Travel to Convents

[Kayte Postle]

I am having trouble with having the ability to visit orders that I am interested in. I've gone about as far as I can in the discernment process with two communities without actually visiting. I do my best to keep in communication with these two orders, but let's face it VD's are very busy ladies, so sometimes it's hard.  My big problem is that both communities locations require me to travel there by plane. I have had several financial set backs that make it next to impossible for me to pay for a $200 or $500 plane ticket.

Any suggestions on how I can go about saving or raising money for these flights? Any good ideas on how to keep in communication with a community in the mean time?

[katherineH]

Several ideas:

• ask your parish's Knights of Columbus organization. They tend to be very supportive of discerners and religious vocations! Maybe they could help organize a fundraiser for you.
• talk to your priest. The parish might be able to chip in a little, or they may be able to take up a special collection one Sunday to support your discernment.
• talk to the vocations director for your archdiocese.  They usually deal with men discerning the diocesan priesthood but there might be funds available! 
• Find out if your diocese has a Serra Club - they are all over the US and exist to support religious vocations. They might have some funds or benefactors who might consider sponsoring your travels. 

God will provide! I understand the struggle though. I live in the Midwest and all of the communities I wanted to visit were on the East coast. Don't be afraid to be transparent with the VD regarding your situation.  They know that very few women discerning religious life have a lot of disposable income.  This won't be a new issue to come up.  

[DominicanHeart]

I've been having the same kinds of problems. I may talk to some of my Knights.

[Chiquitunga]

Just a suggestion, there's an app called jet radar where I've found a bunch of super low tickets, like $40 one way across the country, so odd. Southwest can have random crazy low fares like this too sometimes. It helps to be located near a major hub city like Chicago or LA to find these low fares though. 

Katherine's suggestions are great!

[Kayte Postle]

Thank you for the suggestions @katherineH!

Something my mom made mention that might help is investing in a travel credit card. Use it to pay bills I already have to pay now (and the pay it off at the end of the month) and earn miles towards a flight to a convent.

[TheresaThoma]

Ask around at your parish too. I once had someone offer to pay for my plane ticket to visit (the visit fell through for other reasons though).

And let the VD know of your situation sometimes a friend of the community might be willing to help you out.

[truthfinder]

Some people may not be able to pay for a plane ticket, but they might be able to donate their frequent flyer points.  Also, I don't know about the airlines you have, but the most common one I use will every once and while will just straightup offer $50 dollars off with their frequent flyer points - flying in Canada is expensive so this really helps - maybe there's an airline that does something similar?