My Discernment Crash And Burn

[Luigi]

Monasteries within driving distance of you include:

 

1. St. Leo's Benedictine in central Florida - http://www.saintleoabbey.org/index.shtml I don't know what they do for a living. I don't think they run a school, but maybe they offer retreats, or spiritual direction.

 

2. St. Bernard's Benedictine in Cullman, AL (north of Birmingham) - http://www.bing.com/search?q=st.+bernard+abbey&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IE8SRC They run a school. I think it's all boys, sixth grade through high school. They also have a Facebook page; in some ways it's more informative than the main web page: https://www.facebook.com/stbernardabbey They have Come & See Weekends on a pretty regular basis, and they probably do spiritual direction, too.

 

3. Holy Spirit Trappist in Conyers, GA. They do a lot of different things, including retreats; the retreats would include a little spiritual direction, but it's probably too far away for an ongoing relationship, unless they do that kind of thing via Internet/e-mail.

 

4. Barry University in Miami Shores, FL is run by Dominican sisters, but there are Dominicn friars there, too, including the chaplain. http://www.barry.edu/campus-ministry/dominican-life/ I'm sure he' do some spiritual direction since that kind of comes with the territory of working with college students. You're not exactly a college student, but you're in pretty much the same boat.

 

Now the thing about religious orders is that some of the guys are priests and some aren't. You can join with the intention of pursuing the priesthood or not - they work that out with you as you apply. But it's not carved in stone - maybe you change your mind later, or maybe the community does.

 

Benedictines and Trappists are "monks" - some priests, some brothers, but all monks. They pray together four times a day (+Mass? including Mass?), as a general rule. Benedictines stay their whole lives where they enter (unless they send you off as part of a group to found a new monastery, which doesn't happen very frequently these days). Normally the priest-monks say Mass, teach, lead retreats, act as chaplains to nuns, and that kind of thing. Normally the brother-monks take care of the monastery grounds, run the kitchen, keep a garden, work in a tailor shop, take care of the cars, do the maintenance, and that kind of thing.

 

Dominicans are friars - some priests, some brothers, but all friars. They pray together a couple of times a day, + Mass. Dominicans don't stay in the same place all their lives. The Southern Province covers 11 states or something, and they might send you anywhere from Atlanta to Houston. You work there until they need you somewhere else, and then they ship you out again. Like the Benedictines, the priest-friars say Mass, administer the sacraments, teach, lead retreats, run Catholic Newman Centers at public universities, act as chaplains, and so forth. The brother-friars might also teach, or edit books, or maintain the buildings, or whatever. But Dominicans don't live in monasteries, so they don't usually have the big grounds to take of.

 

If you want to be a priest, you have to have complete a master's degree, and the work includes a lot of pretty abstruse topics. If you want to be a brother, you can still pursue higher degrees but you don't have to.

 

It seems to me that another real advantage you'd have in a religious community is your military background. Religious orders and the military are quite similar in a number of ways - there's a hierarchy, you take assignments from your superior, you live in a barracks-like place, you eat together in a mess-hall/refectory, you're on a daily schedule that keeps the operation running smoothly. You understand all that - you've lived it!

 

It also seems to me that your quartermaster skills would be well suited to a religious community. Better than they would be to the diocesan priesthood.

 

But that's just me.

[superblue]

funny that the Trappists in Ga were mentioned, that is where I initially planned on have a spiritual retreat, I was going to drive up there and then visit family in Savannah, at the time I was speaking to my diocese vocations director, and had mentioned this to him, as I had not really decided on anything, an he mentions off the cuff that he had heard they were I guess not very orthodox; and im like huh ? Anyhow I figured I would trust him an decided not to go, and I realize now that was a mistake. So I am deff going to reconsider making that trip one day.    Thanks for the input Luigi ill deff come back to this for future reference.