Carmelites Dcj Discernment Weekend!

[VeniteAdoremus]

Okay... so WHY didn't I tell the Phamily that I was going?

Because I didn't know I would be going until half an hour before I got on the train! I'm still not sure what happened, but... *casts suspicious look at H. Spirit*

<H. Spirit> Who, me?
<me> YES YOU!
<H. Spirit>

Well. Anyway.

I'm tired now, but I had a WONDERFUL time at the Motherhouse! So if anyone has questions about the DCJ's, I think I can answer a bit more about them now

We were actually allowed IN RECREATION WITH THE SISTERS (jealousy is a sin, dear pham ) on Friday because it was a Feast and two sisters celebrated their golden jubilee. I was a bit late, so I was ushered in by one of the pre-postulants, and everybody was "Hi Anna!" in English and German and Dutch I was scared to bits! But it was wonderful. The sisters were "a bit wild" because of the triple feast, singing songs, and the like. I actually sat a seat away from Mother Angelina. What a woman.

Well, I'll tell more later, for now it's BED!

[Piamaria]

Well, I'll tell more later, for now it's BED!
[/quote]
Wake up!! We want more now.

[cathoholic_anonymous]

I've been seriously considering this lot. I made a thread about them quite a while ago. Please, please write as much as you can about the community! Just give a spontaneous description and I'll ask my questions afterwards. I want to know everything...well, as much as possible anyway!

[onlygrace08]

yes, yes!! please tell!!! :

[shortnun]

----- I think it's daytime in Europe... spill.

[Jennifer]

: : Looking forward to hearing all about your weekend with the Carmelites when you have recovered.

[VeniteAdoremus]

[quote name='Jennirom' post='1139944' date='Dec 12 2006, 12:47 AM']
: : Looking forward to hearing all about your weekend with the Carmelites when you have recovered.
[/quote]

Let's not wait for that.

Okay, the Very Very Short Overview of the two-days-and-a-bit discernment marathon!

First: how I even got there! On December 6th, the vocations director of St. Cecilia's (the Nashville Dominicans) sent me an e-mail with a few pointers for me to discern my vocation a bit closer to home than several timezones away, as some of you might know already. The Carmelites DCJ were the ones that "jumped out" at me straight away - because I already knew them. They have a smallish House 10 miles from my old home and used to be very involved with my diocese's Seminary, which I was too (and my dad knows the current vocation director for the Motherhouse). But most of the sisters in that house are, er, well on their way to if not past their golden jubilees... I'd never really considered them.

After that mail, I started browsing their site, and last Friday I discovered that they have "generic" discernment weekends for "boys and girls" aged 16 to 25 (roughly). There had been one in October, and one this weekend. "Oh, every other month", I thought, "Let me enquire for the date in february!" Which I did, including a bit about myself. This was on Friday morning at two o'clock (don't tell my mum). That Friday, I had a lot of classes, a couple of meetings, and some stuff to take care of, and around 3.30pm I realized I had to sent someone an e-mail. And... there was an answer by Sr. Elvira Maria. General idea: "You're very welcome. Call me after Mass (12.30)".

Well, it wasn't [i]that[/i] short, she actually wrote four lines.

So, I freaked out, and ran virtually to PP (which is always the best thing to do in those situations) who, of course, told me to START PACKING, and NOW. I was still at the university, so I ran up the stairs, told some people I would be AWAY, went home, got my Bible, breviary, and atomic physics book, stuffed them in my backpack with a sweater and clean socks and the like, and took the first train in the general direction of Sittard (which is at the other side of the country). (Actually, I tried to get out of it first: my phone was broken and I had decided I couldn't call Sister with a phone that echos and is very annoying to the person on the other side of the line. But my new phone had arrived in the mail while I was at uni, so the excuse didn't work.)

I found the Motherhouse quite easily (you can't really miss a 6' picture of Bl. Mother Maria Teresa), rung the bell, and was dragged to feast recreation with a stop by the room with my name on it (!). Which was... wicked.

After recreation all the retreatants introduced themselves (new Famous Quote by the rector of the Seminary in Rolduc: "I'm rector Vries... I'm also a Catholic..." (not all of us were, so we mentioned whether we were or not, and a brief overview of our history in that aspect) and Sr. explained the theme ("Back on the High Road"). We prayed Compline in the guest house chapel, after which some did some more getting to know each other, and some went straight to bed (morning prayer at 6.20!). I did a bit of both. I was still completely flabbergasted that I was there, after all.

That was day one, and day one was only an evening! I'll do days two and three later.

Random stuff about the Sisters in the Motherhouse:
- they ROCK;
- Liturgy of the Hours is in German, Mass in Dutch (they did LotH in Dutch for us - did I say they ROCK?);
- Lauds is at 6.20 except for Sundays, then it's at 7.00;
- After Lauds the Sisters pray the Angelus, the Litany of St. Mary and a [i]beautiful[/i] prayer to the Holy Spirit (also in German), after which there is half an hour of meditation before Mass (Sundays are different);
- The first Fridays are, of course, devoted entirely to the Sacred Heart;
- they ROCK;
- M. Angelina orderded the novitiate to be renovated while there weren't even any serious discerners;
- Now there are two pre-postulants ("candidates") living in the novitiate, and one outside.

There are some things I can't really write properly, like how wonderful the dynamic in the group was, or how it felt to pray before dinner, standing behind your chair, with a priest and a nun and 13 people your age, when normally you're the weird religious one. But they all wrote a little line on the cover of my spiritual notebook (we were all [s]ordered[/s] encouraged to keep one) and now I've got a bit of them on my night stand.

[i](Longest post EVER! More tomorrow. But do ask.[/i]

[i](Oh, did I mention that I LOVE GOD? )[/i]

[Piamaria]

[i](Longest post EVER! More tomorrow. But do ask.[/i]

[i](Oh, did I mention that I LOVE GOD? )[/i]
[/quote]




And more to come

[HeavenlyCalling]

Do they have a web site we could look at, even if it is in German?

They sound WONDERFUL, and I'm so glad you had such a great time, what kind of order are they, cloistered or non- cloistered? If they are non cloistered, what is there missions?

It is amazing that the Holy Spirit inspired Mother Angelina to redo the noviciate like that, that must have taken faith and some money, it seems to have paid off!

[the lords sheep]

Well, there is an english version for their American counterparts.... It's [url="http://www.carmelitedcj.org"]here[/url]

and here's one in [url="http://www.carmeldcj.nl/"]dutch[/url]

Enjoy!

[VeniteAdoremus]

[quote name='HeavenlyCalling' post='1140059' date='Dec 12 2006, 03:26 AM']
Do they have a web site we could look at, even if it is in German?

They sound WONDERFUL, and I'm so glad you had such a great time, what kind of order are they, cloistered or non- cloistered? If they are non cloistered, what is there missions?

It is amazing that the Holy Spirit inspired Mother Angelina to redo the noviciate like that, that must have taken faith and some money, it seems to have paid off!
[/quote]

They are... 2/3 cloistered. There is a cloister and all that in the House where there is (almost total) silence, and one of the pre-postulants commented on her parent's sadness that they were never going to see where she sleeps now. But the Sisters do have missions, they teach religion at primary schools, and work with the elderly and small children.

What's lovely about their missions is that they're NOT teachers, and NOT nurses. M. Maria Teresa didn't want girls who wanted to be teachers or nurses but weren't allowed to get an education to have to become nuns. So the Sisters are... caring mothers, not nurses and teachers, something like that.

And yes, it's [url="http://www.carmeldcj.nl/"]http://www.carmeldcj.nl/[/url] that got me there

<Sister Elvira Maria> Who got here through the internet?
<Everyone but two> *raises hand*

[Jennifer]

: : WOW !! Thank you VA for this wonderful report of your first day (or to be precise,evening) of your discernment weekend. IT WAS SO CONCISE that I felt I was there !! : : .I'm looking ..forward to the next instalment.

[karin]

glad you had an awesome time
God Bless and Mary keep
Karin

[passionheart]

Funny, I go away on retreat for a weekend and everybody seems to be very busy!!

So VA, if I am reading your post properly, you had a beautiful weekend. Are you now going to consider discerning wtih them???

Hmmm it seems that the Broke Daughters and Son of St. Dominic are becoming very busy these days. If this keeps up our little group will be no more..... Alleluia :

[AlterDominicus]

[quote name='VeniteAdoremus' post='1139349' date='Dec 10 2006, 07:38 PM'] I actually sat a seat away from Mother Angelina. What a woman.

Well, I'll tell more later, for now it's BED!
[/quote]

I have to laugh, when I was at the SMME's last month for five days I had a couple SGT=Sneaky God Things happen, one when we were eating in the parlor Mother Assumpta unexpectedly came in behind us, and earlier I had sent Mother a couple letters concering a talk she gave, introductions went around - "And this is Amanda..." A couple nods from Sister Mary Samuel and Mother, Mother said, "Are you the one who sent -" "Yes I am the one who sent you the letters." Then during rec, I somehow gathered the courage (Sneaky Holy Spirit thing) to go up to Mother, and we talked for about 10 seconds, which in [b]A[/b] way was kinda good, because I was in melting stage like, "Oh my goodness, I am like two inches from MOTHER ASSUMPTA!" Here I am standing talking to this amazing women, spouse of Christ, Speaks on behalf of Christ, the Church and the Community. I was like woah...

Then on Monday morning during mass - going up for Holy Communion, I noticed I was right next to Mother Assumpta in line - two lines, since the sisters have stalls on each side, I was in the left line and Mother Assumpta in the right line, we both were last in line. It was nuts....I would like to however have a decent amount of time to talk to her excluding the melting down part.