Fears

[AccountDeleted]

Thanks :) It's actually below the threshold - my bad!
 

Thanks so much nunsense. You know, I'd never seen that site before and have just realised that the stipend (which Sister told me is tax-free) I would earn as a religious is actually below the repayment threshold - I thought it was above! This changes things. Maybe I should email the site to Sister. I'm not sure why she was going to speak to a canon lawyer particularly, but she's definitely trying to help out with things.

The congregation has its head in Rome, and I don't think the Sisters really get our system. I had to explain to them (probably not well) how it works.
 

 

 

If your annual income is less than the income threshold, then you would not repay anything on your FEE debt at the end of the year when you file your taxes. If your income is very low, you might not have to file a tax return at all. Because I spent most of the last tax year in convents, my income was so low that I did not have to lodge a return. If this is the case (that your stipend is below the tax-free threshold), then you only have to submit a declaration to the ATO saying that you are not required to lodge a return because of low income -- there is a form for this available from the ATO and their website even provides a calculator each year to help you determine if you have to file or not. http://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Do-I-need-to-lodge-a-tax-return/

 

Student loans in Australia are much different than those in the USA. If you are not earning income in Australia or are living abroad and not earning anything (say, during your postulancy, novitiate etc) then you don't pay anything back for them - just remember to let the ATO know each year even if you are not required to lodge in that year. Even when I have lived abroad, I have always let the ATO know my situation when I don't have to lodge a return - that way there are no problems if I have a good year and need to file. They don't have to start asking me why I haven't filed for a year or two. I really don't see how an Australian student loan could be a problem for religious life. It is either not payable, or if it is, then that means you are earning a pretty good salary and can make minimum repayments through your annual income taxes. Very painless for everyone.

[Spem in alium]

Thanks for that :) Yeah, when one of the Sisters told me I would need to pay back my loan I was confused because it's only an issue if I earn over the threshold, and I can see on the site you posted that my income would not exceed it (though it depends on how the threshold changes next financial year). Sister said yesterday that the stipend is tax-free, so I'm not really sure how that would affect things - are you aware? I've forwarded her the information so she'll probably chase it up. It's kind of hard because they don't really understand it and I don't think they've really had experience with a person with Australian loans who wants to enter. 

[thepiaheart]

What are your fears when considering a religious vocation?

-- that my desire for it won't be realized, and that God may call me to marriage (which I consider totally & completely beautiful but I think I would find totally unsatisfying)

 

What is holding you back from really embracing a calling? 

-- the fear above

 

What are you clinging to that is stopping you from diving into real, active discernment (visiting communities, etc)?

-- nothing, except for the fear above

 

Lol. :) My vocation is almost too much of a conviction for me, I think, sometimes--being disappointed, or being shown that it isn't actually my vocation, the fear -- terror -- of that possibility is sometimes incredibly & deeply paralyzing.

 

I graduate in December with a whole bunch of student debt, and I ask for prayers. I am beginning to look into & discern with communities, and I am expecting only pain.

Edited October 9, 2013 by thepiaheart

[Spem in alium]

 

What are your fears when considering a religious vocation?

-- that my desire for it won't be realized, and that God may call me to marriage (which I consider totally & completely beautiful but I think I would find totally unsatisfying)

 

What is holding you back from really embracing a calling? 

-- the fear above

 

What are you clinging to that is stopping you from diving into real, active discernment (visiting communities, etc)?

-- nothing, except for the fear above

 

Lol. :) My vocation is almost too much of a conviction for me, I think, sometimes--being disappointed, or being shown that it isn't actually my vocation, the fear -- terror -- of that possibility is sometimes incredibly & deeply paralyzing.

 

I graduate in December with a whole bunch of student debt, and I ask for prayers. I am beginning to look into & discern with communities, and I am expecting only pain.

 

 

Totally understand. You have my prayers. :)

[Julie de Sales]

 

What are your fears when considering a religious vocation?

-- that my desire for it won't be realized, and that God may call me to marriage (which I consider totally & completely beautiful but I think I would find totally unsatisfying)

 

What is holding you back from really embracing a calling? 

-- the fear above

 

What are you clinging to that is stopping you from diving into real, active discernment (visiting communities, etc)?

-- nothing, except for the fear above

 

Lol. :) My vocation is almost too much of a conviction for me, I think, sometimes--being disappointed, or being shown that it isn't actually my vocation, the fear -- terror -- of that possibility is sometimes incredibly & deeply paralyzing.

 

I graduate in December with a whole bunch of student debt, and I ask for prayers. I am beginning to look into & discern with communities, and I am expecting only pain.

 

 

Same here. Except that I have a lot more to add on question nr 3. 

[domenica_therese]

 

What are your fears when considering a religious vocation?

-- that my desire for it won't be realized, and that God may call me to marriage (which I consider totally & completely beautiful but I think I would find totally unsatisfying)

 

 

 

 

Just seek God's will. If he is calling you to married life, it is the only way in which you will be truly satisfied. :)

[nikita92]

I identify with Curiousing #2. It won't work out and I will be back in the world where I started... Only with NOTHING to come back to!! No job, shelter, clothes, furniture, electronics.. Cell phone/iPad car, cat, bed...all of it. How can I restart my life with nothing?? I'm also becoming convinced that more people are ending up leaving, than staying in it for life. As it is, finding a community is hard enough. My chances are way slim to begin with. Not having health insurance was a consideration, but now I guess we all don't have to be concerned with that aspect.

[Gabriela]

Just seek God's will. If he is calling you to married life, it is the only way in which you will be truly satisfied. :)

 

While this is true, the "just" makes it sound easy, when in fact, we can't use true satisfaction as a criterion for knowing whether we've achieved God's will when it comes to something that requires taking vows. If I get married in order to find out whether that's God's will for me, then discover I'm not truly satisfied so it must not be God's will...

 

I'm still married. So... now what?

 

If only there were some way to know what will make us truly satisfied before we find ourselves "stuck" in it. Alas, that's what makes discernment hard—and scary!

[Gabriela]

Not having health insurance was a consideration, but now I guess we all don't have to be concerned with that aspect.

 

So as not to hijack this thread, I'm starting a new thread on this topic.

[BarbTherese]

While this is true, the "just" makes it sound easy, when in fact, we can't use true satisfaction as a criterion for knowing whether we've achieved God's will when it comes to something that requires taking vows. If I get married in order to find out whether that's God's will for me, then discover I'm not truly satisfied so it must not be God's will...

 

I'm still married. So... now what?

 

If only there were some way to know what will make us truly satisfied before we find ourselves "stuck" in it. Alas, that's what makes discernment hard—and scary!

 

 

It tells me that discerning is very serious business.  It also tells me something about what my grandaunt prayed when she arrived in the chapel of her chosen religious vocation at a very young age pre V2 "I am here, Lord, and I am here for life."  She was professed over 60 years before her death.

In the context of Divine Providence that vocation which I have personally embraced (speaking personally) and which has been confirmed by vows is my vocation for life and come what may.  Sometimes, however, and I think it is very rare indeed, one is called to one vocation and then out of it into another.  Hence discerning God's Will is a lifelong process, especially since God's Will is an ever-unfolding daily minute by minute matter.  Hence spiritual direction is almost an essential for those who are going to take the spiritual life and being a disciple and follower of Jesus quite seriously. 
Some are unable to find a suitable spiritual director and then one can very confidently abandon oneself to The Lord.  But not abandon, I don't think, the search for a good spiritual director.

 

Rather often I tend to think, a crisis situation in one's vocation can be mistaken as having chosen the wrong vocation, rather than the challenge to work through the crisis.

Edited October 13, 2013 by BarbaraTherese

[domenica_therese]

While this is true, the "just" makes it sound easy, when in fact, we can't use true satisfaction as a criterion for knowing whether we've achieved God's will when it comes to something that requires taking vows. If I get married in order to find out whether that's God's will for me, then discover I'm not truly satisfied so it must not be God's will...

 

I'm still married. So... now what?

 

If only there were some way to know what will make us truly satisfied before we find ourselves "stuck" in it. Alas, that's what makes discernment hard—and scary!

 

By "it is the only way in which you will be truly satisfied" I did not mean that you should find what makes you satisfied, and then make it your vocation, but rather you should trust that God will reveal your vocation to you in time, and that we should trust that whatever it is will fulfill us completely -- even if we don't see it as a fulfilling option now -- because we can never find true, enduring satisfaction in anything else. This is not to say that religious life is total rainbows for anyone who enters, but rather, that if they left it, if it is truly their vocation, they would never find true peace by running. Likewise if we try to insist on religious life because we think it will satisfy us, if it is not God's will, it will not satisfy us. So the satisfaction is more of a consequence than a condition.

 

And I know that "just" does seem like it's too easy, but honestly I think discernment is "easy" because there's really not much we can do to speed the process of God's will. A key condition is passivity to what he wills. So the best way to discern any big thing is just to always try to align yourself to God's will in the little things, and then the big thing will eventually come to you as a natural consequence of the path you have been taking. Discernment becomes hard when try to figure it out like a sudoku. 

[Aya Sophia]

Seems the call, whether to rl, marriage, priesthood, often includes an element of surprise.  We're presented with something that is not quite as we would have wished or planned for ourself.  First step toward accepting God's plans in place of our own is letting go of our own and this can feel like a frightening kind of loss.