Contemplative Nuns Called to Community

Living the Life: 
Romanticism vs.
On-going Conversion 

Recently there was some interesting discussion on one of my favorite websites, A Nun’s Life. Two IHMs (Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe, MI), Sisters Julie and Maxine are hosts for regular podcasts, fielding all sorts of questions posed by those considering a vocation in religious life. They respond with a unique combination of humor, wisdom and experience. During a podcast (7pm daily EST) a question was asked which I will reword from memory. “I see a lot of vocation websites put up by communities and other kinds of publicity for congregations and all the faces are smiling and the message is given that religious life is a lot of fun. Is it really always fun? And I hear lots of talk about the aura of holiness. Is all of this realistic? Isn’t there any downside?” Sr. Julie responded by discussing what she called a romanticism about religious life and nuns in particular. There is a good bit of misinformation or misimpression out there. Reality checks are sorely needed.

I hear a great deal of a kind of romanticism about cloistered contemplative life from those who make inquiry with our community regarding vocation discernment. I hear it from young and old. Most, unfortunately, have not explored their call with a good spiritual director and most have never visited a monastery! In other words, they have no way of making a reality check. Often they seem to have two huge misconceptions. First is the idea that they can come to a monastery and pray all day. Yes, we do pray a great deal both together and in private but we must also engage in all the necessary household tasks as well as contribute effort to the remunerative work that supports the community. These activities require a degree of community interaction.

The second misconception is that the personal sacrifice will chiefly consist in withdrawal from secular society and the development self-discipline necessary for all the devotional practices in which they will be free to engage (Liturgy of the Hours, Mass, Adoration, Rosary, etc., etc.). However, in all likelihood, the greatest sacrifice to be asked of them will be a necessary surrender of the ego in order to be transformed in Christ. Surrender of the ego; that is our penchant for control, our need to plan, the selfish desires and satisfactions to which we have become so accustomed, is required by a life in which personal autonomy is narrowed and needs, desires, preferences, and ways of doing things must always take others into consideration. Community life, interaction with individuals, is where the ‘rubber hits the road’. The choice to enter religious life is not only a choice for deeper spirituality and dedicated mission. It is, perhaps above all, a choice in favor of community, the choice to live in a group of people one might never have considered as possible friends. And in contemplative life, that group is together 24/7.

Discerners seem to understand the components of prayer and mission but rarely have any idea of what is implied by the choice for the third leg of the stool of religious life, the choice in favor of community. Because the legs of prayer and mission still allow for a good bit of personal control they do not test the ego as much as the leg that is community life. In his workshop “Intentional Community”, Marist Brother Donald Bisson, FMS (spirituality and Jungian psychology) declared, “The main task of adjustment to living in community will be shadow work.” By shadow is meant the aspects of our psyches and personalities that we hide away consciously or unconsciously because we would not want others to see them. Held in our shadow are the psychic wounds which often determine our behavior and the ego needs we cover up in polite society – control, perfectionism, insecurity, fear, etc., etc.

It is said that the choice for religious life is an expression of the desire for God, the desire to be a God seeker. The closer we come to God the more we are asked to become like God. To seek God is to consent to be transformed into God, to submit, to surrender to the process of interior conversion. And there is no better laboratory for the conversion of our egoic selves than that of community living. Spiritual devotion prepares the way. Mission gives expression to our commitment to service in the name of Jesus. However, only living in community will challenge and stretch what is hidden in the shadows, rub the wounds, and jostle the baggage we carry. 

I have met a few of those young happy faces in cloistered and apostolic communities. In many their joy is transparent and the rightness of their choice confirmed. In others I read pressure, nervousness, and stress. In any close human community interpersonal life is intense and demanding. This is not to say that the process is not good or not transformative or not a necessary part of our personal conversion process. All of that is real and true but most do not seem to see it that way at the beginning.

One of the Psalms declares that wherever people live as one it is like the blessing of “oil flowing down Aaron’s beard”. Community life is blessing. In community we experience “union of hearts and mutual charity”. We experience support, mentoring, friendship and the pleasure of sharing. We rejoice, celebrate, worship, suffer and grieve together. Truly, ‘many hands make light work’. Above, all we bond in our love for God and the endless journey of seekers. But we must also make decisions together; take into account our cultural and ethnic variety; and transcend our differences. The old must adapt to the young and the young must be compassionate toward the old because the new comers always ask, “Why do you do it this way?” and the old always respond, “We have always done it this way.”

Community life is the arena of transformation in which the God seeker can live in ever deepening participation in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Paschal Mystery of our salvation and grow in likeness to the one whom we call our Beloved.

Resource: “Intentional Community” Brother Donald Bisson, FMS (2 CDs) Workshop Sries #49 – YesNowMusic.com or YesNowMusic@aol.com or google Don Bisson.

Remember the Call - Vocation Awareness Week

Because we believe in the endless invitation of God, we remain convinced that many women and men are called to enter into deeper relationship with the Divine. We believe that this interior prompting  to remove oneself to an environment tailored to support the search for God is still observed in all the major religious traditions and across cultural lines. However, so many today, while sensing a nagging pull deep within, sensing a persistent desire, do not know where to go. Catholic education and culture today do not provide the information and exposure that would bring them to consideration of religious vocation in the Church.

Contemplatives, although the very life they wish to offer is a remove from the usual involvement in society, must make an effort to reveal their way of life, the search for God it offers, and the opportunity it presents for personal conversion which is transformation in Christ. For Redemptoristines it is the path to becoming a "Living Memory" of Jesus Christ", the inspiration of our foundress Maria Celeste Crostarosa. This blog, our Facebook Page, our website are efforts to invite and to educate.

The following remarks made to consecrated religious by Pope John Paul II are a reminder for us to reconsider our first call. They can also be an invitation to those who today are themselves experiencing the initial inspiration. 

As you renew in your hearts your act of profession, recall to mind that interior inspiration of the Spirit which originally led you to set out on this way to God.

Recall the circumstances of this inspiration, how it became more and more insistant, possibly returning after a time, until you could not fail to recognize in it the voice of God, the force of love with which the Lord calls a person to belong to Him undividedly.

Recall this to mind, in order to thank God with a new heart and to proclaim His mighty works. That inspiration of the Spirit cannot die out. It is destined to endure and, together with your religious vocation, to become more mature throughout your entire lives.

During this week of Vocation Awareness think of your own vocation; help us educate the People of God about the nature of this life; pray for the effort. AND, if you know someone seriously pursuing the spiritual way, why not mention religious life to them and encourage them along the way?

Technology and Contemplative Nuns

Nuns Using the Internet

for Contemplative Outreach

Here's a link to a great article in the Irish Times of Dublin about how contemplatives there are using the Internet as a means of reaching out to the world and attracting vocations.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2011/1029/1224306468864.html

Among the communities featured in the very well done and informative piece are our own sisters in the Monastery of St. Alphonsus in the Drumcondra section of Dublin. This is the community with which I spent three weeks last May. It was such a joy to be with them. Check out the article and get to know more about them.

Note: More to come on the New Roman Missal.

Listen to a Broadcast Interview of This Blogger

A Nun's Life Ministry
Catholic Sisters
and Nuns
in Today’s World

That's the title of the interactive website supported by the great congregation of the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, Michigan. My friends at A Nun's Life, Sisters Julie and Maxine describe their site in this way:

"A Nun’s Life Ministry is founded on the belief that each person is called by God to a vocation that enriches the individual and benefits the world. A Nun’s Life helps people discover and grow in their vocation, that is, their life’s calling, by engaging questions about God, faith, and religious life."

As a contemplative nun and as the vocation director for our communnuty I have been a staunch fan and constant admirer of the site from its infancy. I have watched in amazement as the technical sophistication and offerings for vocation discerners have been expanded.

On February 4th of this year I fielded questions along with Sisters Julie and Maxine during their weekly Friday evening hour long interactive podcast. I sat at my computer watching the typed conversation with participants appear on my screen and was able to type in my comments AND, at the same time, I was on the phone with my voice going out to all who were tuned into the podcast. It just blows your mind!

Should you have some time to listen to  three sisters responding to the questions of young women regarding religious life you can hear the archived program by using the following link. Comments would be appreciated.

http://anunslife.org/2011/02/04/as059-ask-sister/

Friday, February 4, 2011

In the Archdiocese of New York

World Day for Consecrated Life:

Remarks at St. John's

Church, Woodstock, NY

In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared that the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, February 2nd would be World Day for Consecrated Life in our Church. Our diocese moved it to a Sunday and that is why I am here. The Vicar for Religious of the diocese asked us to make ourselves available to the local Church to mark this day. I made that offer to Father George who immediately invited me to speak to you.

What do I want to tell you about religious life? I want to tell the elders among you that religious life is alive and well in our time. It just doesn’t look like you remember it. For the younger cadre here I am a visual aide to illustrate a point; that there are sisters, nuns and bothers in our Church and they sometimes look like this. But no matter what they look like, habit or no habit, veil or no veil, they exist, they are working, they serve mightily and they are happy. These are women and men who have made promises to God to live their lives in community, with vows of poverty, obedience and chastity in order to serve their loving God and God’s people. The counties of Ulster and Dutchess alone enjoy the presence and ministry of Dominicans in Glasco who give retreats and have great hermitages, the Benedictines in hospital service, my Redemptoristine community at Mt. St. Alphonsus of the Redemptorists, the Marist Brothers who run a camp and offer youth retreats and spiritual direction, the motherhouse of the Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirm in Germantown, Sisters of St. Ursula at Linwood Retreat Center, the Poor Clare contemplatives in Wappinger Falls along with the retreat house of the Franciscan Fiars Minor at Mt. Alvernia, and the Carmelite contemplatives in Beacon.

I personally know religious who are teachers, social workers, spiritual directors, Hospice chaplains, lawyers, counselors. I know some who minister to migrant workers, maintain soup kitchens and food pantries, work with the deaf, serve on the boards of community service organizations, reach out via the Internet and other media, and many whose lives are given to the apostolic work of prayer for a needy world, its diverse nations and peoples and all of God’s creation.

Today we heard the words of the prophet Isaiah:

Share your bread with the hungry,
Shelter the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothe the naked when you see them,
And do not turn your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn……

We also heard Jesus declare that we “are the salt of the earth”; that we are to be “the light of the world”. Surely the religious in our Church have heard these words and acted upon them, “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

Not only are religious present and active in our Church and happily fulfilled in their vocation. They are also filled with hope, as you should be, for the future of religious life. I assure you this manifestation of the search of the human heart for the Power that is beyond us will not disappear. The sciences of anthropology and sociology tell us that this impulse to live a life more closely united with the transcendent is as old as humankind. It is present in all cultures and societies; appearing as the native American shaman, the Buddhist monk or nun, the tribal medicine man, the Moslem Sufi, as well as Catholic Trappist or Sister of Charity. The impulse is sure to appear. It may even bob up to the surface in your family or among your friends. Please do your best, if you are given the opportunity, to encourage and guide this impulse.

Last year I spoke to a group of parents and asked them. “What would you fear if your child wanted to pursue a religious vocation? They said they would worry about their child being happy; would be concerned about what their son or daughter would have to give up and the promises they would have to make. Who of us has not had some unhappiness? Who of us has not had to give up things in life? Who of us has not had to make and keep promises? These are realities of life. Most of us look back at all of that and still remember what was good, loving and joyful. And we say, “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.” The promises made in religious life mirror all of our promises, every promise represented here; fidelity in marriage and relationship, dedication to nurturing children, the promises of the sacrament of ordination, perseverance in religious vows, faithfulness in honoring the true self, the mundane obligations of earning a living, or the duties of citizenship and service. We are all in this life of following Christ together but we do it in a blessed and wonderful variety of ways.

I say these things to you as someone who, in another life, was a professional, a wife and a mother; someone who paid taxes, worried about the kids, fretted over politics; someone who seriously followed the spiritual life, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing badly. But God called me to the contemplative life of prayer and service in a monastic community. My life is not better than yours, it is just different. It is a life fulfilled in being committed to the Redemptoristine charism, our spirituality, which is to be a “living memory” of Jesus Christ for the Church and the world. We would welcome you to our monastery for private prayer, participation in the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours, and Mass. We also welcome field trips by parish committees, groups or classes. Contact information is available at the exits should you wish to learn more or want to send us a prayer request.

Please remember that religious life is alive and well. It is a happy option for Christian living. But most of all remember that we are in this together; together searching for God; together loving and praising our God and serving God in serving each other. You are the salt of the earth and a light for the world.

Live Tonight

Podcast for Vocation Discerners

The Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe are doing wonderful work for the cause of religious vocations. They have mounted an interactive website, http://www.anunslife.org/, on the Internet. Beginning very gradually over two years ago, they have become more and more technologically sophisticated and are continuously reaching out to experienced folks and experts who can assist those discerning a religious vocation and the vocation directors in congregations and orders who wish to work with them. Here is a safe and informed place where those interested can have any question answered.

Tonight I will be a third voice in one of their weekly podcasts. Along with Sister Julie and Sister Maxine, I will help to field questions as they come in live, by e-mail or those that have come in during the week.

Here's a link: http://anunslife.org/2011/02/04/as059-ask-sister/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+aNunsLife+%28A+Nun%27s+Life%29

Just click on "Listen Now" and follow the prompts. Be sure to turn on your speakers.

On-line Advent Retreat

STOP


Seek


The


Other


Possibility

An Online Discernment Retreat for men and women who would like to explore a call to Religious Life. In the privacy of your own home and at a time convenient for you, you will be able to receive materials for reflection via the internet. After your time of prayer, you will be invited to contact a retreat director via e-mail where you will share your thoughts and reflections. Retreat directors are experienced spiritual directors committed to a daily exchange with participants assigned to them.

December 5-9, 2010 - five days beginning the second Sunday of Advent. Sponsored by the Religious Vocation Office of the Archdiocese of New York. For information and registration, go to:

www.nyreligiouslife.org

or Contact: Sr. Deanna Sabetta, CND, sr.deanna.sabetta@archny.org

Deadline for registration is December 1, 2010

Day of Prayer for Contemplatives

Pro Orantibus Day

“For Those Who Pray”

Sunday,
Nov. 21, 2010

Our community of contemplative nuns, a community dedicated to the apostolic work of prayer, would very much appreciate the support of your prayers for our perseverance in this vocation and surrender to God in the process of on-going conversion. Pray also that we may be faithful to the Redemptoristine charism; "to be in the Church and in the world a living memorial of Christ the Redeemer."

News Release

Catholics throughout the world are encouraged to honor the cloistered and monastic life on Pro Orantibus Day, which is Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010.“The primary purpose of Pro Orantibus Day is to thank God for the tremendous gift of the cloistered and monastic vocation in the Church’s life,” noted Fr. Thomas Nelson, O.Praem., National Director of the Institute on Religious Life. “Since the lives of these women and men religious dedicated to prayer and sacrifice is often hidden, this annual celebration reminds us of the need to support their unique mission within the Body of Christ,” he added.

In 1997 Pope John Paul II asked that this ecclesial event be observed worldwide on November 21, the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Presentation in the Temple. It is a special day to thank those in the cloistered and monastic life for serving as “a leaven of renewal and of the presence of the spirit of Christ in the world.” It is also intended to remind others of the need to provide spiritual and material support “for those who pray.”

Pope Benedict XVI has spoken often of the tremendous value of the cloistered, contemplative life. Speaking to a group of cloistered Dominican nuns in Rome this past June, the Holy Father referred to such religious as “the heart” which provides blood to the rest of the Body of Christ. He noted that in their work and prayer, together with Christ, they are the “heart” of the Church and in their desire for God’s love they approach the ultimate goal.

The nationwide effort to publicize Pro Orantibus Day is coordinated by the Institute on Religioious Life, a national organization based in the Chicago area. The IRL was founded in 1974 by Rev. John A. Hardon, S.J., and is comprised of bishops, priests, religious and laity who support and promote the vowed religious llife.

Redemptorist Seminarians

Redemptorist Francis Seelos Community, Chicago

Facebook Message from
The Blessed Francis Seelos
Community

Chicago, Illinois

Good Morning Sister,

 Thank you so much for publishing our picture on your blog, this is great ;). Front row from left to right: Fr. John Fahey, Fr. John Schmidt, Fr. Robert Fenili, Fr. Vincent Minh Cao. Back row from left to right: Fr. Steve Rehrauer, Br. Bruce Davidson, Br. Aaron Meszaros, Br. Ted Dorcey, Br. Landon Cao, Br. Thanh Nguyen, Br. Mario Gonzalez.

We have 10 members in the community now, 4 professed Redemptorists and 6 students. Most of time we are studying at CTU, Catholic Theological Union. We are taking classes at different levels, but all aiming for the same degree which is the M.Div. (Master of Divinity). We are also in different stages of the journey to ordination. Ted and Bruce are in the third year of theology; about a year and half toward their ordination. Landon and I (Thanh Nguyen) are in the second year and have about 2 and a half years to go until ordination while Aaron and Mario are in their first year and will not be ordained until about 3 and half years from now.

I don't know if I have answered all of the questions. Let me know if I miss anything. Thank you and pardon for my english. :). Have a blessed day sister and pray for me. Thanh

Please join me in praying for these great guys pursuing their seminary education. Pray too for the men who are helping to mold them into good priests and true sons of St. Alphonsus. All of their stories are unique and impressive. As their 'sisters' and as contemplative nuns whose apostolic work is prayer we are very dedicated to intercession on their behalf. We keep up with their progress and enjoy their occasional visits to the monastery when Redemptorists events bring them to Mt. St. Alphonsus. And now Facebook keeps us even more in touch.

History of American Catholic Women Religious

Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America

an exhibit mounted by the Leadership Conference of
Women Religious
currently at Ellis Island Immigration Museum,
New York Harbor
until January 11, 2010

We recently had the privilege to view this exhibit currently housed on the third floor of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. If you have never visited the Museum, plan on spending a day taking the tour and then visiting the LCWR exhibit. To view the memorabilia, read the inspiring accounts of dedication, bravery, compassionate service, courage and great achievement was an inspiration. I was particularly struck by the account of the courageous sisters who went to their death comforting and trying to save the orphans in their care during the hurricane that hit Galvaston, Texas early in the 20th century. I was also enchanted with a slide show that seemed to be coming out of an old film strip projector. The slide show covered the progress of Catholic education via class pictures from different eras, extracurricular club groups and activities, children at recess, devoted teachers bending over their pupils, and on and on. So many classroom scenes looked very familiar.

This exhibit and all of Ellis Island are too good to miss. It can be reached from lower Manhattan or from Liberty State Park in New Jersey (much easier parking there) via a ferry that stops at both Ellis Island and Liberty Island (Statute of Liberty).

The Story of One Redemptoristine

Her True Colors

Sister Angelina Celeste, member of the Redemptoristine Community in Legazpi, Philippines popped up in my "Google Alerts" this morning. Her story recently appeared in a newpaper there and provides inspirational reading. It details her life work dedicated to ministering to the poorest of the poor, a work which has, at times, been unacceptable to those in power wishing to maintain absolute control over the people.  Sister paid the price for being a community organizer at a time when to do so was to be labeled a Communist. After 30 years in that work she heeded the call to become a contemplative nun; to offer her contemplation and intense intercessory prayer for the needs of the poor and cause of justice in our world.

http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/sim/sim/view/20101106-301796/Her-True-Colorshttp://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/sim/sim/view/20101106-301796/Her-True-Colors

Seekers Visit the Monastery

  

The Baltimore and Denver Provinces of the Redemptorist Congregation combine their efforts in both vocation development and the formation of new members. These two provinces include all of the USA and the Caribbean Islands. The dedication of the Redemptorists to these efforts is an inspiration. Last weekend here at Mount St. Alphonsus Retreat Center they offered the second in a series of "Come and See" weekends for men discerning a vocational call to religious life. The Redemptorists are a religious congregation so men pursuing a vocation with them first take the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and perseverance within the Congregation. From that point on they may choose to be a brother or a priest. But always they consider themselves first as Redemptorists following in the footsteps of their founder St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Doctor of the Church. Their charism or spiritual motivation is to serve the poor and the most abandoned.

We always enjoy visits from our Redemptorist 'brothers' and are grateful that they believe it is important to introduce potential and new members to their Redemptoristine 'sisters'. We are especially grateful to Fr. Tat for introducing us to this group. They enjoyed praying in our chapel and talking to the sisters. They particularly enjoyed hearing our vocation stories. May they be blessed in their effort to hear and act upon God's call.

Upper left: Srs. Maria Linda, Maria Paz, Paula and Teresa with Fr. Tat Upper right: Sr. Mary joined by Srs. Paula and Maria Paz Below right: Sr. Maria Paz with visitors Lower left: Sr. Moira autographing her book, a novel about John the Baptist



From the Other Side of the Ramp

The Big Wide World of Vocations

Not sure if this is exactly what my new hip looks like but it must be pretty darn close. Isn't it amazing? I am even glued together with something called dermabond. This end of the ramp includes lots of physical theraphy stops and helpful meds. But I am on my way and ever so grateful - grateful to God, to my supportive community and to the professionals who made it all possible.

And that is where the notion of "the big wide world of vocations" comes from. Whenever I have the opportunity to do some public speaking on the topic of vocations I do not limit my talk to the notion of religious vocations. In Catholic circles at least, the word "vocations" tends to bring a narrow view to mind - sisters, nuns, priests and brothers. But the question of vocation is  much broader and is directed to each person. It calls for an over-arching attitude that directs us to seek the will of God for our life as indicated by God's gifts and the direction we receive from God as to their use - if only we open ourselves to that direction. These factors are often lacking from the equation most people use when determiningly their choice. More common factors are: what will pay me the most; what will offer the most prestige; what will satisfy my ego; what will make for a secure future? Many do take into account their interests and their skills but those earlier items carry a lot of weight. I like to encourage parents and young people from the very beginning to consider the question of life direction, career choice, etc. under the broad rubric of vocation, that is God's desire and will and specific call to the individual.

I was reminded of the truly broad scope of the vocation issue in every life when I observed and benfited from the skilled and compassionate care of registered nurses and their support staff while I was hospitalized. Truly, nursing is a vocational call. And it isn't always the easiest choice, the best paying profession offering the best work hours and conditions, or the one most respected. But men and women in the profession have told me of their call, their felt desire to relieve suffering, their certainty that they had something special to offer those in pain and in need of healing. Many would never say it was a call from God or that their choice was an expression of their desire to follow God's will. But they will all say they listened to that small vice within calling them in a certain direction. How grateful I am that they listened to that voice.

This is an inner attentiveness which we have to encourage and cultivate in our children. They need to know that their life's work, their vocational choice, matters tremendously. It matters not only to them but to the society in which they live. The right choice, the informed choice increases their chance for happiness and satisfaction and their abiltiy to make a difference in our world.

World Day for Consecrated LIfe

Redemptoristine Nuns - Mother of Perpetual Help Monastery

Esopus, New York

Celebrating Consecrated Life

We join today in celebrating the gift of consecrated life to the Church and the world.  It is wonderful to give attention to this particular vocation to which the Lord is still inviting many. It is just that there is so much competition for our attention, our time, our devotion. So we must continue to point to the reality of the invitation. In addition to praying for religious vocations, we must pray for growing faithfulness to our commitment to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience in service to God, all people and all of creation.

A number of efforts point to the history and viability of consecrated life. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) has sponsored the creation of an outstanding exhibit spotlighting religious life. Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America can currently be seen at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Later in the spring it will be in Cleveland and on September 24 arrive at Ellis Island Museum of Immigration in New York City.

Another educational tool created in service to American women religious is a CD set of lectures by a scholar from Syracuse University, Prof. Margaret Susan Thompson, Ph.D. History of Women Religious in the United States is availble from http://www.nowyouknowmedia.com/ 1-800-955-3904. We have been listening to this series at our noon meal.

Today at our Mass we and our visitors will offer the following prayer for vocations provide by the National Religious Vocation Conference. Join us is saying it as frequently as you can.

Prayer for Vocations

Generous God,

You show us the way that leads to everlasting life.

Through baptism you have called us

to proclaim the Good News.

Bless and strengthen those

who have made a commitment

of service in the Church.

Guide and give wisdom to those discerning their vocation.

Enrich our Church with dedicated

married and single people,

with deacons, priests,

and with people in consecrated life.

Filled with your Holy Spirit we ask this blessing that we,

your people, may follow Jesus, our Good Shepherd,

now and always, Amen.

The Fine Art of Personal Discernment - a "HOW TO"

The Mystery of Choice

One of those great Beatles songs had the lyric, "I get by with a little help from my friends." I'll skip over what they might have considered "help". I know what I consider help in my life. One of them has been the friendship and professional spiritual guidance of Brother Don Bisson, FMS.  The Marist Brothers have a mission just a few miles from us. They maintain a camp, retreat house, house of prayer community, and offer spiritual direction. The Brothers frequently join us for Mass in our monastery. Our communities benefit from mutual support of our vocations.

Brother Don is a spiritual director, trainer and supervisor of directors. He is widely respected as a commentator and workshop leader on the interrelationship of spirituality and psychology. He has graduate degrees in liturgy, spirituality, and transpersonal psychology. His D.Min. was earned at the Pacific School of Religion in the area of Spiritual Direction and Jungian Psychology.

In my position as Vocation Director for this community, I am in constant contact with women considering a vocation to religious life. Most are just beginning the process of discernment. Some have not yet realized that there is a process of discernment to be carried out. But the work of personal discernment is not confind to the question of religious vocation. It is a necessary response to any call or inspiration or guidance we receive by the grace of our loving God.

Brother Don will be offering two Saturday workshops at Mt. St. Alphonsus Retreat Center that will speak to just this issue.

How Do I Discern the "Call" of God?

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Vocation is a soul invitation to live in alignment with God's will. This is living in the spirit of discernment and listening to a Voice coming from a place much deeper than the ego. This workshop will examine the art of deep listening and courage necessary to incarnate the invitation.

What Does It Mean to Choose to Be Awakened?

Saturday, May 15, 2010

We are called to wake up from our sleep, our illusions, and our unconscious selves. Jung's psychology and Christian spirituality comment on the nature of authentic life. This workshop will look as the mystery of becoming fulle alive by embracing limits and dying.

Cost for each workshop day is $60 and includes lunch.

Time: 9:30am - 3:30pm.

Reservation and $10 deposit required.

Call Mt. St. Alphonsus - 845-384-8000 or register on-line.

National Vocation Awareness Week - January 10-16

As We Enter
the New Year

The holiday whirlwind has subsided. The last of the cookies are being consumed. Decorations will slowly start to make their way back to storage on Monday. But the liturgical season of Christmastide will not end in our monastery until Night Prayer (Compline) tomorrow evening, the official end of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Since Christmas, the Church has led us through a series of 'epiphanies', manifestations of the incarnate divinity of Jesus. The revelation of Messiah to the shepherds and the Magi, his baptism in the Jordan by John, and the miracle of the wedding feast at Cana come into play during these in-between days, links between Christmas and the return to Ordinary Time. Each of these epiphanies is experienced as on-going in our time to underscore the wondrous mystery of the Incarnation. In case we did not get it, the Church provides liturgies that place these manifestations front and center. From this we move ahead to Ordinary Time and the accounts of Jesus' ministry. None of that will matter unless we know who He was and who He is in our time.

Other News

* As a community of Redemptoristine contemplative nuns, we have made a new effort to let people know who we are. Pictured above is a newly designed small flyer featuring a photo of Sr. Maria Linda Magbiro in front of a chapel window depicting our foundress Maria Celeste Crostarosa. This flyer provides the background for a Lucite stand holding our vocation brochures in a pocket on the right. These stands have been sent to a number of large Redemptorist parishes and retreat houses of the northeast. We are grateful for the support of  our Redemptorist brothers in this effort. All of this just in time for National Vocation Awareness Week, Jan. 10-16. We also delivered a packet containing copies of VISION Vocation Magazine, vocation posters and our brochures to two local Catholic high schools.

* The Redemptorist Congregation is absorbing and adjusting to changes in leadership brought about at the General Chapter in Rome last fall. The newly elected Father General is Michael Brehl, a Canadian well-known to us. Among his elected board of consultors is Brother Jeffrey Rolle. Brother Jeffrey is from the Caribbean islands and is a member of the Baltimore Province of the Redemptorists, the province which supports us in so many ways. We congratulate and pray for our two friends as they assume great responsiblity in challenging times. We also pray for the new effort that came out of the Chapter to respond to the need for greater partnership and coordination among Redemptorists across the globe via 'conference' organizations that will cross national and provincial borders.

* Our own Order is beginning to make plans in anticipation of a General Assembly of our autonomous monasteries in the year 2011. As an order we do not have a general government with a leadership structure holding the whole body together. This factor can make our effort to respond to the same challenges effecting the Redemptorists a bit more difficult. But we hope to surmount those difficulties by our union of prayer and mutual commitment to the Redemptoristine charism.

* These days a few of us also are kept busy translating Christmas letters received from our monasteries around the world. At least we can translate those that come in French, Spanish or Italian. We depend on others for the German. These letters are read at our noon meals and are the chief means by which we keep in touch with monasteries as far flung as Haiti, Japan, Italy, and Quebec, just to name a few.

And Finally...

Our very best wishes to you for a happy, healthy and blessed New Year in 2010.

Vocations, Vocations, Vocations Part II

And Then Comes Joy

Not all comments concerning posts on this blog appear here. The posts are fed directly to my page on Facebook. Yes, I have a page on Facebook - lovely for networking with family and friends but also part of vocation outreach. When these posts appear on FB, readers can enter a comment immediately. One responder to my last post concerning the realities of monastic contemplative life said, "It sounds like being a nun is hard work." Yes, indeed. But I would not be providing a total picture if I did not speak of the other end of the spectrum.

I am not accustomed to publically sharing moments of surpassing contentment or joy. Generally, I tend to be a bit suspicious of those who would seem to float perennially on a cloud of sweet marshmallow fluff and describe every detail of the experience. But is it fair, or healthy for that matter, to offer a reflection on life's realities without speaking of joy? The human desire and capacity for joy is stubborn in survival. In the wisdom of unspoiled youth, Anne Frank, reduced to hiding in an Amsterdam attic as a persecuted Jew, could write of joy in contemplative viewing of the landscape. She wrote ecstatically of shinning sun and greening trees. From this was born resilent hope for a better future.

The joys of my religious vocation flash in memory, illuminating generalized sensations and specific experiences. On Christmas Eve, 1999 I received a phone call informing  me that I had been accepted for entrance into this community. As a school librarian I could not enter until the academic year was over. I simply did not know how I would make it through that busy time. I was so eager. On the day of my entrance, July 22 (Feast of St. Mary Magdalene), I had to wait until 5pm to knock at the door of the monastery for the entrance ritual. The day stretched long and anxious. It was so good to finally be here. Days later, I remember resting during the afternoon's silent time and thinking, with a Cheshire Cat smile on my face, "I was made for this." It was pure joy, however influenced it may have been by beginner's enthusiasm. 

As a working mother, retreat presenter, parish minister, library board member, etc., etc. it was hard to find time alone, quite time for sustained contemplation, for the journey to which I was being called. In the monastery those very things are the priority. It is entirely normal to stop, to put whatever is at hand aside, to move away from it all to chapel or one's room to just 'be', to be with God. Everything is ordered to that pursuit. And that is joy.

Advent was always such a hectic time out there. I remember dreaming once that instead of it being Advent it was Lent and I was so relieved because it didn't come with all those pre-Christmas demands - shopping, gifts to buy, food to cook, and social obligations. In contrast, Advent in the monastery IS a time of silent expectation, of waiting for the great mystery of the Incarnation to be revealed; for Jesus to be born again in my heart where I can welcome him extravagently. There is pure joy in the Christmas Novena tradition. After Vepsers, in a chapel illlumined only by Advent wreath candles, I hear each sister, one by one, and then my own voice speak, "Adore, O my soul, in the bosom of Mary, the only begotten Son of God, who became man for love of you." Together we trod, in joyful expectation, the path to Bethlehem.

Our foundress, Maria Celeste Crostarosa, was a woman of her time; an effusive Neapolitan of the Baroque period. She wrote a great deal, much still not translated into modern English. Some find her reflections just too saccharine, like that of her friend St. Alphonsus Liguori. However, I found joy in her spirituality, its tremendous communication of affect, its unique insight into theology in tune with the Gospel of John. To her, Jesus declared, "If they ask you who I am, tell them I am pure love." I chose two other quotations from Mother Celeste's Dialogues for my solemn profession card seen to the left. "Consecrate yourself to the silence of pure love." and "I want you to espouse yourself to all souls and to experience the same delight which I experience in them." Indeed, for Celeste, her Beloved, her Jesus, is pure love. This is a spirituality of the loving Savior that brings joy to my heart. These writings are, for me, a treasure trove, the depths of which I will never be able to fully explore.

And community life - it is challenge and joy. Community life keeps you honest. It does not allow you to stay on the marshmallow cloud. It is the place where 'the rubber hits the road'; where you must 'put your money where your mouth is." It is the gift that keeps giving by demanding constant application to the process of one's own conversion. To be called to religous life is to be called to conversion. Conscious living leads to self-knowledge but "knowledge makes a bloody entry." Yet, as it crosses the threshold, as one moves from the dark valley of egoic struggle, the faithfulness of God is revealed and joy abounds. So too abounds "the liberty of the children of God."

When community life is alive, when everyone is 'with the program', when everyone recognizes the weakness of their own humanity, "union of hearts and mutual charity" can flourish. The Rule of Life comes alive. In the old days it was a supreme compliment to say of a sister, "She is a living Rule." The corporate community is to be a living Rule. And our Redemptoristine Rule declares that we must be "living memories" of Jesus Christ. This is the shorthand expression of our charism, lofty but very real.

There was perfect joy for me in profession of solemn vows, in total commitment. I felt so comfortable with all of the spousal imagery of the ritual. Years ago I learned that in Europe married women wore wedding rings on their right hand therefore religious with congregational roots in Europe continue, even in the USA, wear these rings on the right hand. When I received the ring of my solemn profession I deliberately held out my left hand. The ring is molded in a design called hands in faith, in common use as a wedding ring in the culture of our foundress. The ring expresses my spousal bond to the Beloved. In this country, a gold ring on the fourth finger of the left hand sends that message. For me to wear that emblem of love is perfect joy.

The last expression of joy to be shared came not in conscious mind but in a dream. Dreams are not real but they speak of the reality apprehended by our unconcious mind and can serve as correctives to the limitations of conscious thought. Dreams can speak of a deep reality to which we have been unable to give voice. In my dream I was serving as Eucharistic Minister at Mass in the monastery. I was standing beside the altar waiting for the priest to give me the Body of Christ. As I held out my hand to receive Communion, the host seemed to multiply so that even with two hands I could not contain the amount flowing into them.  What an image - overflowing Eucharist - overflowing thanksgiving - overflowing gift of Jesus - oveflowing love. That is an image of unsurpassed joy.

Vocations, Vocations, Vocations Part I

The Harvest is Plentiful

and the Laborers are Few

'Professionalese' has crept into religious life. The person in a monastery of nuns or a congregation of sisters who receives inquiries from those considering a vocation to religious life is called the 'vocation director'. The person who is responsible for the incorporation of new members into the community is called the 'formation director'. We tend these days not to speak in terms of novice mistresses giving training.

My community has entrusted me with both of these tasks. I can speak of firsthand experience as vocation director.

Concerning  formation
work, I have not been that fortunate since no one has entered our community since I took the job. However, I have gained some insight through my own experiences as postulant, novice and first professed while others were trying out their vocation here.

Religious vocations are rare and vocations to contemplative life even more so.  But I am convinced that there are mature woman out there who are hearing the invitation of God to come closer, to go deeper, to take the next step in the direction of their own longing. By mature I do not mean old. I mean women who have some education, who have life experience with people and with work, who have become conscious of their own motivations and behaviors and are willing to look at them honestly and with humilty. Mature women have experienced family life and relationships and know how much effort it takes to live in a 'community' whether at home, in the college dorm, in the workplace, in the parish or the neighborhood. Some have this maturity at 25 and some still lack it at 55. 

The women attracted to contemplative life are usually already women of prayer. They come wanting more prayer and deeper prayer. But often the realities of life consecrated to poverty, chastity and obedience are not what they anticipated. One sister here is fond of reminding, "When you choose, you lose." So there are losses. The women who come have already been on the spiritual journey for a long time. Often they have had ministries of service and/or prayer. But they believe God is calling them to go deeper. It only makes sense, I believe, that the going deeper will not happen without cost. And for each of us the 'cost' will differ, as we differ in life history, in personality type, in experience and in our relational ties outside community. And this last is a big factor for the considerable number of those with children who inquire about our life.

There are some misconceptions out there concerning contemplative life. Yes, it is a life centered on prayer - Mass, Liturgy of the Hours and personal prayer. But a considerable part of the day is also devoted to work - every kind of job you can think of that is required to keep any home clean, organized, repaired and financially solvent. Another misconception is that a contemplative monastery is the ideal place for a person who is having some sort of difficulty in dealing with the challenges of life outside; that the silence and solitude of monastic life is just what is necessary to keep them on an even keel. However, our life with God is lived in a community of people, people with whom we must interact on a daily basis in prayer, work, play and at the dining room table.

This is the life for the women who finds that she can do nothing else; that nothing else in her life makes sense; nothing else is possible, without her being anchored to her Beloved in silence and solitude lived within a likeminded and challenging community. Even if she finds the demands of charity, the subtle formation that takes place in community life at times vexing or painful, she perseveres. Then from somewhere (is it grace, perhaps) comes the willingness, the flexiblity, the painful stretching, the clinging to interior desire that makes it possible to take on  the commitment. From somewhere comes the assurance that the life in which everything is ordered to the will of God as expressed in the vows, the superior, and the community is worth everything. And truth be said, everything is just what it may require.

Please consider using the Prayer for Vocations at the top of the side bar

on a regular basis. It would be wonderful if you would mention our community

of Redemptoristines particularly in your prayer.

And one more thing, please tell others about the richness of

contemplative life and refer them to this blog and our website:

www.RedemptoristineNunsofNewYork.org