Convent communication

[Lea]

Hi y'all,

this might be a little awkward and I'm sorry if there's already another thread covering this issue... so, I've been discerning religious life for a while now and last October I visited with a community I'm interested in. I left saying I'd want to stay in touch with them and the novice master said she'd be delighted.

Yet I tried to message them, but never really got an answer back except for notices of receipt. Is this a common way for convents to say "We're are not interested in further discernment with you."? If not, what would be the normal thing to happen in this case? 

Thank you in advance! 

[GraceUk]

No I don't think this would be the norm.  Even if they didn't think your vocation was with their community I think they wouldn't  just ignore correspondence. Did the visit go well.   They might say something like we think you should visit other communities because our way of life might not suit you. Try writing snail mail.  But its quite common for communities to take a while to reply. Its been mentioned several times on here. 

Edited June 4, 2021 by GraceUk
Correction

[truthfinder]

This depends on your community, but several (especially contemplative communities or smaller communities where one person holds several repsonsibilities) may list an email address but don't actually answer it themselves.  One I know would have volunteers print the emails, and then tell them what to say in response, usually with snail mail being suggested if they wanted to continue the conversation.  Of course, there's many communities that do use email.  Maybe they're on a community retreat; maybe there's a change in governance or responsibility (ie. the novice mistress has recently changed but the email is still going to the NM account rather than the new one, etc).

Snail mail itself can take for ever too. Definitely try to contact in a different method, but also keep what GraceUk mentioned as well.

[JHFamily]

This does not sound normal. I'm under the impression that the correct person is not receiving these emails at all. I vote snail mail, as well.

[gloriana35]

I have had various occasions where I sent email to someone who is in my address book (or they sent it to me), and it never arrived. It must be some sort of glitch, but it does happen now and then. Various people I know, who regularly use Facebook, no longer access messenger, because they either have experienced spam, or fear this happening. I find it useful, but shudder to remember when people received a message, supposedly from me, which said they were 'tagged in a video' - it was horrid pornography. 

I have heard (as was mentioned above) that some communities do not really use email and messaging. I recall reading somewhere that certain communities, who use technology related to their work, don't use it within their convents. j

Somehow, I doubt that a congregation would just ignore someone, as a way of saying 'we don't want you.'  Snail mail hasn't been at its best since COVID, but I agree that would be the best route to take.

[Lea]

Thank you all very much!

After double-checking their website and social media (which is part of the community's apostolate und therefor usually up to date) I'm now pretty sure I used the right email adress, have not received a delivery failure message and all should be well, expect for the fact that I'm probably just to impatient... anyway OAMDG. 

[gloriana35]

Just for the record - I did not receive delivery failures at certain times when I sent email to others. I only discovered it never arrived after the fact.