and being immerged in prayer), I should enter in a semi-contemplative order. However, I still want to live a cloistered life. My theory is that even if I have some gifts, I have to consider what God is asking me for and what the world needs today. Nowadays is more important the testimony of a life given totally to God and you can help A LOT by your prayers those who are in need (spiritual poverty is more dangerous that material one). St Theresa of Lisieux also had the desire to become a missionary, to preach the Gospel. She would have done an extraordinary and fruitful apostolate in the world, but she choose the Carmel in order to save more souls. She said that this life which seems that of a dead person is more lucrative than all the others for the salvation of souls and that she wanted to become prisoner in order to open to the souls the beauties of heaven. And St John of the Cross said that the smallest movement of pure love is worth more to the Church than all works put together. In conclusion, if God gave you a lot of gifts, you are not giving them up by entering in the cloister (if that is your vocation) but you are helping people much more that you can imagine. After all, Jesus is now the most abandoned person (especially in the Blessed Sacrament), He is the poorest one (because He doesn’t have the love of souls, which is His greatest desire) and the sickest one (sick of love) and a life totally dedicated to console and love Him and keeping Him company is not at all wasted.

I hope this thoughts helped you...

[maximillion]

What she ^^^^^ says. Couldn't have put it better!

[Mary's Margaret]

Whatever gifts you have, they go with you. There are many highly intelligent, highly artistic, highly gifted - and highly fulfilled - women in the cloister. Do not fear. If God is calling you there, He wants all of you, gifts included.

[Pax_et bonum]

[quote name='Julie de Sales' timestamp='1347956454' post='2483646']
In conclusion, if God gave you a lot of gifts, you are not giving them up by entering in the cloister (if that is your vocation) but you are helping people much more that you can imagine. ...a life totally dedicated to console and love Him and keeping Him company is not at all wasted.
[/quote]
This.

And do you think Jesus deserves only average or lower intelligence women who don't have a desire to help anyone for His cloistered brides? I know you don't mean it that way, please don't take offense, but maybe you haven't quite though of it like that. Those who have a vocation to the cloister have missionary hearts: St. Therese is probably the most well know example of that. They're enclosed to save souls, to pray for those who can't or won't, and do penance for those who don't.

[ACS67]

I would just add that the "desire for the cloister" is also a "gift" from God. Not everyone is given this gift.

[OnlySunshine]

I know this desire well. I have it and I have experienced it since I first started discerning. Reading about St. Therese of Lisieux was what sparked my interest. The more I learned about it, the more I wanted to experience it. However, no cloistered/contemplative communities will accept someone who needs to be on medication, especially for mental health issues. Each and every order said that it was not conducive to their lifestyle. I ended up discerning that I was called to a balanced life of active apostolate and contemplative prayer. But even then, it was difficult to find an accepting community that I felt called to discern with.

I'm sure I'll still have this desire years from now. However, since I know God's will through correspondence with contemplative communities, it's making it easier to hear His voice.

[Egidio]

I remember that Mother Mary Francis said in "A Right to be Merry", that the greatest think that can be done with something valuable, such as a gift or talent, is to sacrifice it....and religious life gives one the perfect opportunity to do that!

Be not afraid of what God is calling you to do. He is the one who made you what you are, and so obviously He knows the best way to get the maximum amount of "spiritual fruit" from your gifts.

[size=4][font=comic sans ms,cursive][color=#000080]AVE MARIA!![/color][/font][/size]

[Strictlyinkblot]

This is something I struggled with for most of my discernment. Why would God call me to the cloister after I spent so many years studying for qualifications? But gradually (kicking and screaming) He brought me around to His thinking. If you can go for a monastic-type vocation retreat that'll help you a lot. A live-in forced me to realise (even though I wasn't called to that particular monastery) that I was called to contemplative life. Of course, I then ran from the idea for about five years but hey, God loves me and forgives me for wasting His time.

[VeniJesuAmorMi]

The responses given already are really great.

I don't think I have anything new to add here, but I have a thought adding on to the desire one has for the cloister.

When someone is in love they want to know that special someone more and more and be with them as much as possible. It is really not any different for a heart that is in love with Jesus. So where is He? He is within us and we only have to be with Him there. Isn't that so beautiful? Then that would mean that we are called to the cloister; the cloister of our heart. To be with Him there, just you and Him, in the silence and letting nobody or anything else into that secret place. Whether or not that desire means that one has been given the grace of living the cloistered religious life is to be discerned. Even the active Orders have a balanced life of work and prayer; when they can be alone with Our Lord.

This is how I see it for myself at this point. I would love to have the grace of having a cloistered vocation; to the Discalced Carmelites to be exact. It is not yet time for me, so at this point in my life my focus is to live a virtuous life and to be with Jesus in the cloister of my heart.

Patience is so so important while discerning, because desires are so strong but He has a time that is just perfect. (I posted a topic called "In His Time" not too long ago; the song I posted there is called "In His Time" and the lyrics are really beautiful.) As the Father who is helping me has said, that it is very important to have a good priest to help you discern and that Our Lord works best through them. I'm seeing this now. Do you have a spiritual director? If not, I pray that you will find the one who is able to help you.

[TheresaThoma]

I have struggled with the feeling of giving up certain gifts to enter religious life. Two things have helped me in this. The first is realizing those gifts are part of who you are, and God is calling you EXACTLY as you are. So basically you aren't giving up a gift you are just going to be using it in a different way. Which leads me to the second point. You have to find the "root" of that gift. What are the basic skills that make you good in certain areas? For me through my science studies I have found I can be very detail oriented, stay focused on one problem for extended periods of time and think very analytically. I know if/when I enter I will not be continuing with astronomy research but I can take the skills I learned about myself from that research and use those skills in religious life. I will still have those gifts but I will just be using them in a different way.

[mantellata]

[quote name='Strictlyinkblot' timestamp='1348010126' post='2483937']
This is something I struggled with for most of my discernment. Why would God call me to the cloister after I spent so many years studying for qualifications? But gradually (kicking and screaming) He brought me around to His thinking. If you can go for a monastic-type vocation retreat that'll help you a lot. A live-in forced me to realise (even though I wasn't called to that particular monastery) that I was called to contemplative life. Of course, I then ran from the idea for about five years but hey, God loves me and forgives me for wasting His time.
[/quote]




Studying for qualifications is hardly "a waste of time" -- even as far as the cloister is concerned. Cloisters NEED women who love study and certainly the gifts and good brain that the education has provided will certainly have it's "use" in the cloister.

Study isn't about "usefulness" anyway...... education is one of those things that can be for its own sake. Love of learning is a fabulous thing.



..... might I add.... how about thinking DOMINICAN. **cough cough**

Study and learning is part of their charism.