Hey All! Well I'm not packed, but in 5 hours I'll be going to visit the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Connecticut! This will be my 3rd retreat with them (can you say commitment issues??) but this time I'm staying two days before and after the retreat. I felt I needed more than a weekend to see what their everyday life is about. I really love their charism, foundress and the sisters themselves, but I don't know if it's for me. Hopefully, God will enlighten me as to where He wants me! So if you could spare some prayers it would be awesome!

I was also supposed to see my wonderful Summit Dominicans, but a leaky boiler ruined my plans God-willing, I'll see them soon though!

Shamless plug for the Apostles ------ Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

See y'all on the 24th!

Prayers with you as you get ready to go on retreat!...can not wait to hear all about it!!

Have a good time out there. I will keep you in my prayers. Hopefully this visit will give you some more clarity one way or the other. God Bless.

The Apostles look a lovely and vibrant Community and I hope that you have a lovely weekend with the sisters. God Bless

Well, I"m baaack! It was a wonderful week filled with prayer, service, reparation and fun! Myself and another girl Bethany were there for the whole week, two other gals joined us for the weekend. On Thursday, we went to see Sr. Patricia's ministry in parish work, something I'm really interested in. She works for a big parish and does communion calls to people's homes, hospitals and nursing homes. She also runs some groups for the parish like bereavement. It was really humbling to go visit the homebound and give them the Lord.

The weekend was filled with talks, Adoration and good ol' fun The talks were on Ignatian discernment, the Liturgy of the Hours, the stages of formation and the Apostles charism and Pope Benedict XVI.

We got to hang out with the pre-postulants, a novice and two junior sisters, which was really nice. I'll just give you the rundown about formation stuff....

Pre-Postulancy- Aug 15- Nov 15 you live with the sisters and see their life. They take classes in theology and help out in one of the ministries. This year the pre-postulants are working at the Manor, the retirement home for the sisters. If you decide to apply to the order, you work on your application in October. You go home for Thanksgiving and then return Dec. 1 for the beginigng of postulancy.

Postulancy- Dec.1 -July 1. Basic formation in the community, more classes, some ministry living in a formation community with other postulants and postulant director. Outfit: white button down shirt, gray skirt, gray vest, medal of the Sacred Heart.

Novitiate- The usual 2 year novitiate but the Apostles switch the cannonical year with the apostolic year. Basically some years you do ministry first and others you do the spiritual year first. It's all preparation for 1st vows! Outfit: white shirt, black skirt, black vest, Sacred Heart medal, white veil.

Junionrate- After 1st vows, you renew your vows every year for 5-9 years. At first vows you recieve the Apostle habit and black veil with white band.

The Apostle charism is love, service and reparation and you feel that when you visit them. They have their own prayerbook, which is some thing I've never seen before. It's called Apostles at Prayer and has some great prayers. Many of the prayers were composed by their foundress Mother Clelia ( my avatar!).

As far as my discernment, it really helped me. I definately felt comfortable and at peace with the sisters. They had these clay hearts that we could turn over everyday for a different word. Well, one day I got courage and the following two days I got surrender! It was kinda freaky..... I still have to talk to my spiritual director about my feeling from the retreat, so we'll see what happens....

One thing I really learned is that discernment is a day by day process even if you're 30, 40, 50 years professed. I know many of us want to "be there" already and just go enter, but just take it one day at a time.

I know that was kinda general but if you have any questions, just ask!

p.s. watch the ASCJ website because they are unveiling a new vocation page soon!

My best friend Susan Graham entered the Apostles in August and loves it there! I hope you were able to meet and talk with her! She was in pharmacy school for four years and then left to enter. I have talked to her a couple of times and she has never been happier! Have courage in your discernment and I will be praying for you!

How cool that you know Susan! Yea, we had dinner a couple of times with the pre-postulants and I got to chill with her. She is such a beautiful soul and really helped my discernment. She's doing really well with the Apostles and made my stay awesome!

Just thought I'd add on to an old thread with a few prayer requests........

First, for ThyHolyLove who is soon to be Sr. Emily. She enters the novitiate later this summer.

Second, for the two sisters (Sr. Carrie and Sr. Christine) preparing to profess first vows on July 26.

Third, for two women preparing to enter as pre-postulants in August, particularly that they can eradicate their debt.

Fourth, for me(!) as I'm discerning with these sisters.

Great news all around, Katie! Thanks for posting! What has attracted you to this community?

great to see you survived our crazy weather here in CT.
Thanks for the great news shortnun! good luck.

So glad you had such a blessed time with the Sisters. You have my prayers for your discernment.

Hmmm, where should I start? Well I really should credit the Holy Spirit in leading me to this community. Two years ago, I met one of these sisters at my graduate school and she and I had a couple of classes together. At that time, I was discerning with some seriousness with another community. Fast forward from May 07 to February of this year, and out of nowhere I emailed the vocation director for the Apostles. Six weeks later, I visited the Motherhouse in Connecticut!!! I've been very blessed to know these sisters.

Of course, many of the things that attract me to the Apostles come from things that have been important in my life. They've supported me in my pursuit of graduate theology studies (I've been challenged on this by some other communities). They encourage communication with family and allow for a two week home visit each year. Their formation program is very slow and eases you into religious life (you don't formally apply to enter until the middle of your 3-month pre-postulancy). Their ministry has changed over the past 50-60 years based on the needs of the Church and the gifts of the sisters. Many of their sisters who spent years in the classroom as teachers became burnt out. They used their gifts with education in parish settings. I never thought I would be attracted to an international order (don't ask why), but their focus on missionary activity is very cool. Each province throughout the world has at least one mission in an underdeveloped country. The US mission is in Taiwan where the sisters work in two different schools.

I feel I'm a bit verbose, so I'll leave everyone with a link to a great new video from the Apostle's website. It's on the right hand side underneath the picture of the two sisters walking. <HERE>

If anyone has questions, feel free to browse the website or ask me!

What a wonderful community, and I really enjoyed the video. They look like the perfect place for you to discern!! My prayers join yours!!
Alicemary

Correction: It's Sr. Carrie Christine and Sr. Colleen Patricia who profess first vows tomorrow.

Prayers for them!

Here are pictures from first vows and the jubilees!!!

Really lovely! Thanks for posting!

Aren't they? I should add that in the pictures, the new novice (Sr. Emily Grace) was the original poster on this thread (thyholylove)!!!

Looks like they are sending Sr. Emily here to the St. Louis area for her apostolic year to serve in the Sisters retreat house, do I have that correct?

They are!!! Also arriving are Sr. Susan Francis (the other apostolic year novice, but she's in her second novitiate year) and temporary professed Sr. Christine Ann.

The sisters just announced a new blog: http://sacredheart.stblogs.org/

Please pray for the FOUR pre-postulants who moved into the Formation House this past Friday.

Upcoming Retreats:
- Nov. 7-9 in St. Louis <LINK>
- Dec. 5-7 in Hamden, CT <LINK>

ohh CT!! COOL

Has anyone heard from Emily?

Yup. She is Sr. Emily Grace now. She's currently an apostolic (year 1) novice here in St. Louis at the sisters' spirituality/retreat center. I had dinner with her earlier this week. She seems very well!