No Good News At Olam?

[DameAgnes]

Rec'd a newsletter from OLAM this week, and so, a little update:

It appears that OLAM now has 7 postulants, with two recent entrants. God willing, one (Sr. Giselle) should be invested in December, and another (Sr. Anne) in January. No news at all of Sr. Sandra, so perhaps the Lord called her elsewhere. The Photo Gallery at the OLAM shrine site does not appear to be updated for these latest postulants, or for a recent first profession. Sr. Mary Veronica wrote a lovely piece about the graces of the novitiate. The sisters all look quite happy and busy in the pictures.

Also, only slightly off topic, I have the latest book of Mother Angelica's lessons to her nuns, "Private and Pithy Lessons from Scripture" and it's really great.

[RosaMystica]

[quote name='DameAgnes' post='1713295' date='Nov 28 2008, 11:37 PM']I have the latest book of Mother Angelica's lessons to her nuns, "Private and Pithy Lessons from Scripture" and it's really great.[/quote]

I second that. Mother Angelica is amazing!

[DominicanPhilosophy]

I have a question - When these communities [the ones that spring from the original ones and become autonomous] are founded, do the sisters of the original convent (is it called a motherhouse or no, since it isn't really to all the sisters who will leave to found new convents) have any say in whether or not they go to help start a new one? If they are bound under obedience to Mother Superior, I'd imagine they would be able to object if there were really a problem as far as location and health or something, but other than that..
that is intense obedience and trust to be able to not know whether you'll be living the rest of your life with the community and Superior in whose hands you professed vows to God with.

Excuse my ignorance with the PC's and many orders outside the Dominican realm.


And a note..I have [i]Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality[/i] and absolutely love it! I read it in two sittings on the way to and from the March for Life last year. What a beautiful, inspiring book! Mother Angelica ROCKS..God bless her and her nuns!

+JMJD

Edited November 29, 2008 by DominicanPhilosophy

[the lords sheep]

In regard to your question about obedience, my impression is that the Superior of an order would ask the Sister if she would go, after really praying about who has the gifts and who God is calling to make this new foundation. The Sister, in obedience, agrees to go, but it is never under mandate. She is not ordered to go, because then it wouldn't be as much of a free choice to obey or not, it would be a choice made out of a feeling of obligation.
Just my thoughts, though.

[DameAgnes]

That is also my understanding. I know that at least as far as Benedictines are concerned, an abbess or abbot has no right to command a vowed religious to leave the abbey, even if it is to establish another or assist one that needs support. A Benedictine is vowed to that house, in their vow of stability, and the abbot or abbess has no "right" to order them elsewhere...but they can ask them to - in generosity - make the sacrifice of going to the other house. I'm pretty sure the same would be the case for other orders. Monastics join a particular community because they feel called to it, and thus called by God, it would take a pretty nervy superior to [i]order[/i] a vowed member to go elsewhere.

I know Mother M. Francis, who was one of the founders of the Poor Clares in Roswell, [i]volunteered[/i] to be part of the foundation.